THE current activities of the dreaded Boko Haram sect could trigger a broad sectarian conflict in Nigeria, an international Christian-Muslim delegation said on Wednesday in a report.
The 12-member joint delegation was led by World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, Olav Fyske Tveit, of Norway and Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, chairman of the board of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.
“There is a possibility that the current tension and conflict might become subsumed by its religious dimension, especially along geographical ‘religious fault-lines,” the delegation said in its report, warning that blaming only religion for the strife would make that incomplete view “a self-fulfilling prediction”.
The delegation, while tracing the causes of the crisis, stated in the report that clashes between Nigerian Christians and Muslims had led to the death of hundreds of people this year alone. “But although the violence is the worst between members of the two faiths since the Bosnian war of 1992-1995, the root causes go far beyond religion.
“Corruption, mismanagement, land disputes and the lack of aid for victims or punishment for troublemakers as fuel for tension, especially in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt”, where the mostly Muslim North meets the largely Christian South,” the group’s report said.
The report identified dozens of separate problems whose resolution could contribute to overall peace.
“The wealth gap between the oil-producing states in the South and the resource-poor North was a leading factor in regional tensions, as were land disputes, such as the lack of recognised grazing land for nomadic Fulani cattle herders.
“Indigenous inhabitants in many Nigerian states enjoy more legal rights than “settlers,” who have no access to free health care, education, land and jobs even though some of them moved into those areas generations ago.
“It is an enormous problem that needs to be solved or resolved at the federal and constitution levels, perhaps with a constitutional clarification or amendment,” the report said.
It added that tensions arose because Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, served out the presidential term of northern Muslim Umar Yar’Adua after the latter’s death in 2010, then won election in 2011. Some northerners said this broke a power-sharing agreement between the North and the South.
But the report pinpointed the role religion played in fuelling the violence.
“In Nigeria, three things are intertwined — religion, politics and ethnicity — and the three are beclouded with corruption, poverty and insecurity,” the report quoted former Justice Minister, Bola Ajibola, one of several Nigerian officials who accompanied the delegation, as saying.
“Religious leaders on both sides have publicly condoned the violence,” it said, and “well-funded missionaries for both Islam and Christianity have also fanned tensions.”
The Geneva-based WCC and the Jordanian institute announced they would jointly publish books for Nigerian schools, explaining the theology of peace in both religions and draw up a manifesto on interfaith cooperation for Nigerians to sign.
They also said they would seek partners to launch a neutral centre to collect accurate information on the conflict to help find a settlement.
The joint delegation, which met government officials and faith leaders in the strife-torn Kaduna and Plateau states and in Abuja from May 22 to 25, said it wanted to show how Muslims and Christians could work together to foster peace.
“The crisis in Nigeria must no longer be seen as a localised issue,” the report said in its conclusion.
Meanwhile, a mother and her four children were reportedly killed on Wednesday in Yong village in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, following an attack launched by gunmen.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the deceased were on their farm working when they were attacked.
The mother, her son and three daughters were said to have died instantly while the fifth victim, a girl, died after she was rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.
The incident, it was gathered, caused serious pandemonium among residents of the area.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Mohammed Ladan, who confirmed the incident to newsmen, however said that only four people were killed while the other person sustained injuries and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Wednesday’s attack was the third in one week in the area.
Speaking to newsmen, the father of the victims, Mr Luke Jumtuk said his wife and children were killed while working on their farm.
Jumtuk, who described the incident as unfortunate, added that unless the Federal Government intervened on the recurrent attacks in the area, innocent lives would continue to be lost.
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