#ZariaMassacre, #BringBackOurGirls put Nigeria on global digital trends
First, it is about the call by the global civil rights groups on the government to ensure that those responsible for the #ZariaMassacre are brought to justice.
The dust raised by the revelation of the Kaduna State Government that the remains of 347 victims of the clash between the Islamic Movement of Nigeria and the Nigeria Army had yet to settle when the world joined Nigeria to mark the second anniversary of the Chibok girls. This led to the resuscitation of the hitherto forgotten #BringBackOurGirls hashtag.
The National Human Rights Commission had taken to Twitter to demand that the remains of those killed in the Zaria killings be exhumed for autopsy.
The NHRC’s position came amid global online protest against the way Kaduna State Government handled the matter.
The Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Balarabe Lawal, on Monday, at a public hearing organised by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry stated that about 347 people, who died during the clash, were given a mass burial.
Following the revelations, hundreds of social media users had taken on the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, on the issue, with many describing his action as “irresponsible.” This came as #ZariaMassacre gained traction on the Internet and trended across different digital platforms.
The NHRC, which joined the online protest, called on el-Rufai and his team to exhume the bodies for further examination. The commission, which said the world would want to know how they were killed, dismissed the argument that Islam disallowed autopsy.
The commission added, “Islam is for justice, you cannot kill and say Islam precludes autopsy. Now that #ZariaMassacre inquiry has learnt that the victims were buried in mass graves, will it do right and order them to be exhumed? Will it do right and visit the site?”
The rights commission also accused the Kaduna State Government of complicity, saying it connived with the Nigerian Army to bury the victims in order to destroy available evidence.
In a series of tweets, it stated, “When a non-complicit government finds hundreds of its citizens dead, it would first try to identify the victims. It would arrange to inform and condole with the families and not bury the dead hurriedly.”
Besides the NHRC’s posts, hundreds of Nigerians, foreigners and groups were on the social media to react to the development.
The Amnesty International, for instance, said the acknowledgment of the extrajudicial killings by the state government echoed its earlier findings. Posting on Twitter and website a statement by its Country Director in Nigeria, Mohammed Ibrahim, AI urged the government to come out clean on the matter. The group also noted that it would soon publish its independent report on the matter.
Also, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, lambasted the civil society groups, accusing them of not doing enough to demand justice for affected families.
Adetutu Balogun, an online activist, who claimed to have created the famous #NoToSocialMediaBill hashtag, urged the Army to justify the reason Shi’ites were killed in such a large number when “stones and catapults” did not kill a single soldier.
In a statement that has been posted on its website, the Islamic Human Rights Commission insisted that the massacre, which it described as a “crime against humanity” was to curb the growing influence of Shi’ites in the country.
“The IHRC believes that the Army’s assault amounts to a crime against humanity. A similar military assault in July 2014, during a religious procession, led to the deaths of 34 members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, including three sons of its leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who were apparently singled out for execution,” the United Kingdom-based organisation said.
Lawal had explained that the state government took the decision to bury the victims when it realised that they threatened to overwhelm mortuaries in the state. This, he said, was in accordance with the obligations of the government under international laws.
On Thursday, #BringBackOurGirls, perhaps, the most popular Nigeria-created hashtag so far, regained its strength as the world sympathised with the families of schoolgirls, who were kidnapped by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.
The AI, Women in the World, A World at School and several other international bodies took to social media to express their frustration over the Nigerian government’s inability to locate and rescue the girls. Foreign and local media also dedicated their social media pages to the commemoration. As of 2pm on Thursday, #BringBackOurGirls had polled over 22,000 tweets.
On Twitter, A World at School described the plight of the girls as “a symbol of our inability to protect young lives.”
Source:PUNCH.