Sectarian strife is often more about money than faith

Stagnation stirs everything up

Nigeria's Muslim sects - Stagnation stirs everything up | Middle East & Africa | The Economist

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AT HIS meeting-house on an industrial estate in Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city, Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil laments his country's sporadic uprisings in the name of Islam. “I don't know why this change has come,” says the 57-year-old Muslim preacher. “Twenty years ago we never used to have this. Everyone got along.”

Outside his vine-covered house, silence prevails on the Sharada estate. Most of the factories that once helped Kano honour its state slogan, “Centre of Commerce”, are shells. The economic slump worries the Americans, especially since it has strengthened the hand of the more militant of northern Nigeria's Muslim leaders, who are rattling the mild-mannered sheikh. 

The role of Islam in Nigeria is in the spotlight, especially in America, since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up an aircraft landing at Detroit on Christmas Day. The young Nigerian's failed attack has since been claimed by al-Qaeda, fuelling long-held fears that the jihadist group, already present in north Africa, could win recruits among Africa's most populous country with some 150m people. 

Roughly split into a largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south, Nigeria has a history of home-grown Muslim sects that have clashed with the security forces. In the 1980s the Maitatsine movement staged uprisings in Kano and elsewhere. Now, as the north's economic stagnation leaves swathes of young men jobless and angry, a new cohort of Muslim men are joining fringe groups that take up arms. The number of Kano factories registered with the Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria has dropped from 350 in 1987 to 103 today. “I see a danger with the young men on the streets or the graduates looking for jobs,” says a sociology lecturer at Kano's Bayero University. “As unemployment grows, they need a rallying point.”

One such haven was Boko Haram, a small sect that opposed Western education and wanted sharia law across Nigeria. This group torched police stations last July in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, during clashes that left hundreds dead. In December some 40 people were reported killed after the Kala Kato sect fought with police in the northern state of Bauchi. 

One such haven was Boko Haram, a small sect that opposed Western education and wanted sharia law across Nigeria. This group torched police stations last July in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, during clashes that left hundreds dead. In December some 40 people were reported killed after the Kala Kato sect fought with police in the northern state of Bauchi.

Until the mid-1980s, northern Nigeria's industrial towns were pumping out goods, from car parts to leather sandals. Today, in a country where lousy transport and electricity systems raise the cost of manufacturing and where reliance on oil production has left other sectors neglected, home-made products cannot compete with Asian imports. One Kano woman says a Nigerian-made textile wrap costs 1,500 naira ($10), whereas a similar one imported from China costs just 550 naira. 

Worries over the north's Islamist sects come at an anxious time. President Umaru Yar'Adua left Nigeria over two months ago for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia and has not been seen since, creating an unnerving sense of drift. Nigerians were shaken in mid-January by violence in the city of Jos, in the centre of Nigeria, that left more than 320 dead, according to the police, and displaced many thousands. Though the region's majority Berom tribe are mostly Christian and the minority Hausa are mostly Muslim, this bloodshed was perpetrated mostly along ethnic lines. 

Since the failed attack over Detroit, America has put Nigeria on a terrorist watchlist beside Yemen and Somalia. With some justification, Nigerians deem this unfair. Nigeria's sects mainly target their own politicians, whom they condemn as unIslamic for their habit of embezzling public money rather than creating jobs. The introduction since 2000 of partial sharia law in 12 northern states out of the country's total of 36 is now widely considered a vote-winner rather than a genuine desire for justice. 

Since the failed attack over Detroit, America has put Nigeria on a terrorist watchlist beside Yemen and Somalia. With some justification, Nigerians deem this unfair. Nigeria's sects mainly target their own politicians, whom they condemn as unIslamic for their habit of embezzling public money rather than creating jobs. The introduction since 2000 of partial sharia law in 12 northern states out of the country's total of 36 is now widely considered a vote-winner rather than a genuine desire for justice.

Mr Abdulmutallab, who hails from a rich family, was educated and probably radicalised abroad. Though the odd bus on Kano's dusty streets is daubed with pro-Palestinian slogans, Nigeria's poor Muslim masses seem, for the time being, more concerned about their problems at home. 

Nigeria's Muslim sects

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Stagnation stirs everything up

Sectarian strife is often more about money than faith

Middle East & Africa January 30th 2010

From the January 30th 2010 edition

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