After about two years in detention, from April 2020, without charges or trial, Mubarak Bala, 37, atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was convicted in curious circumstances on April 5. He faced an 18-count charge including blasphemy, incitement, and contempt of religion and breach of public peace at the Kano State High Court.

The prosecution said he made a blasphemous post on his Facebook page on April 28, 2020, adding that it was against Allah and Prophet Muhammad and had caused public outrage in Kano, Bala’s hometown. He was arrested at his residence in Kaduna State and taken to Kano State. The prosecution also argued that he contravened sections 114 and 210 of the state’s penal code.

Justice Farouk Lawan sentenced him to 24 years in prison after he unexpectedly pleaded guilty. It was reported that Bala had refused to reconsider his guilty plea when the judge asked him whether he understood the consequences.

It is unclear why he pleaded guilty, considering that after he had spent about eight months in detention, in December 2020 the High Court in Abuja ruled that his detention violated his rights to personal freedom, fair hearing, freedom of thought and expression.

The Abuja judge declared his detention illegal and ordered his immediate release following a “fundamental rights” petition describing how he had been detained without charge for more than seven months, and denied access to lawyers for five months. The court awarded him N250, 000 in damages. The authorities disregarded the court ruling.

His long detention without charges attracted international attention, and campaigners for his freedom regarded him as a Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) victim.

Significantly, a group of seven United Nations (UN) human rights experts issued a statement in April 2021, after Bala had been detained for a year, which highlighted the violation of his fundamental freedoms and supported the Abuja court ruling. “The government must take action to ensure that the responsible authorities respect the due process and enforce the judicial ruling,” they said.

The Kano State High Court that convicted him did not view the charges against him as a violation of his rights to freedom of thought and expression as the Abuja High Court did. The principle that courts of concurrent jurisdiction are not bound by each other’s decisions possibly explains this.

But it is puzzling that a secular court convicted Bala of blasphemy in contradiction to the country’s secular constitution, which is supreme. How can blasphemy be a crime in a secular country? It is strange that he was convicted under a state penal code that contradicts the constitution and its supremacy.

There is no question that his conviction violates some of his fundamental rights under the country’s constitution, especially his rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and freedom of expression.

It is noteworthy that his vocal atheism is offensive to many people in the country’s Muslim-dominated northern region. Indeed, those who petitioned the police leading to his arrest had accused him of posting things on Facebook that were “provocative and annoying to Muslims.”

The allegation of blasphemy evokes Islamic law, also known as Sharia, which operates in 12 Muslim-majority states in the northern part of the country alongside a secular justice system. Sharia has been controversial in the country since its introduction in 1999. There are fundamental problems about the operation of Sharia in a multi-religious but secular country such as Nigeria.

Even under the controversial Islamic system of justice, the accusation of blasphemy stands in contradiction to the country’s secular constitution, which is supreme.

Bala’s conviction for blasphemy is wrongful and preposterous because it essentially goes against the constitution. Importantly, his guilty plea is of no consequence because the blasphemy charge against him has no basis under the constitution.

Ultimately, his conviction is a travesty of justice that should not be allowed to stand.

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