Islam & Christianity in Nigeria, the lines are being drawn in Christian Blood and Martyrdom
Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, is currently grappling with a dangerous political and religious crisis, no thanks to a porous security challenges and high ranking corruption cases among government officials which has bewildered the West African country for decades.
Nigeria, a country born in the 1900s out of the colonial conquest of Africa by Europeans and administrative machinery of the old British government colonists, has since, not ceased dancing as a swinging pendulum to her continued existence. Made up of a majority of Muslims in the North, and a predominant population of Christians in the South, Nigeria has not been found wanting in terms of religious violence and extremism, with most of the incidents occurring in the Muslim north which has recorded a good number of inter-ethnic migration from the southern Christians.
In Nigeria, a little misunderstanding between individuals of different ethnicity or a political conflict could easily be inflamed and given a religious undertone which will most likely result in the death of scores of innocent civilians.
Bridget Agbahime is a Christian woman from Imo, a state in the Eastern part of Nigeria. She lives with her husband who serves as a Senior Pastor at the Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano, a Northern state in Nigeria known for its dense population of Muslims. However, on June 2, 2016, Mrs Bridget became another Christian martyr and a victim of the growing rate of Islamic extremism which is characteristic with the northern part of Nigeria. She was lynched to death by a group of Muslims in a mob, who accused her of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed.
According to an eye witness report, Mrs Bridget who was a petty trader, selling Kitchen utensils at a popular Wambai Market in Kano state, had refused to allow one Mr Dauda Admed (a Muslim) to wash his legs in front of her shop in accordance with his Islamic tradition. Mr Dauda quickly gathered some group of Muslim fanatics who immediately bundled the woman out from her shop, stoned her to death and paraded her lifeless head across the city.
While the gruesome murder of Mrs. Bridget sparked condemnations across Nigeria, the Christian community were however stunned and infuriated when a Kano state magistrate court discharged and acquitted five suspects arrested by the Nigeria police for their culpable roles in Bridget's murder. The Chief Magistrate explained that his decision is based on the advise by the state government through the attorney general. The state government has been accused of shielding the suspected extremists from prosecution just like several cases of violence against Christians in the state and other Muslim populated parts of the country.
Meanwhile, as religious intolerance and Islamic extremism attains its all time level of impunity in Nigeria, it just seems Christians in Nigeria have more to worry about regarding the insurgency of different Islamic affiliated terrorist groups in the country.
While the fight against the deadly Islamic insurgents known as Boko Haram is gathering momentum in Nigeria, it is however increasingly worrisome that a more deadly jihadist group is desperately on the verge of substituting the Boko Haram sect whose activities have been curtailed to some extent in recent times, as religious extremism and violence continues to characterize the most populous country in Africa.
A Fulani militant group popularly known as 'Fulani Herdsmen' were in 2014 ranked as the world's 4th most deadly terrorist group in the world by a 'Global Terrorism Index' report. The group consists of Muslim nomads from the Fula ethnicity based across the West African nations.
According to local media reports, between 2013 to 2016, not less than 5,000 deaths of local Christian farmers and civilians were recorded from the attacks of these militants who occasionally disguise their operations as ordinary cattle herders, across Nigeria.
The emergence of Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim and former military general of Fulani origin, as Nigeria president in 2015, seems to have given these nomadic invaders some degree of impetus, as they have increasingly stepped up to more deadly attacks on Christian communities in different parts of Nigeria.
The operational strategy of Fulani militia has a strong jihad undertone against the Christians, who have been left at the mercy of the invaders, usually equipped with AK-47 rifles, machetes with little or no adequate response or protection from the Nigeria government and its security agents or agencies.
" These local herdsmen have sophisticated weapons and plan strategic attacks on villages and individuals like conventional organized crime groups. This makes it easy for such groups to easily feed terrorist groups like Boko Haram directly or indirectly. Their believe in the Islamic religion acts as a powerful bond and a push factor. This is manifested in their choice of target. Constant attacks against mostly non-Muslim indigence, churches, schools etc makes it possible for such groups to come in contact and share resources with Boko Haram," stated Mr David Otto Endeley, a counter-terrorism expert.
In January this year, a Catholic Church Diocese in the Kaduna state of Nigeria, during a press statement, disclosed that it has documented the massacre of 808 Christians within the state and scores of others injured, as a result of attacks from the Fulani militants. The Church also noted that not less than 1,522 houses and 16 churches have been razed down due to the crisis.
“The herdsmen and their likes turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover," the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan stated in a press statement signed by the Vicar General of the Diocese, Rev. Fr. Ibrahim Yakubu; Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okolo, Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Aaron Tanko Rev. Fr. Williams Abba and President, Laity Council, Mr. Joseph Bayei (KSJ).
Going further, the statement reads;
“The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either”.
“This level of viciousness was never witnessed even in the brutal tyranny and regime of Adolf Hitler”. What is most intriguing is the level of sophistication of weapons like AK 47, machine guns and many other deadly instruments of death which were freely used.
“The viciousness of these self styled Jihadists sends shivers into the spines of our traumatized people”. In the Godogodo and Pasakori attacks for example, the military merely watched and supervised the burning of our homes. When the youths mobilized to repel the attackers, the soldiers deliberately blocked them from entering the town.”
Similarly, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, decried the atrocities being perpetrated by Fulani herders and spoke out against the Nigeria government over its complicit silence and in-actions towards the killings. “Though the church in Nigeria since 2009 has been subjected to a systematic genocide and persecution through the instrumentality of Islamic fundamentalists Boko Haram, leading to the killing of thousands of Christians and destruction of hundreds of churches, and over 50,000 houses, the current unprecedented onslaught against Christians in Southern Kaduna by the Islamic fundamentalists disguising as Fulani herdsmen under the watch of Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari has reached an alarming stage," The General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, protested.
It is imperative to note that attacks are not limited to only Christians in the northern part of Nigeria. In 2016 alone, the Fulani militants continuously launched deadly attacks against several communities in the Middle Belt of Nigeria such as the infamous recorded 'Agatu massacre', and also in the Southern part of the country, such as recorded in Enugu, Delta and Anambra States. Thousands of innocent Christian civilians have lost their lives during these attacks, while millions have been displaced.
While addressing US Congressmen over the rising religious extremism and violence in Nigeria, Nigeria's former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan warned that if the brewing religious crisis in the country are not tackled abruptly, Nigeria as a country is heading for a doomed and disastrous end.
"If, as a nation, we do not kill religious persecution and extremism, then religious persecution and extremism will kill Nigeria. The potential danger associated with the level of conflicts going on across the country is so glaring that no sane mind can ignore," the Christian former Head of State noted while addressing the United States House Sub-Committee on Africa on the growing rate of religious extremism and persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
With the Boko Haram putting up some resistance in the North and the nomadic militants spreading their deadly attacks Southwards, Counter-terrorism experts have warned that Nigeria may be sitting on a keg of gun powder if no drastic measures are put in place by the government to stop these Islamic extremist groups from carrying out further attacks.
In the Southern part of Nigeria, agitations for independence has escalated in recent times, and has gained huge amount of support from the populace who feel that the government has failed woefully in the protection of their lives and properties, even as the Nigerian government and its Muslim leader are being accused of orchestrating an Islamic agenda aimed at eradicating Christianity in the country.
By; Celtic Cross Global PRESS Corps, International Corrispondent & Blogger Br. Paul Ihechi Alagba
