There is no let-up in the impunity of some state actors. This is evident in Kano, where the state Hisbah Board recently confiscated and destroyed over 3.8 million bottles of assorted alcoholic drinks worth about N1 billion. Such serial misdeeds drum the urgent need for the Federal Government to step in and stop the serial violation of human and occupational rights of other Nigerians.

The Hisbah’s provocation has been a long-running assault on rights and the 1999 Constitution. It has been enabled by the Kano and 11 other Northern state governments, who through exclusive religious-inspired laws trample brazenly on Nigeria’s secularity. Worse is that the Federal Government has been cowardly, complicit, and partisan by failing to stop the assault and protect the property rights and livelihood of the thousands of citizens oppressed by such behaviour. It is time to end this travesty.

Having escaped sanctions for its actions in the past, the Kano Hisbah gloated that in the past few months, it had destroyed 3.8 million bottles of assorted alcoholic beverages across the state. The head of the agency, Haroun ibn Sina, spoke just after he presided over the destruction of beer bottles at the Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area. Arrogantly, he declared: “The sale, consumption, and possession of alcoholic substances are prohibited in the state.” This is ridiculous. Kano is part of Nigeria where the production, sale, consumption, and trade in alcoholic beverages are perfectly legal; they are major economic activities and employers of labour.

But the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, like some of his other colleagues in the North-West and North-East, disdain Nigeria’s secularity and pass laws explicitly driven by religion. They treat the country’s multi-sectarianism with contempt.

The seizure and confiscation of alcoholic contents is not new across the North but is given vigorous expression in Kano. This is not ideal in a diverse polity.

In November 2020, the Sharia police in Kano destroyed 1.97 million bottles of different beer brands worth over N200 million. The confiscation cost a beer distributor in Kano, John Simon, over N35 million. The distraught businessman had recounted his loss amid tears, and said the money was a bank loan.