Government by Militia – Nigeria

Nigeria is “the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind the Indian film industry.” Wikipedia. It is also a major oil and gas producing nation, heavily reliant on fossil fuels: “As of 2000, oil and gas exports accounted for more than 98% of export earnings and about 83% of federal government revenue, as well as generating more than 40% of its GDP. It also provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of government budgetary revenues... Its reserves make Nigeria the tenth most petroleum-rich nation, and by the far the most affluent in Africa.” Wikipedia. With over 155 million people, it needs every penny.

With the government ending its subsidy of gasoline at the pump January 1^st (doubling the cost overnight), the country is stumbling through an economic strain that simply has stunned the local populace resulting in a general strike with tens of thousands taking to the streets in protest, but even that nasty is not what is grabbing international headlines. What is ripping this country apart is secular violence, Muslims in the north, Christians in the south (many representing a Nigerian brand of evangelical Christianity that has sent Nigerian ministers to the United States in search of converts), and a few tribal faiths (animism) in the middle. Bottom line: the elected government has long since lost effective control.

Each of the Christian and Muslim factions has its sets of militias, making life hell for those who are not aligned with the right faith for the region. Civil unrest between Christians and Muslim (and both groupings also have sizeable and often conflicting sub-sects) has been fairly common here for well over a decade. Thousands have died. Eleven northern states have even incorporated Islamic law, shari’a, into their local criminal codes, a violation of the Nigerian constitution that guarantees a secular government. The violence settled down for a while, but it seems to be returning with a vengeance, a fire flamed by tensions inherent in rising gasoline prices.

In recent months, in the northern states, the local Islamist militia, Boko Haram (pictured above), has made it clear that non-Muslims, whatever their beliefs might be, are simply not welcome. These “non-believers” have been directed to vacate their homes immediately or face assassination. The reciprocal message has been given by Christian militias in the south, with bombings at local mosques and a recent attack against an Islamic school in the southern city of Benin that left five dead and six injured.

Muslim retaliation was swift. In the State of Yobe, purported Boko Haram fighters attacked a bar filled with such alcohol-imbibing non-believers: “Religious tensions have been growing as a general strike over rising petrol prices continues to grip the country... ‘Suspected Islamic sect members attacked the drinking joint and killed eight people, four of whom were policemen,’ Yobe state police commissioner Tanko Lawal told Reuters news agency… Reports said the gunmen fled on a motorcycle after the late-night attack in the town of Potiskum. A seven-year-old child was also among the victims, police said…Southerners, who are mostly Christians or animists, have recently been the targets of attacks by Boko Haram, which operates in the mainly Muslim north… Yobe is one of the states where the government has declared a state of emergency following an upsurge in violence by the Islamist group.” BBC, January 10^th.

On January 20^th, at least 20 blasts, some from suicide bombers but all attributed to Boko Haram and most focused on police facilities and other government buildings, left an estimated 185 people dead (lots of police officers and other government functionaries) in the northern and mostly Muslim city of Kano, Nigeria’s second largest (with 9 million residents). The death toll would have been a lot worse, but ten planted explosives didn’t detonate. Police immediately arrested 158 alleged perpetrators. Boko Haram had declared war on the state, partially in retaliation the arrest of BH operatives and more importantly to underscore their commitment to placing the entire nation under Islamic – shari’a – law. Southern Christian militias are expected to retaliate against Muslims living in the south.

Additionally, all across the north, Boko Haram is said to identify where Christians gather, where they live, and attack under cover of darkness. Streams of Muslim refugees heading north and Christian refugees making the opposite trek are reminiscent of the Muslim/Christian population exchange that took place in 1947 when Muslim Pakistan separated from mostly Hindu India, a trail of bloodshed and tears that created a wound that, to this day, has not healed. It’s happening again. Thank God, this is the last blog on the subject of government by militia!

I’m Peter Dekom, and the vitriol and violence of these African factions of extreme Christians and Muslims seems to carry a vicious trend that grips so much of the earth, pushing towards a very dangerous tipping point.