On April 5th 2022, Mubarak Bala – the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria – plead guilty to charges attached to blasphemy. The sentence that followed caused shockwaves throughout the country, reverberating around the world, and placing the threats to freedom of expression in Africa’s most populous country under new scrutiny. BBC’s Yemisi Adegoke follows Bala’s story and those of others who have decided to be openly atheist in Nigeria, one of the most religious countries in the world.
On April 5th 2022, Mubarak Bala – the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria – plead guilty to charges attached to blasphemy. The sentence that followed caused shockwaves throughout the country, reverberating around the world, and placing the threats to freedom of expression in Africa’s most populous country under new scrutiny. BBC’s Yemisi Adegoke follows Bala’s story and those of others who have decided to be openly atheist in Nigeria, one of the most religious countries in the world.