The 12th of December will be a dark day for many in the City of Zaria in Kaduna State, Nigeria, where a confrontation between the army and Shiite sect members ended in the deaths of a number of the sect members.
The exact account of events varies depending on who you ask but we will attempt to piece it all together to give us a fairly good idea of what happened.
From all indications, the whole problem started the previous day when the Shiite group lost about four of its members to a struggle with another sect for the control of a mosque. The sect claims that they were marching as a security measure while others believe that they were marching on a revenge mission. The result of the march was that they blocked the Sokoto road in Zaria. It was while they were at it that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai was on his way to the 73rd passing out Parade of new recruits and his convoy was prevented from passing through. Senior army officers made moves to negotiate with sect members who rather stubbornly refused to budge insisting that no one could ask them to leave the road save for their leader...........

The Shiites or Shias
Contrary to the impression held by many non-Muslims, Muslims are not one united group. The Truth remains that Muslims are generally divided into two main sects; the Sunnis and the Shiites or Shias with a number of sub-sects underneath both sects. Upon the death of the holy Prophet Mohammed a dispute arose as to who becomes his successor. The Shias or “Shiat Ali” or the party of Ali, were a political faction who claimed the right of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad, and his descendants to lead the Islamic community. The Sunnis remain the orthodox Muslims and form the majority of Muslims (about 90 percent). Currently there are about 120 to 170 million Shia Muslims in the world, roughly about 10 percent of all Muslims. Shia Muslims are majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain. In Nigeria the face of Shia Islam appears to be Sheik El Zakzaky. A prominent student Islamic leader in ABU Zaria in his days as a student, he switched to Shia Islam after his visit to Iran in the 80’s and became its major proponent in Nigeria. It is interesting to note that El Zakzaky was once in league with Yusuf Mohammed and Abubakar Shekau of Boko Haram fame. They are believed to have trained under him but broke away from him due to differences in their Islamic ideologies. The Shiites have been a target of the Boko Haram sect who we need to note is Sunni.

The Shias and the Nigerian Security Forces
The relationship between the Nigerian security forces and the Shia sect in Nigeria has been frosty at best. Over the years the activities of the sect has placed them on a collision course with the Nigerian Army and the results have never been fun for anyone. El Zakzaky himself has been a guest at several detention facilities in the 80s and 90s due to his anti-government rhetoric and his demands for an Iran-style Islamic Revolutionary government. In 2009 his sect clashed with police resulting in several casualties and in July 2014, after a clash with the Army, three of Zakzaky’s sons were killed along with about 36 of his followers. This recent killing of members of the Shiite sect appears to be another case of impunity by our security forces. The story by the Army that sect members tried to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff does not hold water. Assuming but not conceding that this was the case, how does that justify the huge death toll and the number of hours spent by the army invading and destroying the headquarters of the sect?

It goes without saying that the sect has been very lawless in the past and they broke the law by blocking a federal road but did so many of them need to die for that? Does the army have the power to act the way they did? We shall consider these and other issues in the next part of this article.


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