Why has human life become worthless?
It’s a colossal tragedy and war declared against humanity that human life, which has lost its sacred value in modern Nigeria, is now made to compare with the life of a dog. The Gombe State Police Command on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 arrested a 25-year-old man, Ibrahim Saidu, for stabbing to death a motorcyclist, Saleh […]
It’s a colossal tragedy and war declared against humanity that human life, which has lost its sacred value in modern Nigeria, is now made to compare with the life of a dog. The Gombe State Police Command on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 arrested a 25-year-old man, Ibrahim Saidu, for stabbing to death a motorcyclist, Saleh Babayo, who mistakenly knocked down Saidu’s dog. The State Commissioner of Police (CP), Ishola Babaita, disclosed this at a press briefing in Gombe.
It was reported that Saidu, after his dog had been knocked down, became aggressive and stabbed Saleh Babayo, which resulted in his death. The CP explained that Babayo was taken to the General Hospital, Kumo, where he was confirmed dead by a medical doctor; adding that the suspect had confessed to the crime and would soon be charged to court. Media reports indicate that the dog survived the crash and was paraded alongside the suspect at the police command.
How come, for Allah’s sake, a sacred human life is taken for the simple reason that the life of the dog came under threat? What kind of a dog is it, even if it had died from the crash, that its death would justify the killing of Saleh Babayo? Nowhere does the death of a dog or any other animal justify the taking of any human life. Even in murder cases involving human life, the law provides for a legal procedure, which must be followed at a competent court of jurisdiction in order to determine the culpability of the accused. Even if Saidu were a judge in the court where the case was filed against Babayo, the judgment that led him into avenging for his dog was not only too self-justifying but one delivered in gross error. Of course, Islam provides that animals including dogs are to be treated kindly. That’s why we are advised to sharpen our knives whenever we slaughter them for our domestic needs so that they would die fast. Yet, this principle does not in any way compare the life of a dog or any other animal with that of mankind.
The recent rise in gruesome and ritual killings for money in parts of the country illustrates how life has become worthless to many Nigerians. One of such recent callous killings involved the butchering of a 20-year-old girl by her boyfriend and three other teenagers in Ogun State. Acting under the influence of get-rich-quick syndrome, the young boys were on Saturday January 29, 2022 caught burning the head of their victim, identified as Rofiat, in Oke Aregba area of Abeokuta. Several similar cases of ritual killings have been reported in Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Osun, Benue, and Bayelsa States; some of them involving parents and siblings. What a world of heartless expression of man’s in humanity against another!
No day, in recent times, passes without reports about needless loss of human lives in modern Nigeria. Banditry in northwest and north-central states of Nigeria is daily taking huge tolls on innocent lives. This group of terrorists, on a daily basis, kills dozens of lives in many communities of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger States. Quarrels among couples leading to one stabbing the other has also amplified to an epidemic level in recent times. All this goes to show how Nigerians have become intolerant and blood-thirsty. But why is contemporary man easily predisposed to killing a fellow citizen at the slightest provocation? Abu Hurairah (RA) reports that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, “A (true) Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe”. In the light of this hadith, would those who kill fellow human beings still call themselves Muslims even as others are not safe from the evil plots of their tongue and hands?
Unrestricted access to hard drugs or substances and the proliferation of arms have, no doubt, contributed to the vulnerability of human life in Nigeria. One of Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, raised an alarm last year over the proliferation of arms in the country; saying an estimated six million illegal weapons were in circulation. General Abdulsalami who is chairman of the National Peace Committee said the proliferation of weapons has led to over 80,000 deaths in Nigeria. This fatality figure arising from bloodshed is unheard of even in countries that have the deadliest weapons.
The right to life has been recognized as the first and most important universal right derived from Shari’ah. Allah states in Qur’an 17: 70 that “We have certainly dignified the children of Adam and carried them on land and sea, and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created with definite preference”. During his final sermon at the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet (SAW) declared that the lives, property, and honor of all people are sacred in the same sense that Makkah and Islam’s religious symbols are sacred.
Allah warns in Qur’an 17: 33 saying “Do not kill the soul which Allah has made sacred except by right of justice…” Every human life is sacred. This explains why Allah states in Qur’an 5:32 that “… Whoever kills a soul except as legal punishment for murder or for corruption in the land, it is as if he had killed the entire mankind. And whoever saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely”. The verse makes no distinction between the life of a believer and that of an unbeliever.
Ignorance of religion, hoarded frustrations and bad governance are critical factors that could be linked to the current wave of gratuitous killings being perpetrated in the country. May Allah guide us to suppress our tempers, control our angers and manage our frustrations in order to treat human life with the sacredness that belongs to it, amin.