By Saleh Bature
Before the debut of the video in which she criticised Ahmed Ali Dan Alu, the governor of Sokoto State, the 18-year-old Hamdiya Cidi Sherif was an obscure local Tik Tok village girl whose name does not ring bell. It was the release of this viral video that exposed her to the national spotlight but also nearly cost her her life.
In the video, Hamdiyya told a gathering of visibly disturbed and disoriented village women that the people of Sokoto State have been neglected by the government they put in power. “We are at the mercy of marauding bandits. Let me also say that I am not campaigning for a party or any politician. The person whom we know and hold responsible is the governor. My message is directed to Governor Ahmed Ali Dan Alu.”
She asked, “Has the Sokoto state government forgotten us, or is it that news of our ordeal has not reached the governor, or is it a case that the governor has run out of solutions to our problems?” People have been displaced and parents and children are sleeping on the streets of the cities, but the same you who went to places by cars and motorcycles and walked to communities that are not motorable seeking their votes, now you are nowhere to help them, she told the governor.
His Excellency Gov Aliyu
She drew the attention of Governor Dan Alu to the fact that his tenure is four or eight years, and regardless of how long he stays in office as the governor, he’ll one day vacate the office, die, and then be interned in the grave to face judgement like any other ordinary mortal. She compared the hapless and helpless mothers and daughters in their villages who are being raped by bandits and asked rhetorically, “How would the governor feel if he were in the shoes of those victims of violent sex, arson, and wanton destruction of lives and property?”
The Sokoto state governor did not take Hamdiyya’s criticism of the government’s handling of the security situation in the state lightly. The state governor sent a team of armed men to arrest the 18-year-old girl in Munki village. The combat ready men surrounded Hamdiyya’s family house as if they were going to fight the notorious bandit, Bello Turji.
As if the girl had committed a major offence, the men beat and manhandled her along with another male member in the family. She narrated how she was repeatedly slapped on her two cheeks by the two men who sandwitched her at the back of a vehicle. In the place where she was detained before her arraignment, she recounted how a police officer threatened her with rape for “abusing” and bringing to disrepute the family of governor Dan Alu. Thanks to the junior officer who politely advised his boss against violating her chastity, it would have been a different story.
Hamdiyya was subsequently arraigned before a Sharia Court in Sokoto to defend herself against accusations of public incitement. The judge released her on bail, something the prosecutor and others she accused of being agents of the state government were not happy with.
Two days after the grant of bail, some unidentified men accosted her and whisked her away in a Keke Napep, where they battered her until they thought she stopped breathing. They threw her out of the Keke Napep, thinking that she was dead. Allah saved her life. She has recovered from the life-threatening injuries she suffered from those who attempted to kill her.
I cannot fathom why a mere criticism against a governor would warrant such violence and rape threats to humiliate and subdue a young girl from exercising her fundamental human right of freedom of expression in a democracy.
What did Hamdiyya say that is not true or is against the law of the land? Is it not a known fact that some governors pay lip service to the security and welfare of the people in their states? Don’t the governors use and dump the people who voted for them after the electioneering campaign? Do bandits not send people out of their homes to take refuge in filthy and overstretched IDP camps in the states? Do governors not protect their children against political thuggery by giving them good education and a better life? If you say no, whose governor’s son is a thug or a street urchin in Nigeria? Who can absolve the governor of Sokoto State from these blames?
The governor of Sokoto State has a notoriety for silencing opposition. Not long ago, Shafi’u Umar Turaita, a social media influencer, was arrested by heavily armed policemen for sharing what Amnesty International described as “a viral video of the lavish and extravagant birthday party of the governor’s wife.” Nothing could be more insensitive than a governor organising a lavish and extravagant birthday party for his wife at the time when the state he governs is faced with escalating waves of insecurity, poverty, disease, ignorance, drug abuse, and out-of-school children, among many other challenges.
Governor Ahmed Aliyu has enough problems to contend with than to dissipate his time, resources, and energy fighting young social media critics of his administration. A governor’s task is to better the lives of the good people in Sokoto State, not to engage in a wild goose chase for social media critics. Looking at the damning challenges in Sokoto State, the governor shouldn’t ordinarily have time to waste fighting youngsters like Hamdiya Cidi Sherif and Shafi’u Umar Turaita.
Moreover, it is illusionary for any governor to think that he can gag social media critics. Political pundits say that “the touchstone of good governance for any society starts from allowing and listening to criticisms and, in turn, learning from them.”
With a mere handful of followers on social media, Jasiri Channels on YouTube says Hamdiyya’s social media followers have now blossomed to over 500,000 recently. It is apparently clear that the governor’s legal tangle with the young girl has made her popular.
Moreover, her gender, her outspokenness, the cause for which she stands, her tribe and religion, the ordeal she went through, and the foolish attempt to kill her have helped in raising her to national human rights firmament. What the local authorities did to her has changed her life forever because she is being celebrated as the voice of the downtrodden women in Northern Nigeria.
The author is reachable via email-baturesuba@yahoo.co.uk
