In a democracy, the voice of the people is sacred, a right guaranteed, not granted, by those in power. Yet, the unfolding ordeal of 18-year-old Hamdiyya Shariff in Sokoto State tells a chilling story of how power, when unchecked, becomes a tool of persecution.
Hamdiyya, a teenager with nothing but her voice and conscience, dared to speak about the insecurity and suffering of internally displaced persons in her community — a truth visible to everyone yet denied by those responsible. For that act of courage, she has been relentlessly pursued, arrested, brutalized, tried in a Sharia court, and now reportedly abducted and found unconscious in Zamfara State. And all this — not for stealing, not for inciting violence — but for exercising her constitutional right to express concern over the failure of leadership.
Why would a whole governor, Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State, deploy the weight of the state machinery against a teenager? Is this the best use of power? At a time when Sokoto, like many northern states, is battling poverty, out-of-school children, insecurity, and crumbling infrastructure, how shameful it is that the governor and his cronies have chosen to wage war against a defenseless young woman whose only crime is honesty.
This is not governance — it is tyranny in disguise.
The silence of society is equally disturbing. Where are the voices of conscience — the elders, the intellectuals, the clerics, the civil society actors? How have we arrived at a place where a young girl is beaten, harassed, and silenced, and the rest of us look away, unmoved?
We now live in a country where you are beaten, and even the right to cry is taken away from you. What kind of existence is that?
To the Sokoto State Government: You may succeed in bruising a body, but you cannot silence truth. If this is about teaching her a lesson, then what you’ve taught the world is your own insecurity and pettiness. Enough is enough.
Let it be known: this is not just about Hamdiyya — it’s about all of us. It’s about every Nigerian who dares to speak truth to power. If a teenage girl can be hunted like this, who is safe?
We call on Governor Ahmed Aliyu and his administration to immediately drop all charges against Hamdiyya Shariff and allow her to heal in peace. Let the state focus on its actual responsibilities — security, education, health, and development. History will remember those who stood for justice — and those who stood in its way.
They may try to silence one voice, but millions more are rising. We will not be silenced.
I. M. Lawal
