DATE=3/6/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA TENSION
NUMBER=5-45586
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=ABA, NIGERIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Ethnic and religious tensions are easing
somewhat in southeastern Nigeria -- one week after
hundreds of people died in sectarian violence there.
But, as V-O-A's John Pitman reports from the city of
Aba, Nigeria, mutual suspicion, fear, and anger
continue to influence relations between the majority
Ibo ethnic group and members of the minority Hausa
ethnic group.
TEXT: A week after scores of ethnic Hausa Muslims
were hacked and burned to death by gangs of young
ethnic Ibo Christians, the city of Aba bears few
outward scars of its ordeal.
All of the bodies are gone - either burned where they
fell, or buried in a mass grave in the city dump. A
few burned-out trucks and piles of blackened ash are
virtually the only evidence that remain from the
carnage.
Shops and markets have reopened in much of the town,
except where ethnic Hausas once lived. Those
neighborhoods are now empty. Thousands of Hausas have
fled to the perceived safety of northern Nigeria,
where the Hausa ethnic group is in the majority.
Hundreds of others continue to huddle in makeshift
camps inside the walls of a nearby Nigerian navy base.
/// SFX CHURCH SINGING AND CLAPPING - establish and
fade under ///
Churches were filled this past Sunday in this
predominantly Christian city. Sermons not surprisingly
focused heavily on the twin themes of reconciliation
and forgiveness.
Timothy Johnson, a 25-year-old musician, says both
sides should draw lessons from what President Olusegun
Obasanjo has called "the worst" period of blood-
letting in Nigeria since the end of the country's
civil war in 1971.
/// JOHNSON ACT ///
What has been done has been done. We should not
go on killing and doing all those things. They
(the Hausas) should learn a lesson. And we,
ourselves, should learn a lesson and live
together as one body and as one people.
/// END ACT ///
While it is clear that the people of this region -
known as the heartland of the Ibo ethnic group - are
eager to put the violence behind them, few Aba
residents seemed prepared to fully condemn the
retaliatory nature of the attack.
Darlington Akukwu is a 30-year-old medical student and
the president of the Youth Christian Association of
Nigeria. He says he was saddened that so many
innocent people lost their lives. But at the same
time he maintains the blood-letting was, in his words,
a "natural" response to the violence a week earlier in
the city of Kaduna -- where Muslim gangs killed scores
of Christians in a clash over the possible
introduction of Islamic Sharia law.
The violence in Aba appears to have been sparked by
the arrival of a truckload of bodies from Kaduna.
When people saw those bodies, Mr. Akakwu says, they
reacted with rage. But he insists there is no inherent
hate against the Hausa.
/// AKAKWU ACT ///
We are not against the Hausas. They are our
brothers and sisters. The problem is - and what
the Christians are against - is (the) imposition
of the Islamic religion. The Sharia is what we
are against. We are not against any individual
or group of individuals.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT ///
Hadiza Madi, a 28-year-old Hausa housewife, says she
lost six members of her immediate family in the
violence.
/// MADI ACT - in Hausa; establish and fade under ///
Speaking to V-O-A outside a Nigerian naval base where
she had taken shelter, Mrs. Madi said the attackers
killed her parents and her daughters, and burned and
looted her family's property.
As she spoke, Mrs. Madi was preparing to leave the
base to stay with relatives in the north, but said she
was unsure if she would return home. But several
hundred other displaced Hausas continue to huddle
under trees and emergency blankets, still afraid to
return home.
/// END OPT ///
Abia state governor Orji Kalu - who shed his security
detail to meet face-to-face with the rioters during
the violence last week - says quick action needs to be
taken to avoid further bloodshed. /// OPT /// He says
all of Nigeria's governors need to personally address
festering conflict among their constituents or the
government may lose the ability to maintain law and
order. /// END OPT ///
/// KALU ACT ///
So, if I have staked my life for the unity of
this country, the other governors should
appreciate this and preach to their people to be
peaceful. This is what I'm saying. And where
they do not preach peace, then there will be no
peace everywhere.
/// END ACT ///
Most of the killing in Aba was apparently carried out
by members of a vigilante group called "the Bakassi
boys," who normally patrol the city's markets against
thieves and other criminals. While they operate
outside the law, many in Aba say the "Boys" - as they
are known - are tolerated because they have been able
to restore security in places where the police have
failed.
/// OPT /// Onyirichi Egede called the violence
"horrible." But she believes Nigeria's Muslims were,
in her words, "asking for trouble" by insisting on
Sharia law.
/// EGEDE ACT - OPT ///
I don't really like it (the violence). But the
people who had the heart to do it, maybe some
people will say they were right, but (they
reacted) in the wrong way. But at least (the
Muslims) have been taught a lesson. And they
will never try that again.
/// END ACT - END OPT ///
This type of tacit approval of the vigilantes' actions
appears to be widespread. So it is not likely anyone
will be arrested or tried for murder - despite
President Obasanjo's pledge to prosecute anyone who
breaks the law. Local officials say current religious
and ethnic tensions remain so explosive that
preventing the next blow-up may be a more critical
task than prosecuting the last one. (Signed)
NEB/JP/JO/gm
06-Mar-2000 19:13 PM EDT (07-Mar-2000 0013 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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