Fear and loathing in Nigeria

January 5, 2012 By

Last night I followed a random tweet that linked to this report from Nina Shea at National Review‘s Corner:

In its latest move to effect religious cleansing in Africa’s largest country, Boko Haram — the Nigerian Islamist movement that claimed responsibility for the deadly Christmas Day bombings of a Catholic church, an evangelical church, and three police stations — is now reportedly warning all Christians in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north to evacuate by Friday or else face new attacks. It also vowed to confront Nigerian troops sent to quell four of the northern states it has targeted with violence.

Well that sure sounds like big news. Unfortunately, it’s not big enough to get into the Washington Post. Or The New York Times. There is, however, an op-ed in the New York Times arguing against the U.S. getting involved in Nigeria’s problems. Headline: “In Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem.” (Not everyone agrees.) That op-ed contradicts, in part, what was reported in the news section of the New York Times in August. Which is fine, of course, but it’s problematic that there’s no news on Boko Haram’s ultimatum. There’s also nothing in the Los Angeles Times about this latest action.

But other media outlets are interested. Agence France Presse covered it. So did The Telegraph. I embedded the CNN video above which talks about Boko Haram’s ultimatum as well as some of the background on simmering problems in Nigeria. There’s a print article on CNN as well. Headlined “Islamist militants in Nigeria warn Christians to leave north within 3 days,” it is actually a somewhat terrifying read that ends with a warning about how quickly things could explode beyond repair in Nigeria. (And following Twitter makes it seem like things are on the precipice now.) Here’s a snippet:

Nigeria has almost equal numbers of Christian and Muslims, with the south predominantly Christian. Boko Haram and other Islamic groups claim the north has been starved of resources and marginalized by the government of Jonathan, who is a Christian.

Boko Haram (which according to the group means “Western civilization is forbidden”) is demanding the imposition of Islamic sharia law across Nigeria.

Christian leaders have demanded a stronger response to the attacks from the government and the Muslim community. Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, complained last week that the response of Islamic leaders had been “unacceptable and an abdication of their responsibilities.”

“The Christian community is fast losing confidence in government’s ability to protect our rights,” Oritsejafor said.

David Cook of Rice University, who has studied the rise of Boko Haram, said that “if radical Muslim violence on a systematic level were to take hold in Nigeria … it could eventually drive the country into a civil war.”

Corruption, poverty and a lack of government services have helped Boko Haram gain support, especially among young Muslims out of work. So has a perception that the Muslim north has been marginalized by a political establishment drawn largely from the Christian south.

Reuters FaithWorld is a great site for updates on what’s going in Nigeria. Here’s a link to a few of their recent reports.

Anyway, while many U.S. media outlets ignore the ultimatum or Jonathan’s state of emergency, other outlets are covering things. Here Reuters describes what the first tank patrols look like. Here Reuters speaks with a Muslim ex-warlord about the looming fight against Boko Haram.

Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a Muslim who led a rebellion in the delta until a peace deal with the government in 2004, said bomb attacks by Boko Haram could provoke retaliation by mostly Christian southerners, including those living in the delta. …

Asked if northerners could be targeted by some from the majority Christian south, he replied: “It is seconds away … Nigeria is on the precipice of a civil war.”

“For Niger Delta people to take up arms is just a minute away. It’s just Goodluck that is holding us back,” said Asari, who is from Jonathan’s southern, mainly Christian Ijaw tribe, but who converted to Islam.

“We have all reached the extreme. There is nothing anybody can do about it except we fight.”

Super interesting story.

The Pew Forum had some helpful information on threats to religious freedom in Nigeria.

France 24 has some interesting background on the group’s religious goals here.

On top of the rather serious religious strife we’ve been talking about, a strike has been called for Monday — because of the government stopping fuel subsidies — and protests are already being reported. Nigeria is a place to watch. Let’s hope the U.S. media develop a bit more interest in the story.

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Evangelicals, Islam, Journalism, Politics, World
  • Deann

    “As goes Nigeria, so goes Africa,” the saying goes. Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent and straddles the divide between the desert in the north and lush green lands of the sub-Saharan. The nation is roughly half Muslim, primarily in the north, and half Christian, mainly in the south, though last I checked overall the Christians did outnumber the Muslims.

    When I traveled there in 2005 to work on stories for Christianity Today the tension in Jos was nearly as thick as what I’d felt in Pakistan the year before. Plateau State was a powderkeg. I interviewed Benjamin Kwashi, Anglican bishop of Jos, a few months after armed men came looking for him at his house. He was in the UK at the time but his wife and sons were home and the men attacked his family. The attack on his wife was especially cruel.

    Boko Haram is making good on its threats. This battle cannot be ignored. Stakes involve tens of millions of human beings. I read an article quoting somebody in Nigeria’s government who bemoaned how Nigeria is too big to police this threat.

    Shocking that the Washington Post and New York Times are ignoring this situation. But also telling is the lack of comment on this blog more than five hours after Mollie posted it.

    Does anybody care about Nigeria? Or is the world too busy fretting over Wendi Deng’s Twitter account?

  • Julia

    It seems that journalists are more focused on what is happening in Iraq, Egypt and Syria. Only so much space, they figure; can’t also write about killings of Christians/tensions between Christians and Muslims in places like Nigeria and Pakistan and India and Philippines and Indonesia,too.

  • Julia

    La Stampa, the Italian newspaper, is covering this story.

    http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/news/detail/articolo/nigeria-11298/

  • John Pack Lambert

    Well, no Americans are getting injured in Nigeria. It is interesting that the American death toll in Iraq was covered while the deaths of Iraqi Christians were much more, and Shi’ites died in droves, and far too many Sunnis died as well.

    This seems to more reflect an American centrict view than any particular religious bias.

  • MJBubba

    JohnPack Lambert, you correctly observe that the lack of American casualties is behind the media silence. We learned from the Vietnam experience in the 1970s that, in terms of media coverage, one American death is the equivalent of 5,000 deaths of third world victims.

  • Deann

    To Bubba and John: The media’s eyes were in Egypt, Tunisia, etc etc, for Arab Spring, and Syria today, though I don’t recall any American deaths in those places. A roster of worldwide crises evoke media attention everywhere but sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Passing By

    The uprisings in the Middle East fit a favored American template : rebellion against the establishment, i.e. established authority. The situation in Nigeria is more complex, involving religion, economics, and a society where a traditional tribal structure exists alongside a political structure more recognizable to Americans. Race is certainly a factor in the minimal American coverage, but hardly the only factor.