Lawiza Buda rocks on the sand, wailing with grief for her husband, Usman Buda, murdered by a mob in a marketplace after being accused of blasphemy. “Ya Allah! Ya Allah!” Lawiza screams. Two friends attempt to comfort her, but their own sorrow takes hold and they too burst into tears. Lawiza had fainted when the news of her husband’s gruesome killing reached her.
Usman Buda, a father of six, was stoned to death on 25 June after he made a passing remark to a beggar that was taken by the mob as a slur on the prophet Muhammad.
It is the latest in a string of reported attacks that are raising concerns over what many regard as Nigeria’s longstanding failure to address growing religious extremism in some of its poorest communities. Amnesty International, which condemned the murder, has blamed the Nigerian government for “creating a permissive environment for brutality”, while the US has urged Nigeria to repeal its blasphemy laws.
Buda worked on a butcher’s stall at the market in Sokoto, a north-western state with a rich Islamic history. The sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, is the spiritual leader of Nigerian Muslims. It was here in 1804 that the Islamic scholar Usman dan Fodio began one of the most infamous and bloodiest jihads in Africa.
In a video clip capturing part of the attack and widely shared across Nigeria, Buda is seen flailing under blows from sticks and stones as children are encouraged to throw rocks.
The Sokoto state government issued a controversial response condemning the killing but vowing to “deal decisively with anyone found guilty of any act aimed at degrading the personality of prophet Muhammad”. It offered no condolences to the grieving family.
Forty-eight hours after the killing, only a small group of mourners are gathered around the Buda family’s compound, as being accused of blasphemy in Islam carries a significant social stigma. It is just before Eid al-Adha, a festival that should be an occasion for joy.
“He was everything to us. He provided for the entire family. Who will take care of his children?” asks Buda’s father, Abdullahi Buda. “They have taken away a great pillar from our lives.” He believes that his son, a devout Muslim, was wrongly accused.
According to an eyewitness who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, the butcher made a religious point to the beggar, advising her to seek alms in the name of Allah rather than the prophet Muhammad, referencing a hadith, or teaching of the prophet, that speaks of giving “to him who begs in the name of Allah”. Other traders interpreted his comments as blasphemous.
“It was a murder. I watched helplessly as he was beaten and stoned, his body drenched in blood. Even those who wanted to intervene were unable to do so. It was a horrifying sight,” the eyewitness says. Buda was taken to hospital but died en route, according to a police statement.
Buda’s friend Abubakar Sani says: “If someone is accused of blasphemy, those making the accusations should present evidence. In this case, Usman wasn’t even given a chance to defend himself before the mob descended.”
Police have promised to bring the perpetrators to justice but made no arrests at the scene. There is no public record of anyone being prosecuted or jailed in Nigeria for killings relating to blasphemy allegations.
As of 2019, 79 countries have legislation on blasphemy – defined as speech or actions deemed disrespectful towards sacred entities or individuals – many imposing the death penalty. Twelve northern states of Nigeria, including Sokoto, implement sharia law, under which blasphemy can be punishable by death. But public violence is often triggered before authorities become involved.
Nigeria’s population is religiously divided with a Christian majority in the south and Muslim majority in the north. People of both faiths have fallen victim to blasphemy killings in the north, which have received support from influential individuals, including Islamic preachers, businessmen and government officials.
In 2021, an Islamic scholar in Sokoto, Sheikh Bello Yabo, openly ordered his followers to murder a man arrested on blasphemy charges. The authorities took no action to reprimand him.
Buda’s murder is not an isolated incident. In 2002, more than 200 people were killed in riots sparked by a journalist writing that the prophet would have approved of a Miss World competition in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The Zamfara state government issued a fatwa calling for the writer’s killing, and her newspaper’s offices were torched.
Last year, Deborah Samuel, a Christian student at Shehu Shagari college in Sokoto, was beaten and burned to death by fellow students over allegations of blasphemy. No one has been prosecuted for her murder.
Experts point out that sharia law states that irrefutable evidence of blasphemy must be presented before competent authorities. Accusations are insufficient. The Nigeria-based lawyer Omotola Ajiboye-abdulkadri says: “The punishment for blasphemy according to sharia is death, and only Muslims are tried in a sharia court. The punishment for blasphemy in the customary law is two years’ imprisonment. One who has allegedly blasphemed should be charged to a customary or sharia court and not mobbed to death.”
Mob killings have left a climate of fear around false accusations. One university student in northern Nigeria, who asked the Guardian not to publish his name, told how his neighbours on campus threatened to accuse him of blasphemy if he did not give up his accommodation to them.
In the view of Haruna Lafiagi, an Islamic scholar in south Nigeria, politicians do not pursue justice because “the governors are afraid of losing elections and that is why they do nothing when misguided Islamic preachers order their followers to go and kill. These clerics are instrumental to their political ambitions.”
He adds: “It is most disheartening how a section of Muslims disregard the sanctity of human life so much that their eagerness to kill unjustly and unjustifiably is triggered at the slightest accusation of blasphemy. This is sheer ignorance, wickedness and barbarism.”
In Sokoto, Buda’s mother, Aisha, is left to grieve for her son. “He was my third child among seven,” she says. “What I admired most about him was his unwavering love and respect for his father and me. He was always well behaved, never causing any trouble. Now they have cruelly taken him away from us.”
• This article was amended on 14 July 2023. An earlier version said that 13,241 Nigerians had been killed in relation to blasphemy allegations between 2011 and 2021. This figure relates to the number of people in Nigeria killed by security operatives in that period, not in relation to blasphemy allegations, and so has been removed.
