The price of injustice
Similarly, the people of ’Ayilah, according to the tafsir of Ibn kathir, were turned in to apes because they defied the divine order that prohibited fishing on the Sabbath. Pharaoh and his followers were drowned in the red-sea for their matchless arrogance and transgression. Allah (SWT) summarizes all these events in Qur’an 29:40 and states, […]
Similarly, the people of ’Ayilah, according to the tafsir of Ibn kathir, were turned in to apes because they defied the divine order that prohibited fishing on the Sabbath. Pharaoh and his followers were drowned in the red-sea for their matchless arrogance and transgression. Allah (SWT) summarizes all these events in Qur’an 29:40 and states, “Each of them we seized for his crime: of them against some we sent a violent tornado (with showers of stones); some were caught by a (mighty) blast; some we caused the earth to swallow up; and some we drowned (in the waters); it was not Allah who injured (and oppressed) them but they wronged themselves”.
The modern brand of disobedience to Allah’s injunctions by the present generation of man seems to be more reckless than found in the destroyed communities. Yet we are left un-shattered. The defiance is worse in man’s inhumanity to man. Surprisingly, man has become the greatest enemy against himself. Injustice appears to be the most thriving of all evils common among contemporary men and women in Nigeria. The rights of people especially of the less-privileged class are usurped daily with nobody rising to protect such vulnerable class of citizens as if the society were lawless.
In politics, for instance, aspirants who legitimately won elections have clearly but painfully been robbed of their mandate through the rigging of election results. The 2007 presidential election in which the fraudulently declared winner confessed in his inaugural speech to the monumental racket in the process that brought him to power, is a case in point. Some workers in the public and private sectors have suffered wrongful suspensions, dismissals or retirement from service. Others have unduly been denied promotions or training privileges. While many suspects have died in police custody as a result of torture or other forms infringement on their fundamental human rights, hundreds of others are languishing in various prison cells without access to trial. The prolonged detention of some suspects in addition to inexcusable legal intrigues reveals the deliberate effort by government especially where it is an interested party to deny such innocent citizens the right to fair hearing. Delayed trial is tantamount to denied justice. The protracted trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and four others who have been facing charges in an attempted murder is basically a case of denied justice in Nigeria.
Sadly, the judiciary which is the arm of government charged with the statutory duty of protecting and preserving the rights of citizens has been destroyed by the cancerous monster called corruption. The judiciary which should be the last hope of the ordinary citizen is today no more than a lost hope for many Nigerians. Events of the recent past in the country are prompting Nigerians to doubt not only the independence of the judiciary but also the independence of the minds of some of those who administer justice. It sounded ironical that the only time Supreme Court judges found most convenient to go on six months leave was when in 2003 the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), General Muhammadu Buhari, filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against the judgment of a lower court. Allah (SWT) admonishes in Qur’an 4:58 (…And when ye judge between man and man that ye judge with justice…”
Inspite of the injustices that go on in Nigeria today with corruption at the height of it, Allah (SWT) in His infinite mercy destroys neither our sinful generation nor the perpetrators of injustice. Perhaps, it is Allah’s wish that we pay the price. Under-development seems to be the costly price we are paying in Nigeria for injustices. The power sector has collapsed; the education sector is routine; the economy is very sick; infrastructures have broken down; security of lives and property is no longer guaranteed. All the essential social services that are taken for granted by people in other parts of the world have become privileges in Nigeria.
Of course, things were not like this before. Our present circumstance, to a large extent, is the result of man’s injustice to man. Allah (SWT) does not arbitrarily withdraw the favor He has conferred on a people until they have exhibited traits of rebellion against His laws. Allah (SWT) affirms this in Qur’an 8:53 and states “Because God will never change the grace He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their (own) souls”. The politics of Umaru Yar’adua’s health and the rigmaroles in the acting presidency of Goodluck Jonathan are some of the implicit burdens of a stolen mandate for which a price, collectively or individually, must have to be paid. Nigeria in the last few months may have been in motion but certainly without any movement. The price of injustice is undeniably manifest in a regrettable past, a miserable present and a hopeless future. May Allah (SWT) guide us to recognize and appreciate the respite in Allah’s mercy for preserving us, unlike the previous depraved nations, from destruction so that we may repent; amin.