I'm motivated to share this bitter news because of the relevance of the current news event. First my intention is to spotlight the high human cost of religious intolerance. This post is built around the sad event of the lynching and murder of an innocent school girl: Deborah Samuel, a two-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State Nigeria. The incident was reported in the national dailies on May 13, 2022.

While the gruesome murder of the helpless female student is very distressing, it must be noted that this ill-fated girl met her untimely death in the hands of religious fanatics of a different sect. Their claim? She blasphemed their prophet. Thus religious difference caused this horrific incident which could have been easily averted if the aggrieved were more tolerant.

Most worrisome about this incident is the age of the perpetrators of this hideous crime and the effrontery they demonstrated whole executing this ungodly act of inhumanity. They were not only brazen but also not remorseful as they took to social media to celebrate their crime against humanity. This is not a lone incident of gruesome deaths resulting from religious intolerance. Most of the violent crimes committed in Nigeria, especially in the Muslim dominated North, have religious undertones.

The big question is: If education fails to root out religious extremity, what else would do so. Hence this latest event is a significant wake-up call for all and sundry to pay more than the usually attention to the religious diversity of Nigeria.

In response to this horrible incident, The Daily Post reports that the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has demanded that both the Federal Government and the Sokoto State Government should treat anyone, especially the riotous youths protesting across the streets of the State for the release of the killers of Deborah Yakubu as terrorists sympathisers. HURIWA warned that if the government failed to bring these protesters to book, they would be inadvertently signalling to other miscreants that the Sokoto State administration as well as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari are also sympathetic to terrorists.

^Source

In spite of such strong calls for the government to act and end this insanity, a popular cleric was reported to have put out a notice via his Twitter handle, in what seems more like a show of solidarity to the culprits than sympathy to the victim and her family, saying:

It should be known to everyone that we the Muslims have some red lines beyond which MUST NOT be crossed. The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the red lines. If our grievances are not properly addressed, then you should not be criticized for addressing them ourselves. ^source

The big question these string of developments now raise is if the government and the ruling elites are capable of ignoring their own religious leaning to uphold the rule of law in a democratic State and protect the lives of her citizens at this critical phase of the nation's political transition.
At the time of compiling this repost, chaos and pandemonium has been reported in some areas in Solo State as youths roamed the streets in protest of the arrest by the police of some youths involved in the murder of Deborah. These irate youths attacked some churches in the state capital, destroying in the process A Catholic church and a building of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA). They also looted and vandalized shops owned by residents of the Christian religious denominations.