Public advocacy and citizen Zainab Aliyu’s ordeal

We live in a beautiful country where troubles are offered for breakfast, crises for lunch and disaster for super. Citizen Zainab Habibu Aliyu could have been beheaded by Saudi Arabia for a crime she obviously did not commit. She escaped public execution by the skin of her teeth to be reunited with her parents. Her ordeal began when unscrupulous drug dealers planted a luggage in her name at the Malam Aminu Kano Airport without her knowledge. A cartel reportedly singing to security agents allegedly confessed to the crime and perhaps for others not so lucky.

Zainab’s ordeal and the good news of her ‘rescue’ have divided the national fabric as usual. With drug use and addiction now rampant even among the elites of Kano’s ultra-conservative families, it is hard to convince some that Zainab was not let off by her strong connections. The uncharitable wail and perhaps not without reason; that a pauper’s daughter would have been executed even while professing her innocence. Those who argue like this forget that unlike the Hajj, recommended once for believers who could afford it, Umra; or the lesser hajj is pure religious tourism and usually the exclusive preserve of the wealthy.

Zainab is twice lucky. Her father belongs to the privileged one percent with the means to send their family on the lesser hajj. It is obvious Malam Aliyu is influential enough to make the right contacts and get the CCTV footage that convinced the Saudis of the girl’s innocence. A pauper’s daughter would not have such privilege.

The chasm in our fractured nation widened years ago with the kidnap of nearly 300 girls in a school in Chibok. Official idiocy supported the insult that the north could not rally 300 girls in one school. The government of the day handled the volatile issue with feigned mockery upheld by its hailers. Since then, conscientious advocacy has been coloured by where a regime comes from and who heads it. In such instances, truth, reason and even the basic notion of shared humanity is lost in transit. Little wonder that some doubt the lucky woman’s miraculous escape from the executioner.

In an era where regime apologists strive to sustain the illusion of everything is honky dory it is great to see the role that advocacy played in goading government and its agents to swift action on this case. Regime rottweilers want nothing bad to be reported. Weaned on NTA diet of never reporting crisis except when and where it is resolved, these lapdogs argue that reporting bad news gingers the perpetrators. That of course, is turning logic on its head. The hailer quarantines logic except the warped logic of the ruining class.

Attempts at victim shaming are as bad as pretending that everything is fine in a nation that has long receded into a state  of absolute chaos. Citizen Zainab was a victim of a failed state and the avarice that has ravaged the conscience of its citizenry. People want to make it at all costs, even at the cost of human life. Stories of kidnapping, ritual killing and sundry crimes are characteristics of a Hobbesian state.

Zainab was a victim of a failed state’s lack of hierarchical order. Across the globe, airport workers come with high security clearance. They are not hired with levity. There are varied levels of security clearance and supervision. Here, hires and postings are based on who the hired know and how much they’ve paid to sustain their position. This is as true of civilians working in our ports as it is of uniformed men who reportedly bribe their bosses for such ‘lucrative’ posting. As they report for duty, only one thing is on their mind – how to meet up with the demands and make extra. Security is the last thing on their mind. That is why it took Zainab’s case to bring out the truth. A poor man’s daughter wouldn’t stand a chance. You’re condemned when you’re poor.

The culture of silence, ethnic or religious division over serious issues should stop in our nation. It is a right, not a privilege to be defended by one’s nation to the last. But when your ruler says you’re all fraudulent or indolent, the outsider is not obliged to call you blessed. Politicians in other climes would constantly brief relatives and the nation through the media about serious issues. This, in turn helps advocates to know where to pile pressure. Here, we are divided on north or south, Christian or Muslim. We play ostrich if the narrative doesn’t suit defined isms and schisms.

Public advocacy is the responsibility of every citizen with a conscience. Insisting that government puts its citizenry on top of the diplomatic onslaught should be the ideal whether with Boko Haram, kidnappers, the Saudis or any group. It is conscientious to demand the safe return of the remaining Chibok girls and bring home Leah Sharibu. It is a duty to call government to order on the continued abduction of Citizen Sambo Dasuki and El Zakzakky in spite of court orders for their release. The division on Chibok is reason some refused to speak on Zainab Aliyu’s case.

We should support Oby Ezekwesili’s #BBOG campaign whether we live in the north, east, west or south; Christian or Muslim. Having saved Zainab’s neck from the executioner, we should join global voices to pressure Saudi Arabia to bring its primordial judicial system into conformity with the modern notion of justice. Justice should not be a cloud that enables the House of Saud to execute the Shia, political opponents and reformists. Advocacy is consciousness that we are born as citizens of one nation, but members of a global family.