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Nigeria Religious Sectarianism
Whereas ethnic cleavages generally remained dormant,
religious sectarianism emerged as the most potentially
explosive
social division. Islam and Christianity spread rapidly in
the
twentieth century at the expense of indigenous religions.
About
half of all Nigerians were Muslims in 1990, most of whom
lived in
the northern two-thirds of the country. About 40 percent
were
Christians, residing predominantly in the south, and
particularly
in the southeast. Since 1980 there had been several
outbreaks of
sectarian violence, resulting in thousands of deaths,
injuries,
and arrests, mostly attributable to sectarian tensions and
also
to some fringe quasi-Islamic groups.
The first and most dramatic eruption in a series of
religious
disturbances incited by the Maitatsine, or Yan Tatsine,
movement
was an eleven-day emergency in Kano in late December 1980
(see Islam
, ch. 2). Led by Alhajji Muhammadu Marwa (alias
Tatsine or
Maitatsine), followers of this heretical Muslim sect of
perhaps
3,000 persons opposed secular authority, were willing to
use
violence if necessary, and demanded absolute obedience to
Marwa.
The Kano riots were suppressed by the army and the air
force
after the police failed to restore order. More than 4,000
deaths
resulted, including that of Marwa, and 1,000 arrests,
including
224 foreigners.
In addition, there were disturbances caused by another
Muslim
movement known as Yan Izala that began in Zaria and Kaduna
in the
1960s. This group, which created unrest in the early
1980s,
protested innovations in Islam and was particularly
opposed to
the Sufi brotherhood movement.
Renewed rioting in Kano in July 1981 that destroyed or
damaged several state government buildings was attributed
to
Muslim extremists opposed to the proposed removal of the
emir of
Kano.
More riots by Maitatsine followers broke out in
Maiduguri in
late October 1982 and spread to Kaduna, where thirty-nine
sect
members were killed by vigilantes. The official death toll
was
188 civilians and 18 police (mostly in Maiduguri), and 635
arrested, but the commission of inquiry afterward
concluded that
deaths probably exceeded 500. The sect was banned in
November
1982, and its adherents have been subject to surveillance
and
arrest.
Nevertheless, in February 1984 members of the
proscribed
Maitatsine sect struck again, this time in northeast
Nigeria and
in Yola, the capital of Gongola state. The army was again
obliged
to intervene, using artillery to quell the disturbances,
but
between 1980 and 1985 it was ill-equipment for riot
control. As a
result, more than 700 persons died, 30,000 were left
homeless,
and about 2,000 homes were destroyed and 1,500 damaged. In
April
1985, riots inspired by Maitatsine adherents in Gombe
claimed
more than 100 lives and resulted in 146 arrests of
suspected sect
members.
Another violent incident occurred in November 1988 over
the
disputed succession of a new sultan of Sokoto. Ten persons
died
and fifty were arrested.
In 1987, in contrast to previously mentioned
intra-Muslim
disputes, religious conflict took on new and ominous
dimensions
when unprecedented violence between members of Nigeria's
two
largest faiths--Muslims and Christians--erupted at
secondary
schools and universities. Clashes between Muslim and
Christian
students in March 1987 at the College of Education in
Kafanchan,
Kaduna State, left at least twelve dead and several
churches
burned or damaged. The rioting spread to Zaria, Katsina,
and Kano
within a few days. Police reportedly arrested 360 in the
city of
Kaduna alone and about 400 in the university city of
Zaria. Army
troops again intervened, and the commander warned that the
army
would shoot anyone committing arson or murder. Bayero
University
in Kano was closed after about twenty students were
injured in
Muslim-Christian clashes. In Zaria Muslim students burned
the
chapel at the College of Advanced Studies and attacked
Christian
students; the riots spilled over into the town, where more
than
fifty churches were burned. A curfew was imposed in Kaduna
State,
and outdoor processions and religious preaching were
banned in
Bauchi, Bendel, Benue, Borno, and Plateau states. All
schools in
Kaduna and five in Bauchi State closed. Babangida
denounced these
outbreaks as "masterminded by evil men . . . to subvert
the
Federal Military Government." He also issued a Civil
Disturbances
(Special Tribunal) Decree establishing a special judicial
tribunal to identify, arrest, and try those responsible
and
banned preaching by religious organizations at all
institutions
of higher learning. In June and July 1987, Kaduna State
authorities twice closed the exclusive Queen Amina College
girls'
high school in Zaria after clashes between Muslim and
Christian
students.
Relative calm prevailed among religious elements until
January 1990, when thousands of Christians in the northern
states
of Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Gongola demonstrated
against
Babangida's cabinet reshuffle, which appeared to penalize
Christian officers. Protesters of the Christian
Association of
Nigeria from all eleven northern states and the Abuja
capital
district marched on the Kaduna State government to protest
the
perceived religious imbalance and to present a petition
signed by
the top Roman Catholic clerics and the archbishop of
Kaduna.
Data as of June 1991
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