Il Nuovo Postiglione - Nigeria atheist defiant after leaving jail in high-profile blasphemy case

Bala was handed a 24-year sentence by a Kano high court in 2022 for online posts he wrote two years earlier disparaging Islam, the Prophet Mohammed and God, according to court proceedings seen by AFP.

The case highlighted the complex issue of blasphemy in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria where Sharia law runs alongside common law and criticism of Islam is highly sensitive.

The 40-year-old father of two had his sentence commuted to five years in May last year and authorities ordered his release.

"I'm not a Muslim and I'm not ashamed of being not a Muslim. I'm never ashamed of who I am," Bala, who heads a Nigerian humanist association, told AFP in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location.

Since his release in August, he is cautious about appearing in public, fearing he could be targeted by "religious fanatics".

"The fanatics are still out there. They think I should not be alive. I get threats all around," he said.

- 'Survival strategy' -

Bala, who is from a religious Muslim family in Kano, renounced Islam and publicly declared himself an atheist.

He made passionate online posts about his humanist ideas as well as scathing attacks on Islam that were deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Blasphemy normally carries the death penalty under Sharia law, though it is rarely carried out in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation where the north is predominantly Muslim and the south mostly Christian.

In many cases, the accused are killed by mobs without going through the legal process.

Bala pleaded guilty to all 18 charges brought against him despite attempts by the judge and his lawyer to make him change his plea.

He defended his action as a "survival strategy" to avoid being killed by a mob, like Gideon Akaluka, detained for alleged blasphemy and beheaded by a mob in 1996.

To survive in prison, Bala said he had to play the "religious card", pretending to be Muslim because being an atheist ran the risk of harm from fellow inmates and prison staff.

"When you have 2,000 Muslim inmates in a prison in Kano and you are a known atheist, you don't even need to blaspheme or say anything against the religion to be in danger," he told AFP.

- Political future -

By pleading guilty and being sentenced, Bala became a "federal convict" under the protection of the federal government and no longer a Kano state prisoner.

It allowed him to apply for transfer out of Kano to a "safer" prison in the capital Abuja, where he waited for the appellate court to decide on his appeal.

After leaving prison, Bala filed a case at the supreme court challenging his "abduction" from his home in 2020 by the Kano state government.

"I feel it was a big injustice, a gross misconduct and miscarriage of justice," he said.

Bala said his experience had been an eye-opener into the Nigerian legal and prison system which he plans to put to use when he enters politics.

Despite the challenges of being an atheist, Bala hopes to start in his native Kano, aspiring to higher political office "to change the system for the better".

"I never deny that I'm a Kano man. This is where I live and hope I will die in Kano in my old age," Bala said.

A.Riccobono--INP