In December 1996, a Christian Igbo trader, Mr Gideon Akaluka was reportedly beheaded by muslim youths in the Northern Nigerian city of Kano. According to the report, Mr Akaluka's wife was said to have torn a piece of the Islamic holy book to use as toiltet paper. But some muslim youths in the city went after the husband, who ran into a police station, killed and beheaded him and joyfully paraded with his severed head around the streets of Kano metropolis. When the incident happened I was no more than 18 and not only believed that he was not guilty as charged but deserved the mob justice that he got. But now looking back I over the years I am convinced that Akaluka was an innocent man and was unjustly lynched for a crime he never committed.
According to accounts of the incident, it was a little almajiri boy begging for food or on an errand that discovered the sacrilege. Other accounts claim that it was a' mai ruwa' or water vendor.I reached my own conclusion by putting my self in the position of the whistle-blowing almajiri boy.when I was a little boy growing up in the ancient city of kano, attending quranic school or makarantar allo, I, together with my peers hold anything written in Arabic as sacred. in our ignorance and naivety, we regard anything written with Arabic alphabets as 'sunan Allah' or the name of God. if walking along the street one saw a paper flying around with Arabic written on it even if it were a mere instruction manual we run after it and saved it from falling into impurity. frankly speaking we can not differentiate between the words of the sacred Qur'an and ordinary words of Arabic.
these are the reasons why I believe that Mr Akaluka was innocent:

1. there was no way the Akalukas would ever get hold of a copy of the Qur'an. No Muslim in Kano would ever sell them one even if they were willing to pay a million naira for it. Christians are regarded in northern Nigeria as impure and unfit to handle the holy Quran.

2.secondly, Akaluka was just your run of the mill Ibo trader and not an academician. I find it hard to imagine him as a student of comparative religion poring over pages of religious tomes. even if it were to be so it will be more tenable that he will opt for an English translation which is considered less sacred than the Arabic origina
, would be readable to him and would be unrecognisable to an almajiri anyway.

3. muslims and xtians clean up in different ways after toilet in Nigeria. While the latter normally use tissue papers or even newspaper pages the former use water and their fingers. And the idea that Akaluka was using the pages of the qur'an for such an unclean business must have inflamed passions beyond imagination. But, wait a minute. Using the pages of any book for such a venture is the clumsiest and most inconvenient enterprise in my opinion and even more so that of the qur'an. in Northern Nigeria there exist a very robust quranic hand copying industry done by seasoned mahaddata ( those that have committed the quran to the memory) in very beautiful kufic calligraphy. the paper used is locally called 'holama' a durable paper that looks like bond paper that is used for letterhead etc. using that to clean will only hurt your anus. Even the more recent more modern press printed ones coming from the middle eastern countries like Egyp,t Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia are not suitable substitutes as tissue.
so what did the almajiri see?

Having dismissed the possibility of the Akalukas acquiring the qur'an for any purpose, methinks that what he saw was just the pages of an Arabic newspaper. The late 80's and, of course, through out the nineties were turbulent times in the history of Islamic development in northern nigeria mostly fomented by representatives of middle astern countries like iran, Saudi Arabia Lebanon, egypt and even Libya.Ppropaganda materials were flying back and forth in the form of books, pamphlets newpapers and even hard cash and juicy scholarships( i too was a beneficiary) in an attempt to win over our souls. I could recall my free subscription for Sakon Musulunci, Mujuahidah, Mahjubah and Echo of Islam.

but why was Gideon Akaluka murdered in such a dastardly manner?

the ready answer that come to the mind even in academic circles was that he was a victim of the power struggle between the fiery cleric Mallam Zakzaky's Islamic movement and the J.T.I. (jamaat tadjdeed islami) formed by his former disciples who broke away from his movement to form their own in Kano and such a sensational daring was their way of generating followers and making a loud statement that they were a force to be reckoned with.

But the real underlying factors are much more ingrained and go deeper than most pple will care to admit. In my sojourn around the world I have found that we practice in northern nigeria the most reactionary, conservative, static and redundant version of Islam that is only comparable to that of Afghanistan. Coupled with that is the irrational, illogic, hysterical and almost paranoid fear of our xtian compatriots. for instance I could recall when i was attending secondary school at Rumfa College there was this Arabic teachers of ours mallam Husaini Garba who once came to inform us of yet another xtian conspiracy to harm Islam. According to him there was a badge that pple pin to their clothes with Nigerian coat of arms and he told us that it had been discoverd that it had a hidden cross behind it that was visible if you removed the pin and that it was an attempt by xtians to make Muslims inadvertently wear the cross. And we all beleved him. Or the rumor circulating then that a miniature version of the quran had been produced by jews or xtians, depending on the narrator, and inserted in shoe soles so that muslims wearing it would unknowingly be 'stepping' on the quran.
sometimes these kind of bottled up rage are what is vented whenever there is a break down in law and order during riots and demonstrations.

i beleive that our pple need exposure so that they can see that things have gone beyond what hey think. All over Europe any one can easily walk into any bookshop and buy any Islamic materials without any hindrance. in many Muslim countries historic mosques are regarded as archaeological and architectural monuments visited from all over the world by pple of all denomination and sects. try taking a chsristian into the kano central mosque and see what happens.

But the biggest culprit is lack of education. UNESCO just noted recently that hausa women are the most deprived educationally in the world. according to the research it conducted in northern Nigeria, 97% of Hausa women between the ages of 17 and 22 completed less than 2 years of in school. imagine the kind of women those kind of women will bear. one would think that such a terrible prognosis is limited to western education and that Islamic education would be better. but that is even worse.

there are hardly any formal school for Islamic instructions apart from the informal' makarantar allo' run under the trees by itinerant mallams. everything is learnt by rote. the girls stop going after a few years to be married off. while the boys take to street begging or menial jobs. more than 99% of pple in the north can not understand Arabic the language in which most of the available islamic texts are written. therefore the clerics hold a complete and total monopoly over the interpretation of islam since very few pple can read the original arabic texts and challenge them. when i was in Egypt myArab friends will marvel at the fact that i can recite a large portion of the qur'an off head but can not understand arabic language. i tell them that i learnt it by rote just like the way we sing Indian songs without understanding a sentence of Hindi.

what most pple bandy around in the name of islam are learnt through hear say and old women's tales. serious amends needs to be made but our leaders are there looking for power not for us but for the betterment of themselves and their family.

Hmmm, I see!

Hmmm Very Deep! Thank you

What an Insight.It's time we think outside the box.

@OP: Thanks for bringing this up. I do recall challenging some of my Muslim friends on how Islam is practiced in Northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, they instead interpreted it as an attack on Islam. If Muslim intellectuals do not take up the challenge of educating their less educated counterparts then they should understand that sooner or later these less educated ones will turn against them. I say this because most times when Non-Muslims are attacked and killed in Northern Nigeria; Northern intellectuals are often found silent. They forget the lesson of Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If they think they are immune; they should look to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sometimes ago in Azare, Bauchi state, an ibo womans shop was burnt dwn by some youths for they claim dat she had d image of Prophet Mohammed(SAW) drawn n d wall f her shop!
I had been wondering since den, why suld this woman, knowng fuly well dat her propty and investment wil be destroyd, allowd or draw dis image on d wall f her shop? Now i know. Thanks fo d post

Seun what are you waiting for? Put this on the front page immediately! This is the first educated muslim i have seen! others are killducated @poster GOD bless u. but there's still too much blood in islam. uptil now no educated muslim imam has come out on national television to denounce the killings as un islamic. christianity says /thou shall not kill/ /love one another as i have loved you/ /love your neighbour as you love yourself/ COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF ISLAM!

I was in KAno when the Gideon saga occurred. The truth of the matter is, it was a Mai Ruwa (water vendor) that saw and reported the incidence.
The arabic inscription in question was a page off a lebanese magazine.

Gideon was, in summary, killed for nothing, by some reactionary good for nothing souls.

What his death did to Kano non-indigenes still stayed till date. It toughened them up. That senseless killing could have been anybody, anyone. So, for once, the Igbo traders fought back systematically. They showed that they could not be cowered for ever.

The incidence helped fortify Sabon Gari, till date, non-indigenes, xtians and muslims, all run to the safe walls of Sabon Gari in times of communual discord.

Thanks to Gideon Akaluka.

Medicine after death! Mtcheeeew

@poster, thanks and God bless u

how i wish there could be atleast 1000 people like you among NOtherners,,

the major problem is lack of education for which their leaders denied them and continue to deny them,

the only solution to this is provision of functional education and enlightenment

the almajiris and some unqualified mallam have really painted ISLAM in a bad light,

may the soul of the innocent man rest in peace

I wonder why this post should not be in the front page.
Other useless post, like the one on Jonathan's attire would get to the front page, why an excellent post like this would remain in this section.

Seun, in the name of God or Satan or anything you believe in, please send this post to the front page.

Ever wondered why there is a a copy of the bible and the koran inside the bedside drawer of some hotels in the country; the same bed on which prostitutes, homosexuals, bisexuals, saints, sinners, transsexuals and heterosexuals jerk off as they please?

If only we knew

Thatdave,
Do you watch TV at all? Educat ed muslims have been coming out on different stations to denounce the unneccessary violence. For years now.
Please stop making false statements.

Illiteracy remains the root cause of religious intolerance in the north.Added to that is the Wahhabi styled Islam being practised that stifles advancement in religious thinking in the North

This is not meant to demean the poster, but frankly, this is the most intelligent and fair muslim from Northern Nigeria that I have ever read from. But EVEN if Mr Gideon Akaluka did use the Quran to clean himself, does it justify his killing? Will Christians kill a muslim if he committed the same offence? Unfortunately, mostly muslims from Northern Nigeria hold little regard for their fellow humans from any perceived injustice to their religion, real or unreal. One wonders the progress we could have made as a nation if their was no religion.

Actually, until now I am ignorant of this matter.
i commend the outstanding effort of the poster,
i recommend this to islamic clerics,
this is a clarification, a modern way of arguing cases out
we should act on this,
as a muslim, I say Allahu aalam

[size=13pt]I BLAME LORD LUGARD FOR AMALGAMATING US WITH THESE NORTHERNERS.[/size]

Hhmmmm! Vvery educating! Never heard of Gideon Akalauka til now. Kudos poster ,wonderful post

@ poster,
one bottle of shekpe for u,just tell me ur location

@Jamalah if they wer more pple like u,there would be no Boko Haram and its likes.pls keep preachin 'no violence' to ur islam brothers

@poster
Your the hero of the day

I  am muslim, I would like to commend the writer for a good piece. The knee-jerk reactions of some muslim youth in the North is really disturbing, No one can abrogate death on someone without proof.  The death sentence can only be enforced in islam, after the matter is proven in a sharia-court. Besides, the destruction of the mushaf should not cause such destruction.

The problem is that a lot of these guys have no idea what the Quran says or the historical context of its revelation.

The Quran compares killing of an innocent person to killing of the whole mankind whilst saving an innocent person to saving the whole mankind. If that is the message we follow, then the sanctity of human life should always be preserved. I find that a lot of Nigerian muslims are as uneducated about the Quran as non-muslims and are unwilling to educate themselves about the mercy, justice and forgiveness the Quran offers.

The lack of education in the north makes this situation particularly dire, because whilst there is an emotional attachment to the  religion, there is no understanding of it.

And when you mix religion and ignorance, you always end up with a mess.

Wow!, @OP how did you get your education?, at least Nigeria can afford a scholarship board that would send most of the Almajiris for such education so as to reduce our problems in the North.

Kudos

Beautiful Post, wonderful narration, incisive view point, so when are we eventually going our different ways? That alone is the answer to various other Akaluka sagas that are in the pipe line. I have said it severally that left for me alone, there wouldnt even be a need to separate as a nation, i have never stepped, i will never step and will ensure that non of mine steps their foot in the northern enclave. Okay, I admit i went for a matter twice in Sokoto but that was it, it wount happen again since i have realized that these Northern people (they are not my brothers) are terribly callous and do not value human life. I ask again, WHEN ARE WE GOING OUR SEPARATE WAYS OOOOOOO, I DON TIRE FOR THIS COMPLICATED MARRIAGE

I have been singing for years and even here on NL that the problem of voilence in the north is a product of the social retrogression perpetrated on them by their unfortunate leaders. Leaders who have failed to educate the northern folks. Why on earth should children be roaming the streets begging while they should be in schools ?

The northern elite are responsible for the underdevelopment and waste of minds and in fact generations. The southern folks rather than sympathise with the predicament in the north and help them push for education, the fundamentalist among southerners heap the blame at the doorstep of islam.

It is most unfortunate that even the islamic education we are of the impression the almajairis have is actually nil. All they do is lear how to read arabic letters, memorise the quran and that is all. The real islamic education is not possesed by the street mallams who teach them and what you dont have you cannot give. The chicken is coming home to roost now which is the Boko Haram, a creation of years of neglect and social depravation.

The solution to the Boko haram menace is social justice and education, any attempt to militarily crush them will be an excercise in futility. Yaradua made a very wrong decision to go crush them in Borno and hundreds of innocent INNOCENT defenceless civilians were shot and killed at close range (Aljazeera showed us footages of some). Their leeader Yusuf was killed without trial or extcraction of the rationale behind their motives. Boko haram is not Al Qaeda as the former believe 100% in education and carry out their attacks from sophisiticated education. This Nigerian menace called Boko haram if not sincreley checked and resolved will end up being an alabatross round Nigerias neck, of a level worse than MEND of the ND militants.

aguiyi:

@ poster,
one bottle of shekpe for u,just tell me your location

Are for real? U want make Almajiri come after you?

PurestBoy:

[size=13pt]I BLAME LORD LUGARD FOR AMALGAMATING US WITH THESE NORTHERNERS.[/size]

What has Amalgamation got to do with d topic discussed now ugh? If Nigeria splits up, wouldn't it be the same bad eggs that will rule the broken states? All of you canvassing for a split have you stopped to think what happens in the respective states in the federation?
One thing I'm certain of though is that I'm getting fed up with this rot. We don't need an indecisive, weak president who can't fight corruption, terrorism, combat illiteracy and stimulate economic growth by tackling Power. This country needs power to change hands and power can only change hands through education and enlightenment. Good people of this nation please awake from your slumber. Evil is flourishing while you are all asleep.

Good Post there!

I understand that ISLAM is a BEAUTIFUL religion and I think it is so judging from my interactions with educated Muslims from the north living and working here. But they should go back and educate their kith and kin to stop the violence.

@Jamallah, it's indeed very touching reading your post, you may or may not be a Muslim but I want all Nigerians to emulate your reasoning as it concerns religious misdeeds, for indeed both Christians and Muslims are guilty of hate (though some are more prone to violence). Thanks once more for your courage to say what is true as it might provide partial closure to people affected by the unfortunate happenings and soften the hearts of people who are bent on fighting for their deity.

and BTW, all these other guys that are NOW coming out to identify with this poster, would they claim ignorance of this position that the poster has brought to our attention, or they would rather sheepishly continue to defend the muderous craze of their brethren all in the name of religion. I do not care how literate or educated you all are, as muslims, i have a total hatred for you all, not because you are humans, but because you all are moslems and are trained to believe that human life does not amount to anything. Anything else said by you guys is balderdas.h and simply after the fact.

The quran or bible is just another book if the content holds no meaning to you. The most baffling of all is  that more than 90% of these muslims fighting to protect the quran, can hardly read the writtings in it.
The bible admonishes that the book of the law be inscribed in your heart, knowing fully well that knowing its statues and not living by them is worse than desecrating the bible itself.

About us splitting, i have spoken about itt, supported it, and even clamoured, but would that bring an end to the xtian/muslim rivalry worlover, the answer ids plain know.

Like op said, education is what liberates a man from perpetual bondage. Let the nothern elite, be concerend about educating its own. Then and only then can we know true peace.

N.b-they are our brothers, wish them dead or not.