My book is to liberate Northern masses –Shehu Sanni

"I am critical of Sharia. You cannot amputate the hands of a cattle seller and at the same time call the looting of public funds a breach of trust," says Shehu Sanni, a poet, writer, playwright, human rights activist and vice-chairman of Campaign for Democracy (CD), a human rights organisation that was the scourge of despotic military rulers in Nigeria between the ’80s and the early ’90s. He is the president of a northern Nigeria-based human rights organisation, the Civil Rights Congress (CRC). He has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, and released uncountable times over human rights matters. In fact, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 by the Abacha regime. Author of Killing Field


Shehu Sanni




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and Political Assassination, Shehu Sanni is a controversial phenomenon in Nigeria’s democratic curriculum. He is a down-to-earth freedom fighter who will not be intimidated by the threat of gun or imprisonment. He has been using his peculiar style of creative writing to fight for the masses.


His new book, Phantom Crescent, has generated a lot of controversies and banned from circulation by the Upper Sharia Court recently. Sani spoke with Correspondent, YEMI ADEBISI, about Sharia, the need for a revolution and Nigeria’s hope for a better tomorrow. Excerpt:


How do you assess the relevance of your role as activist and writer in the past and present polity?


A writer who is an activist must reflect the reality of his immediate environment by his writings and activism.


Why do we have all these noise about your style of writing, which some people consider controversial and confrontational especially the recently banned Phantom Crescent?


The Phantom Crescent is a ventilation of socio-economic and political atmosphere in my part of the country, which for the past eight years has proved contrary to the dictates of democracy. It would be recalled that in the past eight years Sharia law was launched in Zamfara State.


The launch, which is something very unusual, brought about a number of events one of which is the slow systematic and a serialised erosion of fundamental human rights of citizens. As a writer, I felt we could use literature of this kind, specifically a stage play, to educate and enlighten the citizenry in that part of the country on how they can defend and protect their fundamental human rights. The fact remains that this is democracy and people must have the right and freedom to express their views. The democracy we are enjoying today came with a price. There are people that fought for it. There are people that sacrificed their lives for it. There are people whose liberty was denied for democracy to be entrenched. It is unusual and not possible for people like me, who are part and parcel of the struggle for democracy, to simply fold our arms and watch individuals who have never invested anything in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria, to now determine for us what we can say or cannot. In my immediate constituency in the northern part of Nigeria, I felt that by writing people can better be enlightened and educated and can better be trained on how they can detect when their rights is abused and how to rise and defend it. The play is not about controversy, it is simply a stage performance. We wanted to use that performance to simply educate the citizenry. That is all.


The play in context has generated a lot of controversy in the north, no doubt. It has direct influence on the masses some of who cannot even read. How do you pass this message across bearing in mind the mass illiteracy in the north?


My writing was not intended to generate any controversy. It was rather to enlighten people. Those who made it controversial simply see their power, their influence and privileges being undermined by the realities of my play. The fact remains that one of the basic fundamental problems of the north is that people are being deceived by the use of religion. People are being deceived by the manipulation of religion. Some people are also feeding fat on religion. There must be a way by which people can unveil the truth. And the best way to do this is to educate them. I felt a literature like this would do that. Some people have misinterpreted what I said actually. What I said was that if there is going to be any uprising that should be justified, it should be the ordinary people on the street rising against those misinforming them using religion.


That is the fact of the matter. For over 40 years since Nigeria’s Independence it is a fact that the north has been in power for a very long time, but nothing has been done to improve the socio-economic well-being of the people. Our industries in Kano and Kaduna have all closed down. These were as a result of years of waste and corruption for which the political elites and establishment supported the military rulers of the past. We hope with the coming of Yar’Adua, someone with a different pedigree from the former rulers, there is going to be a change. One thing you should always remember is that if we are not going to follow the crowd, my book is about reality.


Some people suggested I should expunge part of my book so that I would be able to play it. I am not writing about Patra and MacAnthony. I will remove nothing. I am writing about a dedication and enlightenment of people. I am not going to remove anything from it and I am going to insist on this. What we are saying is that people are deceived in the name of religion and that must stop.


You were arraigned before a Sharia court because of this book; does it not bother you that you might not be safe in the north as an individual and a writer?


Well, we have been through all these before during Babangida and Abacha regime and even under the present democratic dispensation. I have been in and out of jail. I have been arrested and prosecuted a number of times, suffering a lot of abuses. Well, if some people think they can silence us by raising a motion and misinterpreting what we are saying, I think they are simply wasting their time. What we are saying is very clear. This is democracy; we must have fundamental rights to express our opinions. I am in no way threatened by what they are doing, after all, they have gone to court and are still in court. What they are saying about my book is true – that I was critical of Sharia and also critical of Uthman Danfodio. The fact remains that I am critical of Sharia. You cannot amputate the hands of a cattle seller and at the same time call the looting of public funds a breach of trust. It is not possible. What I said in my book was that Sheu Uthman Danfodio was not a sultan. He was not an emir and did not advocate any sultanate or emirate. People who are making a claim of that are simply distorting history.


This is a historical fact they are trying to suppress. What I said very clearly was: why does the aristocracy in the northern part of the country continue to suppress the literatures of Sheu Uthman Danfodio? What he said in his literature was clear and opposed to all these things. What we said was also clear. People were misinformed about what Sharia is. They said it was going to solve the socio- economic problems of the north.


That it is going to address all the problems affecting this part of the country. But what has it become? We have seen favourism. We have seen nepotism; we have seen people simply shielding themselves using the subjectivity of religion. We have seen a clear case whereby clerics were simply manipulating religion. We have seen a situation where even people were encouraged to be feudalistic about their lives, while actually they are even discouraged from fighting against injustice. So, as far as I am concerned, I feel Phantom Crescent is a light that must be cast on people who have decided to put themselves in darkness.


What is the latest about this book?


The book has been banned by the Sharia court and we are now in court over the matter. As far as the judge is concerned, he has washed his hands of the case. He said he had no jurisdiction. The plaintiff said they are going to appeal and I think they must have appealed by yesterday (November 2).


Is the book in circulation?


No, it’s not in circulation because the concluding judgment of the Sharia court did not lift the ban. What we are saying is that we are going to the Supreme Court if it is required of us to see that the play is staged.


All your works are radicalistic and enlightening; they are not entertaining. What informed this choice of creativity?


It’s unfortunate that I am not a fiction writer. I write to enlighten and educate my people. I developed my interest of writing when I was in prison during Abacha era when there was nothing to do. We learnt to write on mosquito coil wraps and scraps of papers including tissue papers we could get. So, I have written a lot of books. Those who think Phantom Crescent is controversial should expect more controversial books.


With the opposition you are facing, what backing do you get from the literary community like the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)?


I have got moral backing from people. Ironically, religious leaders who have seen the light and who know that religion is being used to misinform the people are also standing up for me. For someone like me, if I should go to prison and spend four years and come out and be afraid of people who have never tasted prison, it means the struggle is not worth it.


Would you consider this backing vocal enough?


Well, at least, you should know that as far as truth is concerned, it doesn’t need much of vocal backing. What we have raised are fundamental facts and there is poverty, diseases, illiteracy and perverted justice in Nigeria. People are exploiting their fellow citizens in the north in the name of religion. For once, people should learn to fight against all these ills.


How secure is your life, properties and family in the advent of this struggle?


My life is in the hand of God. All I know is that those who will condemn us to hell or paradise, if they are the custodians of it, are free to do so. But if they are also mortal human beings, I feel there is virtually nothing they can do. Our belief is our belief and we stand by it.


If eventually, you are jailed again over this matter, how would you feel?


There is nothing new; I had been to prison before.


http://odili.net/news/source/2007/dec/17/710.html

Sheu Sanni - - the northern masses are largely illiterate, how do you expect them to read ur book?