PLAYING WITH FIRE:THE POLITICS OF RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN NIGERIA

King Oba-Ogie

    It is obvious that the authorities in Nigeria are playing politics with the issue of religious conflict in the country. And this game of denial and misrepresentation would surely not augur well for the country and its people. During his recent visit to Washington,
    Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan told the world that the recurrent conflict in Jos and Plateau state had nothing to do with religion.
    
    Yes he said so and he really meant it!
    This pronouncement by President Jonathan outraged all those who had followed the conflict situation in Jos and who thought that the Nigerian helmsman would have used the opportunity to present the real situation to the world. But he didn't.
    
    Our president lied. But it may be that this presidential lied reflected what is now emerging as the national policy on religious crisis in Northern Nigeria. Because the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Lateef Adegbite, in recent lecture in Lagos also echoed the same point. According to Adegbite, the conflict in Jos was mischaracterized as religious. He said the crisis could be traced 'to struggle for control of local resources' The Jos crisis was mischaracterized as religious, right?
    
     So also the Kano religious riot(1991) was mischaracterized as religious? The sharia crisis in 2000 was also mischaracterized as religious? The riots over the beauty pegeantand the Mohammed cartoons were also mistaken to be religious?

    And of course we all know that on Tuesday(July 13), clashes between muslims and christians in Wukari in Taraba state left at least 8 people dead and 40 injured. And yesterday -July 16- a muslim scholar in Abuja told Radio France International that the conflict in Taraba had nothing to do with religion.
    
    He said the clashes were caused by poverty, social disequilibrium and mismanagement of national resources by the leaders.Meanwhile it was reported that the construction of a mosque near a police station led to the clashes. Now lets think about this. If poverty is the main reason for the conflict in Jos and in other Northern states then muslims and christians would be fighting and killing each everywhere across the country
    But this is not the case.
    
     Personally I think that the Nigerian authorities and their muslim cohorts may have found a way- a politically correct way to misrepresent the religious crisis particularly the problem of islamic fanaticism in Northern Nigeria. By claiming that the conflicts between muslims and christians in Northern Nigeria had nothing to do with religion the Nigerian authorities are running a lot of risk.
    
    Nigeria risks being seen as lacking the political will to tackle religious fundamentalism particularly islamic fanaticism in Northern Nigeria. Because everyone knows that the killings and clashes in Plateau, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Taraba and other Northern states took place along religious lines. So it requires one being dishonest- deliberately dishonest- to deny or dismiss this urgent reality. Also Nigeria would be missing an opportunity to address this lingering social and security threat once and for all.
    
    Today many people across the are suffering and dying because for too long we lived in denial of the danger and threat of religious fundamentalism globally. Countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia are unsafe and unstable because in the past years, they refused to acknowledge and address the problem of islamic terrorism.
    
    Islamic fanaticism is a major problem in Northern Nigeria. In fact religious fundamentalism is at the root of the sectarian violence that has plagued the country in the past decades. And Nigerian authorities must acknowledge this and put in place necessary measures to tackle and eradicate this deadly cankerworm now before it is too late.