August 15, 2019
The Nigerian government is crying foul for obvious failure to victimize the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky in Indian hospital, where he had gone to seek treatment as permitted by the court against the government’s wishes.
It is a well known fact that the Nigerian authorities had tried all their antics to see that the Sheikh wasn’t given a medical leave. When that failed woefully in the court, they promptly indicated their intention to appeal. Realizing that wouldn’t stay the execution of the order and prevent the medical journey, they next sought to smuggle some phoney conditions to be met before the journey, even when they neither have the right nor the powers to unilaterally impose conditions not originally in the court order. That too failed woefully and the Sheikh embarked on the trip.
The government next cleverly sought to use its international connections to tighten the screw of persecution on the Sheikh and his wife. Even before the arrival of the Sheikh in India, the government used its connections to persuade the hospital not to admit the couple. That became public knowledge when a Lebanese news site publicly exposed the plot in a tweet a day before the arrival of Sheikh Zakzaky in India.
With that too exposed and destined to fail like all the other diabolic plots and evil schemes, they enlisted the services of some paid hospital workers through the Nigerian High Commission in Delhi with a view to scuttle the treatment of the Sheikh and his wife.
Naturally, it pained them that the plot was discovered early enough and expose to the World. Hence their hasty and bitter press statement through the Ministry of information and culture.
Shamelessly, they are fabricating some false terms the Sheikh allegedly demanded. Certainly, these are concocted as a face saving measure by the government in order to divert public fury and outcry away from themselves.
It is well within every patient’s right to decide whether or not to be treated and to also decide who attends to his health. It is called giving of consent, which every sane autonomous person with capacity is entitled to. Contrary to the Nigerian government’s press statement, that misinformed that it was against “medical ethics and standard practice,” it is in fact at the very essence of medical ethics, that every elementary medical person knows.
What the authorities expected was for Sheikh Zakzaky to be a willing victim, so that they could complete his assassination in a foreign land, per chance they would then claim innocence. It therefore, pains them naturally that every of their evil plot is so easily exposed.
Furthermore, the Nigerian government is uncomfortable and frustrated with the rising profile of the Sheikh on a global scale, with processions, rallies and protests at Nigerian embassies and High Commissions worldwide, including in India, demanding for his unconditional release. They are suggesting to India not to allow him “use their country to internationalize his group’s activities.” This is a very late move by the Nigerian government because the Zakzaky phenomenon has since reached every continent of the world.
Finally, the shame of a government knows no bound when it claims that it “affirms its readiness to undertake the prosecution” (of Sheikh Zakzaky) “through due process.” A government whose blurred human rights records is legendary and whose disrespect to the rule of law is internationally acclaimed would be making such wild comments that even a child knows is all lies and nothing but the lies.