DATE=3/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA GOVERNOR (L-O)
NUMBER=2-259859
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=UMUAHIA, NIGERIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In southeastern Nigeria, the governor of Abia
state is warning that sectarian and ethnic violence
could resume if members of the Ibo ethnic group are
attacked again in the northern part of the country.
Scores of ethnic Ibos were killed two weeks ago in the
northern city of Kaduna in a dispute over the
introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the state. A
retaliatory attack by Ibos in Abia state last week
claimed the lives of hundreds of northerners. V-O-
A's John Pitman has more on the governor's warning
from (Umuahia; pron: Oo-mw-AH-hee-ah) the capital of
Abia state.
TEXT: Governor Orji Kalu says last week's violence in
Aba, the largest city in Abia State, was probably
unavoidable because of human nature.
He tells visitors "you would retaliate too if someone
killed your brother," referring to the sectarian
violence last month in the northern city of Kaduna,
where scores of ethnic Ibo Christians were killed by
gangs of Muslims from the Hausa ethnic group.
Governor Kalu says when the bodies of those victims
were returned to the southeast, the sight of the
corpses laid out in a market triggered a sense of
outrage among Ibos, which led to the massacre of
ethnic Hausas in Aba on the 28th and 29th of February.
/// OPT /// Eyewitnesses have suggested the death toll
from that massacre could be as high as 400 people.
However, a formal body count was never taken, and
officials like Governor Kalu say only about 30 people
were killed. /// END OPT ///
While Governor Kalu says he is not condoning or
encouraging violence - and even risked his life to
stop it in Aba - he warns he may not be able to
prevent another outburst of ethnic blood-letting if
Ibos are victimized again in the north or anywhere
else.
/// FIRST KALU ACT ///
The warning I want to give as a core Ibo
governor here is: Nobody should kill an Ibo man
again in the name of religion. If they kill an
Ibo man, we will retaliate immediately. We will
respond. We will not wait for our people to be
killed every day.
/// END ACT ///
Governor Kalu stressed that he is not interested in
seeing any more bloodshed, but was simply repeating a
widely held view among the Ibo community.
For his part, Mr. Kalu said he hopes the on-going
controversy between Nigerian Christians and Muslims
over Sharia law can be sorted out through an open
debate in the press and around a negotiating table.
Nonetheless, when asked why he was warning of further
violence instead of echoing President Olusegun
Obasanjo's appeal for all future disputes to be
resolved through dialogue, Governor Kalu said emotions
were running so high in the southeast that the
government might not be able to control or prevent
acts of violent retribution.
On the streets of Aba, several residents confirmed the
governor's view that new attacks on Ibos in the north
would be met by retaliatory attacks against
northerners in the southeast.
/// BEGIN OPT ///
While none would say they approved of the bloodshed,
some residents, like Onyirichi Egede, said they
believed someone had to stand up to what had been
perceived as a Muslim threat to impose Islam on
Christians.
/// EGEDE ACT ///
Everybody's proud of his own religion.
Everybody wants to protect his own religion. We
want to tell them, We are Christians and we are
happy to be Christians and we don't want, for
any reason, to become Muslims. So, that was why
it started. They were killing our people over
there, in the north, because they refused to
accept the Sharia law. And this last time, we
feel it was fair they should retaliate, they
should tell them we are human beings, too, and
we can do something, too. We feel they should
kill them like they are killing our people over
there.
/// END ACT ///
Ms. Egede's views on the Sharia controversy -
especially the belief that Muslims were trying to
create an Islamic state - are commonly held here in
the southeast, even though they go beyond anything the
Muslim supporters of Sharia have proposed in the
north.
Under the terms of the Sharia proposals introduced in
the north, Christians were to be exempt from the
strict Islamic penal code. However, Christians here
say they believe once the first elements of Sharia
were implemented, it would not be long before a full
scale conversion effort got underway.
/// END OPT ///
Last month's killing of Ibos in the north struck a
powerful historical chord here in the southeast. In
1966, similar massacres and forced expulsions of Ibos
from the north helped trigger an Ibo secessionist
movement and the Nigerian civil war, also known as the
Biafran War.
Governor Kalu says he believes what's happening now
mirrors what happened in the late 1960s. But he is
careful to add that he does not foresee another civil
war in Nigeria's future.
/// SECOND KALU ACT ///
History will not repeat itself. We will fight
for the unity of this country. We have fought a
civil war before and we're not going to fight
another one. We will find peace on the table of
peace.
/// END ACT ///
Despite his dire warnings of a possible Ibo backlash
in the southeast, Governor Kalu maintains the Ibo
people are committed to fighting for the unity of the
entire Nigerian state. He believes this is being
threatened by what he calls "a vast conspiracy" of
powerful interests, in the north and elsewhere, to
destabilize the country's fragile new democratic
system. (Signed)
NEB/TP/gm
05-Mar-2000 18:44 PM EDT (05-Mar-2000 2344 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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