Written Evidence submitted by Mubarak Bala of Nigeria (FRB0018)

Self Intro: I am Mubarak Bala, the individual who was persecuted in 2014 for leaving Islam and becoming an atheist, and almost losing my life to sharia implemented in the state, and my family.

1. I would recall most moments of my childhood today and see that I really have lived as a humanist all my life, only that as adolescence kicked in, bombardments by my madrassa, the strictest of all those in north Nigeria, I pretended to behave like a religious person. I was liberal most of my life, and secular by University years. By the end of those years, a decade ago, I was agnostic, and I never hid nor kept quiet about it.

2. Asking the most celebrated cleric at the time, about the benefits of killing a gecko lizard for a 100 reward, and the answers I got, consolidated my suspicion that Muhammad's thought and philosophy are too narrow to have any say in my life. I was 5 years into my freethought when my family dumped me in a psychiatric hospital, for my posts o facebook. My father then took my phone, posted the Islamic testimony sentence while I was being drugged unconscious, by a federal medical doctor.

3. The evidence against my sanity were, not adding pbuh to the name Muhammad, denying 'history', adam/eve story as fact of our origin, blasphemy, saying Allah is imagined, saying there is no life after I die. I was given anti-psychotic drugs and epilepsy drugs, so strong that I lost orientation most times I took them, I tried to avoid them when I could. Friends around the world led by Humanists Interntional, IHEU, helped freed me, and I was let go. Legal proceedings against my family dropped, but I intended suing the unprofessional federal hospital, there was no support, I thought since my case was even mentioned in the UK parliament, (I was shown the video in 2014), I could see officials asking if I needed help, medically or legally, only the US embassy did. Later, as I sought assistance for preliminary legal fees, the UK govt had no facility for such in my country, or I was not aware if there was, it was Freedom House in Washington D.C that helped.

4. Much later, when Boko Haram leader threatened me in one of his videos, it was friends online that raised some token for me to seek asylum away, it was $1,600 they could raise, I sought a UK visa and it was rejected, I did not know any avenue from the UK that could have sponsored me as they did with others like Malala Pakistan or Jamila in Sudan, the lady that married a Christian, the recent cases then.

5. I was sent away from home, immediately the media hype died down, and they did not live by the peace deal we reached, but I could not pursue any legal case, even the Nigerian government that assured me protection, after a barrage of mob threats, vanished. I was forlorn. Friends vanished, I became an IDP, a few I met online, were too far, I thought of trekking through the Sahara northwards, I thought of ending it all, since no one cared, but I braved on. The only thing I could do, was to maintain a presence online, like my life depended on it, because it did.

6. For the next five years to date, this is what I do, finding jobs and losing them when they know who indeed I am, losing rent, when the neighborhood realizes I am an atheist, but being online made the world know I still am there, my silence for too long, must be investigated, that's my hope. This is how I live now.

 

7. But I have helped alot of people like me now, we have formed our own community, and get assistance time to time from other bodies, as well as give jobs that we could secure within our circle, to a point that, the society has now adapted to live with us with no threats of death, only other trivial threats such as ostracism, threats of eternal torture, or threat with poverty and hunger, the government, no matter how we complain, never take substantive action, even treating us as a threat.

8. We, the Nigeria Humanist community, lead many others in Africa, with guidance and coordination, to form an even bigger body that would have a stronger voice and clout to influence policy, and ensure human rights for not just Christians and other minorities under threat, but also people fleeing from religions.

9. We are many, and we still see the West, the UK being the most qualified, given our history, to educate and stand for rights to life and belief. As well as render assistance in instances where life is under threat, with provision of options and legal backing.

 

Thank you,

Mubarak Bala,

President, Nigeria Humanist Association.

 

September 2019