Nigeria contains the largest balancing of Islamo-Christian population in the world. With a population estimated at over 120 million each of these two religions is supposed to have a total of 45%. In other words about 90% of Nigerians are either Christian or Moslem.

Since early 1980s Nigerians experience religion related uprising almost annually in which Christians are victims. The worst in recent memory occurred in 2000 in Kaduna, the nerve centre of politics in northern Nigeria. The violence lasted for almost one week, and over 1000 people of Kaduna State origin or southern Christians, were reported killed. This recalls the clash between Moslem and Christian students in Kafanchan Polytechnic in 1987 (Kaduna State) that led to the destruction of churches in Zaria (the university city) and in the other adjoining towns; and it recalls also the bloody Shiite revolt of 1996 led by the Iranian trained ex-student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria – Sheikh El-Zackay.

Christians from the north and south lose life and property following these intermittent violence and persecution. The Holy Rosary Sisters, founded by Bishop Joseph Shanahan in 1924, had their flourishing Postulate for the formation of their candidates in Kaduna. The Postulate was razed to the ground in the 2000 uprising. The Sisters were lucky to escape with their lives. They have now relocated to Cameroon where they are struggling to construct another postulate. Father Peter Tanko, of the Department of Justice and Peace in Kaduna diocese, has his Justice and Peace Centre razed to the ground in 2001. He is lucky to be alive. Everyone in Kaduna (especially Christians) has a similar story.

Kaduna was the capital of the former Northern region (as Lagos was capital of Western region and Enugu Capital of Eastern region). It is still the capital of Kaduna State – the northern part is dominantly Moslem (populated by the Hausa-Fulani who rule) while the southern part that has the university city of Zaria is dominantly Christian (populated by numerous minority ethnic groups who despite educational advantage are treated as underdogs by the ruling class). No wonder there is a call by the southern Kaduna indigenes, dominantly Christian, for the creation of a Southern Kaduna or Zaria State.

Christian and Moslem Youth are deeply involved in the crisis. In fact the youth are in the vanguard of all violence in Nigeria. Kaduna has Moslem and Christian youth ready to challenge each other. The Moslem Students Society (MSS) founded in 1954 in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria as a prayer group became radicalised in the late 1970s, during the Constituent assembly of 1978-1979 that returned Nigeria to civil rule. The slogan of MSS then was "No Sharia, No Nigeria". They sponsor violence and call for an Islamic state. One of the MSS leaders, Sheikh El-Zackay, was trained in Iran. Before his arrest in 1996 he had a finger in any religious uprising. On their part the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) with its fundamentalist "born again" ethic is as intolerant though not as violent as the MSS. The clash between MSS and FCS in Kafanchan Polytechnic in 1987 is still fresh in our memories.

The volatile religious situation is complicated by the adoption of Sharia law by Sharia States against the Constitution. This gives persecution of non-Moslems legal status. Christians find it difficult and even impossible to get permit to build churches in the Sharia states. Laws discriminate against women, and against businesses of non-Moslems. Right from colonial times discrimination laws existed; like the existence of sabon gari (settlement of strangers) in Kano and other states. These strangers, southern Christians mainly, are easy targets during ethnic or religious uprising. It was easy to plan and execute the genocide against Igbo people in 1966, killing over 100,000 people.

The politicisation of religion has been part and parcel of Nigeria since the notorious British installation of indirect rule that empowered the Hausa-Fulani Moslem ruling class to tax and enslave the numerous Northern minority ethnic groups that are not Moslem. But the military smuggling of the Sharia court of appeal into the 1997 code, and the establishment of Sharia states since 1999 have legalised persecution in these places. With a very weak President, incredible corruption, poverty, unemployment, the future remains dangerous not only for the Christians of the north but also for all Nigerians.

The popularity of MSS and the Sharia could be likened to the youth movements and popular ethnic militia in southern Nigeria, organised by Yoruba, Igbo, Ogoni, Ijaw, or Itsekiri youth movements. But northern Nigeria youth see Islam as the moral fibre for reform. They are radicalised, violent, intolerant, useful instruments in the hands of politicians, and persecution for Christians. Scores of the Moslem youths from tertiary institutions formed the Taleban movement to create an Islamic state in the North East.

Poverty is at the heart of the popularity of Sharia. The poor and youth see in Sharia the answer to corruption, poverty, unemployment and inequality. Political power and economic control, especially since the 1970 oil boom, went together. Politicians of the North, after the over 28 years of military dictatorship, grasped at religion as added leverage to get a base to control the poverty stricken populace. Religion, economy and politics are linked together. Only a government that is courageous enough to fight corruption, give employment to jobless youth, distribute wealth, seek for equity in politics and balancing of ethnic groups, will reasonably fight religious violence.

The formation of Nigerian Inter-Religious Council on 29 September 1999 through the negotiations of Christian Association of Nigeria and the Jama’atu Nasril Islam raised hopes that the elders of the two religions would influence their members to eschew violence. The ideal is far from the reality.

As Editor of Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology, founded in 1986 by the Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologians, we publish frequently issues related to inter-religious dialogue and human rights. But as the Nigerian Catholic Bishops’ Conference insist often, unless issues of poverty, injustice and corruption are treated from the roots, violence and persecution will persist.