Mubarak Bala, a humanist and an advocate for human rights and dignity, was residing in Kaduna State in April 2020 when he was arrested for some of his Facebook posts deemed blasphemous and insulting to Islam. From Kaduna, he was smuggled to Kano State for trial. He would have spent 24 years in prison for blasphemy but the Court of Appeal in Kano ruled his prison sentence as “excessive” in May 2024. He got out months later, having spent over four years in prison. In this interview with FIJ’s ABIMBOLA ABATTA, Bala spoke about his time in custody, his beliefs, the justice system in Nigeria and, most importantly, how it feels to be punished for one’s beliefs.
What was your initial feeling when the accusation of blasphemy was made against you?
First, before the accusation of blasphemy, it was an accusation of apostasy. I was accused of leaving Islam. According to the Sharia doctrine, if you leave the religion of Islam, you are supposed to be killed. You are supposed to be beheaded. Or if the law does not allow that, Muslim faithful are supposed to take the law into their own hands.
It was pronounced that someone has left the religion of Islam and his parents have taken him to a psychiatric hospital to evaluate his mental well-being because, in their own sane mind, no one can dare leave the religion because it’s so beautiful. Or probably because they are worried why you would sentence yourself to death because leaving the religion means you are killing yourself. So, they have to check one’s mental state to ascertain whether one is sane or not.
The Sharia says the person should be given three days to reconsider. When you refuse to reconsider, a mental expert is supposed to examine your health and certify that you are insane. If they check and realise that you are insane, you are fit to go. But if they certify that you are perfectly okay, then the Islamic law takes its course.
I have always lived with the fact that I am an apostate, and Muslims are looking for ways to kill me. Countering this kind of doctrine online is what Muslims will call blasphemy. One would come and say a person is supposed to be killed or enslaved because they are slaves of God or Allah, and that human beings can be sold if they are captured, especially the non-Muslims.
When we counter that online, saying it’s not true or it’s wrong and illegal, it means one is a blasphemer. If you say Islam is bringing Jihad, it’s bringing terrorism, they say you are insulting Islam. If you say you don’t believe in God or Allah does not exist, you are a blasphemer. Or you say there is no life after death, you are a blasphemer. These are the things that the government will want to take into consideration.
READ MORE: From Arrest in Kaduna to Birth of Son, 442 Days of Mubarak Bala’s Unlawful Imprisonment for ‘Blasphemy’
Do you still stand by your beliefs and views on religion, especially those that brought those accusations against you?
I stand by my views. I have always stood by them. In fact, I told some friends recently that if they ever heard that I converted to Islam on my deathbed, they should know that it’s not true.
What was the period of incarceration like? Was there any discrimination against you from the warders or inmates?
Discrimination can come even at home. It started at home, so you expect it continues. Who will accept someone who does not believe whatever the society is practising, especially your own people.
The shocking thing is how your own government will take you from where you are safer to where you are less safer. I was taken from Kaduna to Kano. Not just Kano, but they kept me in a place of total Muslims. They are not terrorists but the kind of Muslims that will take law into their own hands and kill people on the accusations of blasphemy, apostasy and the likes.
And they even loot because whenever they hear that a Jihad is going on, they will come out to loot. These are the kind of people I was made to live with for four and a half years. It’s terrible, so you will expect everything. Some people will act unprofessional, even the staff of the prison facilities.
I suffered a lot. I did suffer. In fact, there were time that it was life-threatening, but I diplomatically handled myself until I got out. One reason I tried to end the trial within the first day of the trial was so I could get out of Kano prison because, although I was managing myself very well, I knew how tricky it is. How we could lose the peace in one small instance. It’s like a flick of the weather.
READ ALSO: From Isioma to Deborah, 5 Nigerians Who Paid a Price for ‘Blaspheming’ the Prophet of Islam
Did your immediate family, wife and children, face any challenges while you were away? What were the challenges?
Indeed. When you are the breadwinner of the family, it is expected that the family will go through traumatic experiences, not just emotionally but also physically. I’m not a millionaire, and I did not leave a lot of money for them to use.
Lucky for me, people came through for my family, ranging from the humanist community, Christian community and even the Muslim community. While I was suffering in jail, my family was helping by international organisations, friends, abroad and in Nigeria. And I appreciate all of it.
The emotional and psychological torture that both of us went through are still evident. We are trying to cope and heal and see how we can face the future.
I understand that you changed your plea from not guilty to guilty in the course of the trial. Why did you do that? Did it have to do with the fact that you thought the court would be lenient in its sentencing? When the eventual judgement was pronounced, how did you feel? Did you feel you should have insisted on the “not guilty” plea?
The priority was to remain alive. The government was actually actively planning to kill me. Either they were dumb, they did not know what they were doing, because by taking me to Kano for trial, the mob would know the subsequent dates and my location would be known maybe by journalists and then made public. And people would know where I was being held and people will now know how to cross into the prison, wreck havoc or lay an ambush as I am being transported on the announced date to the court.
Also, in the court, you are not safe. I knew they wanted to kill me. So, announcing whatever sentence or accusations they had, I pleaded guilty so that I could leave the state immediately. Which is what I did. Another reason was that they had refused the trial for 24 months. This means they had held me for three years because the prison calendar counts 24 months as three years. They call it remission. So, I had already served three years for an accusation of two years. Even if they were to choose the maximum three years, it means I had served the sentence and should be let go. But the judge wanted to be as wicked as possible.
In fact, the appeal court has decided that his judgment was illegal and out of touch with reality. He wanted to extend my stay as long as possible because I had refused to die. The hope was that one way or another, they would find that I am dead. The appeal court decided to release me on the basis that I had served enough.
We are still heading to the supreme court because we don’t accept the trial in all its forms. I was never supposed to be abducted from one state and smuggled into another state for trial with the laws of the other state. If you stole a goat in Port Harcourt, you are not supposed to be smuggled into Delta State for trial. That was what they did in my case.
READ MORE: Kano Court Sentences Mubarak Bala, an Atheist, to 24 Years in Prison for Blasphemy
How did it affect your beliefs on religion? Do you think people with ‘extreme’ religious views should be punished for their beliefs?
During the course of these five years or let me say 10 years since my problem started with Islam, you will never see anyone being arrested for threatening to kill me, to end my life. We are in a situation where the country is only protecting the system, not individuals, especially those that are in the minority.
Nobody was arrested, but I am not surprised. The people who killed Deborah Samuel are not on trial, and they are released. The people who killed Bridget Agbahime are free. If I ended up being dead, I would not be surprised if no one is prosecuted. This is how it is. This is Nigeria for you.
What is your take on punishing people for some religious beliefs?
We don’t need to punish terrorists for killing people if we can actually change the law or the religion itself is what I am advocating for. The Boko Haram terrorists want to kill people. The Jihadists want to kill people. Bandits want to kill people. The underlying factor is someone told them that it’s okay to do so.
The religion of Islam made it legal for human beings to kill human beings on account of these kind of things, like you are being a Christian or you are not a good Muslim. The Sharia court itself is divine.
Even though the laws of Nigeria said that there shouldn’t be state religion, they also still allowed for religion of state to practise Sharia. So, we are in an ambiguous, secular society that operates another system within a system. All these agitations for Sharia is because they allowed it in the first place, which is not supposed to be. Nigeria is not a country but a contraction full of confusion.
What were the conditions like in the prison? Do you feel the legal process was fair?
I was not even supposed to be arrested in the first place. It was not an arrest; it was an abduction. It was unfair for the government to do. Those who hijacked the system are supposed to be punished. That’s why we are heading to the Supreme Court.
About the condition of the prison, even Nigerians are suffering let alone those living underground in the prisons. You would have ailments. You will be underfed. As an investigative journalist, if you check the prisons, you will find people living in squalor. If you are lucky, as a VIP prisoner, you will have secluded rooms or somewhere that is more decent but does not change the fact that you are in a terrible condition. There is no electricity, no water, until you strive hard to get water to drink and food to eat.
Do you think attitudes towards blasphemy will change anytime soon? Do you think more people will still face trial for similar reasons? If yes or no, why?
Currently, there are people still in prisons over what is termed blasphemy. It’s not just about the blasphemy laws, but the mob who took laws into their hands must be brought to justice. This is the beginning of justice.
They keep isolating the Christian community in northern Nigeria. The agenda is for Nigeria to be Islamic. The agitation is like that, which is why I hope Nigerians will wake up. What is pushing them is like a virus that makes they belief they have to dominate. These are the mind diseases that my people are facing that we must educate them on. That it’s not about dominance but working with and tolerating others.
READ ALSO: Woman Spends 18 Months in Jail for Condemning Murder of Deborah Yakubu
Media reports often describe you as an atheist. Is this true? If this is true, has the whole ordeal and trial changed anything about your views?
I am an atheist. I have been an atheist for close to 20 years now. I don’t know why people will wonder whether one’s resolve will be tempted. In my captivity, i was forcefully converted. They had hoped it would be genuine, but I told them that I can never be the man who submits to this dictatorial religion. I have know science. Once you know science, you will always be an atheist.
Really, it’s not about fighting Muslims or Christians. Christians don’t even have a problem. They are not the ones pushing the agenda to dominate. Technically, I am not even against Muslims. I am only against the attitude of the Islamists. They are trying to push the agenda for Sharia, and Sharia agitation leads to Jihadism, and Jihadism agitation leads to terrorism.
It’s happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Gaza, Iran and so many countries. It’s all over the Islamic world. It’s all about Jihadism, which has now translated to terrorism. It is blasphemy for me to say it, but it is the fact. You have to defend human rights and the lives of people.
These things pain me because people don’t know what they are driving us into. They are driving us into Somalia; they are driving us to become Talibanistan, a failed state. They don’t care. All the cry of poverty…they don’t even understand why it is poverty. They cannot think, cannot innovate. They believe this life is about suffering, and the other life, paradise, is where you enjoy.
This is the only life you will ever have. It is established. It is known. Just that the dogma has already taken over.
The post INTERVIEW: Jailed for Blasphemy, Freed After 4 Years — Mubarak Bala on Punishment for His Beliefs appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.