| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
[This IRIN report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
LAGOS, 12 January 2000 (IRIN) - A major preoccupation of Nigeria's government seven months into President Olusegun Obasanjo's four-year term is how to keep a firm lid on simmering religious trouble in the West African country.
Religion has always been a sensitive issue in Nigeria, with its more than 108 million people split almost evenly between Muslims and non-Muslims - mostly Christians and followers of traditional African religions.
But relations between Muslims and Christians, the two main religious groups in the country, have become even more delicate since the end of military rule in May 1999 and subsequent moves by some states in the north to implement Sharia, Islamic law.
In October, Zamfara became the first Nigerian state to adopt Sharia - which would allow the amputation of limbs and decapitations for certain offences. Since then, a number of other states in northern Nigeria have begun moves to introduce the Islamic legal system, raising the apprehension of their religious minorities, especially Christians.
The first signs that heightened religious tensions were edging towards violence emerged in mid-December in the central town of Ilorin, when Muslim militants attacked and vandalised 18 Christian churches.
Ilorin, capital of Kwara State, sits on the boundary between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south and has large populations of adherents of both faiths. In many ways the town illustrates the proximity of the two religions in Nigeria, and debate has been heated among followers of the different faiths there on whether it is appropriate or not to introduce Sharia in Kwara.
The government's response was to despatch to the city officials of the Committee on Inter-religious Harmony, set up by Obasanjo when he took office to help douse religious tension. Members include Sultan Mohammed Maccido of Sokoto, the spiritual head of the country's Muslims, and Reverend Sunday Mbang, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
"We condemn in strong terms your unbecoming actions of destroying churches," Maccido told Ilorin residents during the 28 December visit. "It is very disheartening and totally against all Islamic teachings and practice."
Maccido rode in the same car with Mbang during the tour of the town, a display of religious harmony which helped reduce the simmering tension in Ilorin.
But religious tension remains near the surface, not only in Ilorin but also in several other parts of the country. Possible flashpoints include the northern state of Kaduna, which has a large Christian population, and states of the ethnic Yoruba southwest, where large Christian and Muslim populations live side by side.
Muslim Northerners ruled Nigeria for most of its years as an independent state and they were often accused by their southern Christian critics of harbouring an agenda for Islamic domination of the whole country.
Matters nearly got out of hand when in 1986, under military president Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria quietly became a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), which links countries with predominantly Muslim populations. The move was greeted with a chorus of protests by Christian leaders, who pointed out and insisted on the secularity of the Nigerian state. As a result, no government official was willing to confirm the country's membership of the OIC at the time.
When northern political leaders decided it was time to give up the most important political position in the land, they gave their support to Obasanjo, a southern Christian politically unloved by some within his ethnic group, the Yoruba, for his reputation as a nationalist during his years as a military ruler in the 1970s.
However, since taking office, Obasanjo has been accused by some Northerners of favouring his kinsmen and seeking to dismantle the northern power structure. Powerful political elements in the north have, in turn, been accused by some of the president's supporters of fomenting the ethnic and religious crises, threatening the new democracy begun in May last after more than 15 years of military rule.
"The question is why talk of Sharia at this time? Why didn't we talk when (former de facto president) Sani Abacha was there, when Babangida was there? They were all Muslims and would have supported them," Chris Abashiya, a leader of CAN, said in Kaduna State at a news conference on 6 January.
He said his suspicion was that some politicians in the north wanted to cause trouble now that they were no longer in power and a Christian had taken over as the country's president. "The net result is that we are going to find ourselves in chaos. It will not work," Abashiya said.
On 6 January, Obasanjo himself took the opportunity of the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, to urge respect for the separation of the state and religion as required by the constitution.
"The path of separation of state and religion which was chosen for our country from the beginning is still enshrined in its supreme law, the 1999 Constitution," he said in a special message to Nigerians. "Given the multiplicity of religions and sects in the country, the wisdom of this choice cannot be doubted...".
ENDS
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Item: irin-english-2262
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
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Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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