Open Letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu - from Mubarak Bala

Dear Mr. President,

Your Excellency sir, I am hereby drafting a handwritten note from my jail cell, on occasion of your inauguration as our new leader, to lead us through the next four or eight years. But given the chain this letter has to be relayed, it may reach your desk on or beyond our democracy day, this is also so as to allow you some time to settle in the new seat for the tough job.

Sir, this is my 37th month unjustly imprisoned in Abuja, formerly in Kano prison. Mr President sir, I am a prisoner of conscience, sought after only because I refused to follow the religion I was born into, especially coming from descendants of the 1804 conquerors. Mine is only a sin, an unforgivable sin they try hard to give another name in a civil court, just so I die, or be removed permanently from circulation and society, they do not want people like me to ever be heard, or be seen as an alternative to the status quo in the landlocked region.

My former religion stipulate that I be put to death for leaving the religion, other cultures do not care to carry out this injustice, but evidently, my own people want to carry it out by whatever means necessary, via the government, should they find allies therein, by intimidation, or by themselves via mob action.

However, I on the other hand, am determined to live and survive this, this so far I have done since 2009.

Back in 2013 sir, when I tried to intimate my immediate family that I have left the religion long ago during my University years, I was immediately put in a psychiatric hospital by my father and uncles, in connivance with a friendly-doctor, even as another doctor from same hospital has a year prior, assured them that I am sane and smart, and that all they need to do is preach to or pray for me, but within a year in 2014, the delicate peace and diplomacy, proselytizing, sanctions and threats, deteriorated to an attempted brain castration, a calculated, sinister chemically induced lobotomy, in same Kano State, at a federal hospital, they later said it was simply to protect me as the media came to probe, and that it was an internal family affair which requires respect to their privacy. And so, the media stayed off.

They violently sedated me, force-fed me drugs meant for epileptic patients, (I wasn't ever epileptic), another for schizophrenic patients, I was not maniacal, and yet another as anti-psychotics. I have had none of these symptoms but I was sedated and kept for weeks until I wrote emails globally to seek help and I got rescued.

It is worthy of your notice Mr. President, for this crime, no one was arrested, no one was punished, and no one lost their license, I was simply discharged quietly from the hospital, begged to forgive and forgo, and then later betrayed and disowned and threatened further as the news broke out to the larger society.

Now since then, I have received constant death threats so much that I got used to it, sometimes illiterate morons, other times by seemingly university educated folks who have chosen the path of radicalism instead of tolerance, ordinary civilians and clerics that inspired jihadism among our youths, only to leave the doctrine with the followers and come back to counter it hypocritically.

At a later time, the then COAS, General Y. T. Buratai himself had to on an occasion intervene to one such a threat by a corporal all the way from Sambisa forest sending me text messages. Someone supposedly fighting Boko Haram saying he'd find and kill me for Allah. A confused lunatic.

Yet with all these developments, protection or intervention from the government never came towards me or our small community, not from any state government, and not from the federal forces, but atleast they didn't side with the terrorists overtly. 

So to say, I was always responsible for my own protection. I always slept deep, relaxed and contented, that if I die atleast I died free, and hoping to atleast one day have a kid of my own before they reach me...this horror, others like me also live here in Nigeria, especially some of us coming from the conservative north, just as globally our Middle Eastern and Asian friends have to go through year in year out.

I however, refused to hide my face in shame due to these threats, and refused to relocate, as this would only embolden the fanatics and serve only as appeasement to the terrorists and their sympathizers. I always believed courage to be contagious.

But Mr. President sir, because I was disowned, I had to leave my home state of Kano, and live in the capital Abuja and school for my MSc. as well as work in Kaduna State, all the while doing what I could to organize and protect those in similar situations as myself, thousands of us.

Sir, my online activities include humanism, spreading education, tolerance of all tribes, beliefs and races, save specific doctrines that are too archaic or blatantly unjust to people, we are also sponsoring students to gain admission into schools, ending the Almajiri System, ending gender based violence, child marriages and abuse, ending the underaged housegirl system, child witchcraft accusations, abusive nonexitable marriages especially skewed against the woman, relocating new humanists in distress from hotspot areas or families meaning them harm, counseling and matchmaking for couples of like-minds, enterpreneurship skills, advocacy for coexistance without tribalism,regionalism and religionism, advocacy for good governance, highlighting the importance of science and reason in countering dogma and superstition, especially since it has inspired our own people to carry arms against the state and citizens, against education. And many many more.

We decided to simply counter the root causes of it all with pen and paper, while the government does what it could with billions of dollars in the war theater, with no end in sight.

You Excellency sir, we were mostly ostracized from family, from society, and have only ourselves and friends online for support, both within the country and across the globe, I emphasize, we only protect ourselves and seek whatever change we want to see in human society with our words, only with the pen, no bombs, no cutlasses and no guns, we humanists are atheists with a conscience, law abiding citizens helping humanity best we can, we engage people and ideologies including these threats online via the social media.

Sir, what you utter in your morning devotion as a Muslim, is already countering what Madam first lady already believes as her truth, as is vice versa, the two belief systems are mutually exclusive, yet we human beings decided to dampen the opposing views for our mutual coexistance and social cohesion. What the Ifa Oracle says is already countering what Amadioha of the East says, or whatever Tsumburbura ordained for the Hausa land of old, these things are disagreements we all learnt to live with, through time, without much fuss, until recently when assertiveness and quest for dominance caused us to bleed ourselves. 

We humanists are new in this society, atleast vocally, we see what you all believe to be true as fallacy and delusion, we say it openly just as other clerics also blare theirs daily and weekly to all of us publicly live with megaphones, on air, online, via any means they could reach to as many as they could win over, we simply for now, say ours online, to those who care to come to our pages and read for themselves, we do not knock on people's doors nor do we use loudspeaker for general nuisance, those who wish to see what we write go to our pages and see for themselves. But they have every right to block our posts and stop seeing them, the government should never have backed weaklings and crybabies as to attempt to kill me for their choke.

We say what we know to be facts; deities do not exist, there is only one lifetime, there are no demons, there are no angels, there's no God, and Satan does not exist, nor are other gods real. Religions are all indoctrination and superstition, these utterances shock the conservative social strata, atleast since they aren't used to hearing it out loud, it is as others say Allah (as imagined) has a son, or is one of three Gods. Or YahWeh, Krishna, Apollo, Odin, Zeus and Jupiter are same deity in different cultures. These things are all blasphemous to others, but not shocking since people are used to hearing them. What makes some difficult to comprehend ours is that ours is relatively new to this society. And so, they think we have to die for daring to believe these things, talk less of even airing it online.

Now in 2020, I was taken by the federal police in Kaduna State, on excuse that a complain against my posts on Facebook has been filed by a friend of mine (someone I've never met), over post he chose to come online to my page and read. The police say that he has found them offensive and so, he cannot sleep until I am taken care of.

Now, to my surprise, the then Kano Governor, the Kano commissioner of Police, Kano's DSS, instead of protecting me, decided to side with such an individual and sent to take me, all the way from my abode into Kano state, amidst the Covid-19 lockdown and ban on interstate travel, we were the only ones on that road that week until we reached State police headquarters Bompai Kano, they had no jurisdiction, since I have not posted my opinion in Kano, no, not even did I do it Kaduna or Abuja, but online on global server. They just wanted to deal with someone that thunder refused to strike.

So they assumed jurisdiction and took me Mr President, kept me from April the 28th, 2020 until June 25th, when they decided to dump me in prison without any judicial process, but an imposter impersonating a judge right in their police HQ. They boasted that I'll be killed where they're taking me. And I knew it was true.

The prison I was taken had the same kind of people with the mentality I have ran away from, the mob mentality for any apostate or blasphemer, every single day was a task to stay alive, alert and as social as possible, with whatever resources available. 

I was kept there unprotected, accessible by anyone, with no access to legal services. I was kept there until the 5th April 2022 when I was presented to Kano's high court to face charges, where people in the city would easily reach me and end the trial with my death, perhaps that's what they wanted. Gideon Akaluka, Deborah Samuel, Mrs Bridget Abahime all died and their killers rewarded. That was not the fate I would allow them have for me, so I outsmarted them. I left Kano September the sixth, 2022, and since then I have now medications, medical appointments, outside of the prison, access to family, lawyers and associates.

Mr President sir, I will not worry you with the details of what I went through in these three years, but I have so far developed hypertension, angina plaque buildup in my heart and arteries, x-ray, ECG, and MRI revealed that my heart has expanded in size to double it's size, called cardiomegaly due to the high BP. The medics mocked my symptoms that it is lack of faith in the almighty that caused me heart problems.

I have developed also, high cholesterol and high blood sugar, due to the long incarceration I have endured, simply based on my belief and conscience, in a supposedly free, secular and democratic country.

I was promised freedom if I submitted and cooperated, which I did since I was a captive of Islamists, no different that Leah Sharibu, or the Chibok girls, I was forced in Kano custody to convert back to Islam, being a captive with no access to legal services nor welfare via family. I was shocked that my own government will convert me back into the religion I no longer found interest in identifying with. I want to live a humanist life, not an Islamist life.

I have no problem with Muslims as a people, nor do I have problems with Christians, and I admire the traditional worshippers. I recognize that every human being should have the right to be able to profess any religion or philosophy they opt to choose, or the one they're born into. I also cherish and try to defend those who choose to leave behind the religion or philosophy they are no longer interested in adhering to.

My criticism is against dogma, religion, and religions are not people, they do not have rights, they can be criticized, and countered, especially if they ask man to kill man. I am for human rights, and people have the right to their beliefs. But I know the difference between people and ideologies, people have rights, ideologies do not  I respect people, but can't respect religions.

If I grew up in a society that was killing it's twins, or it's first borns, I'd still end up in jail already, or dead, because I'll still point out that I find these practices unjust and depraved and against mankind. This is how I see many religious practices today, banditry, rape, wife beating, terrorism, preaching against other religions and it's adherents, hindrance to education and child rights, sheer theft and looting of government coffers to be shared to clerics and cronies, what is moral is clear, what is wrong is wrong, no matter who does it. This is what is ethical, this should be what our country should stand for. This is what I stand for.

In doing this, I stepped on toes, and spurred nerves and feathers, that I was too confrontational to the religion of my forefathers. That I blaspheme the religion or it's founders. Those accusing me of these never cared to erase or edit the commandments in the religion, that ordered I be murdered if I left the religion, a command for which I have suffered death threats and ostracism, loss of jobs and opportunities, loss of friends and family. I have the right to live, and I must have right to counter the dogma that says I must die. And you have to protect me, atleast this is what I expected of my own government.

Now, I know this is a tough one, especially given the new Nigerian political environment, you cannot be seen to protect or help me, side with me or sympathize with my decade long predicament, circumstances and travails, atleast not publicly. This is exactly why I don't want to bother the new Governor in my home state, it is a politically risky for him for now and probably against his conscience, even though I endorsed him publicly in 2019, which caused the attention of the then government towards me. 

Hence, I want to give you Your Excellency, and your government an easy way out, in helping me.

I started speaking publicly about Islamic Jihad, extremism, the Almajiri System, violent Shari'a agitation and what led us to the current security situation in the north, the Boko Haram, ISIS, Shiite insurrection, Fulani banditry,  farmer herder clash, kidnappings, and the determined efforts of some people to deny the girl child education, via threats, indoctrination, kidnapping and rape. I was trying to solve the problem by pointing to my people and my immediate society in northern Nigeria where the problem arose, and how we could quell it off. I failed. I almost lost my life. And is still suffering because of it, probably I will never be understood, atleast not in this generation.

So I have decided to ease the options so you could free me with minimal political backlash: 

I will not, for the time being, speak again publicly against Islamism and Jihadism via social media, when I do, I will try to write less sharper critique, so that simpletons will not have any excuses to take people's property and call it booty, or kill nonbelievers, or rape.

I will not exercise free speech as enshrined in the constitution, I will not also criticize religions so long as they do not quote verses that insult, threaten or ginger people against us. Or preach terrorist ideologies from foreign lands. 

The clerics must be called to order, they are not above the law, and they must stop the dual ambiguity, gingering congregation against citizens, then coming around to say they're for peace, they desist, we have no reason to then counter.

We have every right however, to spread reason and educate people that religion is superstition, just as they say we're going to hellfire, we have every right to say it is a lie, just as they say we need to be killed, we have reasons to also say the books are not holy.

I shall speak against the terrorism bedeviling the north of Nigeria. But I will no longer assume I can attempt solve our problems. I will also watch quietly and protect myself and my family, best I could, without criticizing the status quo, for now. If I speak and they go and kill Christians I will not be able to forgive myself. I started this so I protect people that terrorists were killing. It will be detrimental to my cause if I spoke again and it led to murders, pillaging and destruction of people of other tribes or religions, I will find other ways I could help humanity, but free speech or activism is severely defeated in this current Nigeria. Only those who praise the status quo have freedom to. They could preach hate and intolerance, they could ginger and provoke and they have the podium. They will boast and they'll be hailed. They could threaten minority communities and those that do not identify in their suit.

I have seen enough injustices already to realize I cannot solve the problems by myself. I lack the resources, the manpower, the political connection and the patience to. I started in anger and frustration, after watching a video clip of a beheading of a Christian girl in 2013, by boys around my age, speaking my language, wearing the kind of clothing I wear, it cuts deep, deeper than any wound, all she kept saying was 'ni ba DSS bace ba', (that she wasn't a DSS staffer spying against them)...That we could descend to this cruelty, I grew up thinking we were civilized with a rich cultural heritage. I still hope we are.

I still cry seeing these things happening, and I had hoped I could end it all...but I failed, it is even normalizing as every morning we now wake up to such horrible news, perhaps in another life, but then, there is no life after death, there isn't life beyond this one...we humankind, seem helpless to change our circumstances. But I have hope, even if not in this generation, perhaps before the close of the century.

There are no merciful gods to answer any prayers, nor carry out any justice against the unjust. Wickedness everywhere. I don't want my actions to cause any problems for any other person or minority community living elsewhere around us, especially as my Aunty reminded on her recent visit, that since I have been receiving death threats when I was alone, single and recklessly with my life, now I am a family man and need to also protect those under me. She made sense.

It is my prayer that you succeed, although it is highly unlikely, terrorism is protected. Tribalism and racism is amplified. Bigotry given wings. Poverty perpetuated. Humanity lost between us, we are no longer our brother/sisters keepers anymore... We just want to exploit resources selfishly for ourselves, not also caring and sharing anything with others, we are just bent on destroying the environment and planet. 

Also I observed, small kids in here without school, charged with terrorism, while the actual terrorists came and took their own a year ago. Others that have given their all to the country are left to die in here by the same people they arrested and brought to custody...not even a bail are they allowed to have.

Mr. President, I answered guilty to all their charges against me not because I was guilty of any crime, but for many many reasons I prefer to keep out of this discussion for now, but one of such is just so I could leave Kano's detention and the threats I faced daily, being held without protection, amongst the kind of people (2000 in number, that could murder me for blasphemy or apostasy), my own people, that have been taken over by zealotry and dogma, those whom I sought to wean out of fanaticism, may well kill me, just to please some deity. There were several other reasons I'd rather not say today.

Mr. President, Kano State had no jurisdiction to take me from another place and convert me to my former religion, and when I reverted back and stood my ground, be made to stand trial of a supposed crime of Insulting religion and blasphemy, and be sentenced to a combination of 40 years, (24+16), while actual confessed terrorists, kidnappers, rapists, gun runners and terror logistics men, as well as armed robbers were being freed by the same judicial system before my very eyes. 

The maximum sentence even if guilty is two years with an option of fine, and I later thought probably they wanted to keep me for the two years then free me, only to almost give my loved ones more heartache and pain.

Most shocking is that the federal government connived with the state government via it's agencies to create a condition that almost got me killed several times, and still trying to.

Why the same government would give the not to the terrorists to go break jails and take their own from custody, even with preconditions as 'you won't kill staff, inmates or take more hostages', but only 'take your commanders', in exchange release the ones they took from the train...would still baffle me, this is a shame and an insult on our collective intelligence as a country.

I have lived within the system to know more from the other side, and insight to how we are sold out, how we are just canon fodder, I lost hope probably you could turn it around, sir.

Release me Mr. President, so I could go back home to my family, to society, and seek medical help, further my education hopefully away from this quagmire. 

Free me sir, and also free these kids so they go back to school, the boys are only being wasted while the culprits have since broke the jail and left, right before everyone's eyes. These ones were only demanding for their clerics freedom.

Free also, those Officers that served to secure the country from terrorists, for decades, direct it, even if it is a bail so they could go home and be safer, and healthier, and face their cases from home. I have lived long enough here to understand, these things are just by recommendation, keep so-so person for me, and they're kept in jail, until they decide otherwise. 

Also sir, extend amnesty to the ill and the tired, especially the geriatric folks I have seen dying in these facilities over the years. You can. Some of them are only in here because they lost people's investments, with genuine mishaps. 

Past amnesties all over the country were sold to the highest bidder. The President, the Governors, the Emirs and Philanthropists ordering these things do not know much, but the intricate details are appalling to the fair-minded, and so, the actual eligible folks are left behind, while the higher echelons get to go home. I refused to take part in such unjust circumstances. 

My wife was summoned at the twilight of the last administration, that she, and my sister should come and collect me, that everything has been finalized, she spent money and left her work: being asked to wait further two days, further two days, another two days, until the government ended and she was asked to go that she will be called again. She wasn't. Now they are out of office, so please end this appalling injustice.

I'm a convict, which makes me eligible for your pen to sign my freedom. My appeal to the federal courts in Kano have never been heard nor admitted, and will not be atleast for another year I learnt, Femi Falana SAN stands to represent me, which I hope will annul everything including the conviction, and reparations paid to me for the damages, and time served.

Sir, let me go back home and observe life without interfering with some people's way of subjugation, in the long run, I may be able to help, if I grow wings, nails, clout, as well as canine to climb higher than the prey I now am to the wicked...

Mine hopefully, assuredly, would be used for good of humanity and planet. Who knows, it may be me you'll hand over to in 2031.

I wish you a happy democracy day. I commiserate with you over this tough job you got for yourself. I wish you good health, great courage, good ideas and deeper insight. May all the Nigerian imaginary-Gods see you through it all. I don't care if foreign gods(as imagined) come to our rescue, because for now, 'they' have failed our people and caused fatal divisions between our diverse people in this great land...and as such do not deserve our attention, nor our reverence.

I leave you in peace, Mr. President, long live Nigeria, it's secular system, it's diverse tribes and cultures, long live humankind all around the world, of all colors and shades, orientation and philosophy. May we have peace globally. May we see ourselves no different than others, and protect all living things and planet.

Mubarak Bala,

Counter Terrorism Detention Unit,

Kuje Prison,

Abuja,

Nigeria.