Long a troubled nation, Nigeria now risks religious war. So far
the killing essentially runs one way: Islamic extremists kill
Christians. President Goodluck Jonathan has responded with good
intentions and occasional arrests, including of a terrorist leader
last Friday. However, if the government is unable to stop the
killing the country’s future will be at risk.
Like so many other former colonies, Nigeria stumbled almost
immediately after gaining independence. Blessed with oil, it has
suffered through multiple corrupt and repressive governments. It
now is a functioning democracy, but the political process is
complicated by the need to balance the ambitions of the Muslim
north and Christian south.
Maintaining political peace has been made more urgent by
persistent sectarian violence. The State Department emphasizes that
“The constitution and other laws and policies protect religious
freedom and, in practice, the government generally enforced these
protections.” Unfortunately, the lack of state persecution does not
protect Nigerians against private violence.
Observed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
in its most recent report, “Since 1999, more than 14,000 Nigerians
have been killed in religiously-related violence between Muslims
and Christians. The government of Nigeria continues to fail to
prevent and contain acts of religiously-related violence, prevent
reprisal attacks, or bring those responsible for such violence to
justice.” Muslim-dominated states in northern Nigeria also have
applied Sharia law as part of their criminal codes and
discriminated “against minority communities of Christians and
Muslims.”
The greatest threat today is the group Boko Haram, which has
been active for three years. The group now appears to have at least
some contacts with al Qaeda affiliates and some members have been
discovered in Mali. Unfortunately, the organization has been
steadily expanding its reach. The State Department’s latest
religious freedom report observed that “Violence, tension, and
hostility between Christians and Muslims increased, particularly in
the Middle Belt [divided roughly equally between Muslims and
Christians], exacerbated by ‘indigene’ (native) and settler laws,
discriminatory employment practices, and resource competition.”
International Christian Concern regularly puts Nigeria in its
Hall of Shame and similarly reported increased attacks on
Christians in 2010 in the Middle Belt. According to ICC, “The
year’s worst attack occurred on March 7, as Muslims invaded
villages around the [Plateau state] capital city of Jos. The mobs
attacked sleeping families in their homes at 2 a.m. with machetes.
More than 500 Christians were murdered that day, most of whom were
women and children.” Killings of Christians continued in nearby
villages throughout the year.
Since then the situation has worsened. Observed State: “Violence
between Christian and Muslim communities increased in several
regions arising from complex factors, including economic disparity,
ethnic identity, and seasonal migration patterns. Acute communal
violence in the Middle Belt heightened tensions between religious
groups.” Yet, “even in areas outside the Middle Belt that did not
otherwise experience violence, tensions remained between Christians
and Muslims.”
The growing violence is a genie that cannot easily be returned
to the bottle. Noted the Commission: “The past year saw a dramatic
rise in sectarian or religiously-related violence.” Post-election
riots in the north against the election of Jonathan, a Christian,
killed some 800 people. “Although triggered by political issues,
the post-election violence quickly became sectarian. In addition,
Boko Haram, a militant group that espouses an extreme and violent
interpretation of Islam, has been emboldened by the climate of
impunity.”
The group, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege,” is
deadly serious. No bromides about representing a “religion of
peace.” Added the Commission: “Boko Haram has shifted its tactics
and emphasis by targeting, killing, and bombing Christians and
Christian clergy and threatening to kill all remaining Christians
in the north, while continuing its attacks against government
officials, as well as killing hundreds of Muslims, including Muslim
religious leaders who spoke out against the group.” Also targeted
have been Western-style schools in the north, which provide an
education beyond memorization of the Koran.
Boko Haram does some of its killing retail, one by one. In March
in the Muslim-majority city of Maiduguri, the terrorist group
killed the 79-year-old mother of a local pastor. Her throat was
slit with a note in Arabic placed on her chest, proclaiming that
“We will get you soon.”
However, the group also murders wholesale, attacking church
services. For instance, April was not a good month for Nigerian
Christians. Reported the Economist: “In Kano, a city in
northern Nigeria, gunmen on motorbikes killed at least 20 Christian
worshippers in a university lecture theater where churches hold
their weekly services. They threw small bombs into the church
before shooting those trying to flee. In another attack on a church
service in the northeast town of Maiduguri shooters opened fire,
killing five people including the priest. Seven people were killed
on Monday in a bomb targeting a police commissioner’s convoy in the
eastern town of Jolingo in the usually peaceful Taraba state.”
It could have been worse. On Easter Sunday in the city of Kaduna
a suicide bomber was blocked from getting into the compound of two
Protestant churches. Instead, he detonated his bomb on a nearby
road, which still killed 41 people. Later the same day there was a
bombing in the city of Jos, which killed one person and injured
others. Last Christmas 44 people were killed by a church bombing in
Abuja, the nation’s capital.
No one claimed responsibility for the April murders, though they
looked like the work of Boko Haram. However, warned the
Economist, “it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell
when Boko Haram is responsible for such violence and when other
groups, inspired by their methods, are to blame.” Boko Haram has
destroyed an incredible 350 churches throughout northern Nigeria
over the past year. So far this year the group is estimated to have
killed nearly 500 people.
Nigeria’s Catholic leaders have called on Muslim leaders to
speak out and act to end the violence. Like in Pakistan many
Nigerian Muslims send their children to Islamiyya, or religious,
schools, which provide few practical skills. Educator Rotimi
Eyitayo observed: “Those who stop going to school don’t get
education, they become a menace.” In a country with too few jobs
some of these ill-educated and unskilled appear open to Boko
Haram’s call.
In March Boko Haram abandoned preliminary talks with the
government. Unfortunately, the group has few negotiable objectives.
It insists on the release of all followers from jail and has
variously proposed creation of an Islamic state in the north and
imposition of strict Sharia law across all of Nigeria. Last month
it released a video threatening to “devour” Jonathan and “end” his
government after he pledged to bring the group under control by
mid-year. The group proclaimed that it would “never give up as we
fight the infidels.” Apparently political objectives are secondary:
Boko Haram’s members simply want to kill Christians.
While visiting Germany in April to promote trade and investment,
President Jonathan argued that “The security situation in Nigeria
is being blown out of proportion. It is exaggerated.” Hundreds of
dead Nigerians probably would disagree.
In fact, the Jonathan government has reacted with desperation.
In January the Wall Street Journal reported: “In response
to the mounting attacks, President Goodluck Jonathan last month
authorized searches without warrants, indefinite detention, and
thousands of roadblocks.” Moreover, he has “raised police and
military spending to one-fifth of government outlays — the largest
amount Nigeria has ever spent on security.”
The authorities can claim some successes, but the group appears
unaffected and the slaughter continues. Two weeks ago security
forces killed the suspected organizer of recent attacks on
churches. Last weekend the police in Kano said they captured the
local Boko Haram operational commander. Yet nothing is likely to
change. Catholic Archbishop Ade Job has appealed for foreign help:
“It is apparent that, if we depend only on our available active
security agents, we shall not make much progress.”
A religious war threatens Nigeria, yet the Obama administration
has downplayed the religious roots of the conflict, preferring to
emphasize the malign impact of poverty and poor governance. At a
recent Senate hearing, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson
made the rather astonishing claim that “religion is not the primary
driver behind extremist violence in Nigeria.” He should read the
State Department’s own report on religious liberty.
While the U.S. cannot intervene in the conflict, it should
declare Boko Haram to be a terrorist organization. Washington also
should encourage the Nigerian government to act vigorously to
protect all of its citizens. If the Jonathan government fails to do
so, a nation of 170 million could violently crack apart. Nigeria
already suffered one bloody civil war during its short life. The
humanitarian consequences of another one could be catastrophic.
