See this report by KARL MAIER.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/beheading-stirs-nigerian-tension-1596448.html

Beheading stirs Nigerian tension
Karl Maier in Kano finds disturbing echoes of 1967's descent into ethnic terror


Five centuries ago Islam was carried into what is now northern Nigeria by the trans-Saharan trade in gold, slaves and horses, but it has never been under such pressure as it is today. The faithful, angered by rising unemployment and poverty, increasingly views the traditional Muslim elite as a corrupt pawn of the military regime.
Sporadic outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence are not new to Kano, but a radical group of zealots known as the Muslim Brothers is gaining ground among the youth of the dominant Hausa people by spreading the message of Tajdid, or Islamic renewal.

"Here in the north of Nigeria there has been a simmering feeling that Muslims are being relegated to the background, and that Islam is being stampeded out of existence," said Suleimanu Kumo, a lawyer and member of a government-appointed "inter-ethnic peace committee". "They are feeling marginalised. You find it especially among the youth."

Tension between young Hausa Muslims and Christian Igbo from eastern Nigeria, who dominate the city's petty trading sector, has always been near the surface. It erupted in its most violent form in the ethnic massacres that preceded the 1967-70 civil war. Widespread riots in October 1991 left several hundred dead and saw churches and mosques burned to the ground.

But the murder and beheading last December of Gideon Akaluka, a young Igbo trader who allegedly desecrated the Koran, and a new outbreak of riots in May have kept the city of three million people on a knife edge.

Akaluka was arrested in December after his wife allegedly used pages of the Koran as toilet paper for her baby. After he was imprisoned by the police, a group of Muslims broke into the jail, killed him, and walked around the city parading his severed head.

But Akaluka's lawyer said he had obtained affidavits which proved that his client was not at the compound at the time and that the woman allegedly guilty of the offence was not his wife. No one has been arrested for Akaluka's murder.

A former presidential candidate, Maitama Sule, said if tension were not reduced "we may end up with a revolution which is just not religious, but may be political, social and economic. Symptoms of revolt loom large on the horizon today. It is a group of disgruntled elements who are out to vent their anger who are joined by some irresponsible, undesirable waste products of humanity."

The history of Kano is rich in Islam. Ali Yajib Tsamia was one of the first rulers to convert, in the 14th century. But his was largely a palace religion, with the great mass of people, even those living inside the city walls, 12 miles of thick embankments 30ft to 50ft high, left untouched by the teachings of the Koran. By the closing decades of the 15th century, all the major rulers in the Sahelian belt were Muslims and some had contacts with North African and Egyptian scholars.

When the Muslim scholar Usman dan Fodio launched the Islamic Jihad in the 19th century, Kano was incorporated into the Sokoto Caliphate which ruled north-western Nigeria until Frederick Lugard conquered the region with his West African Frontier Force in 1903. Since Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960, the state was declared secular, and Christianity has been making inroads into the north.

"Religiously, or spiritually, the Muslims now feel that the battle has been brought to their domain, especially in areas like Kano, which seemed to be the last bastions," said Matthew Kukah, a Catholic priest and author of Religion, Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria.

The main focus of concern now are the Muslim Brothers, a group of men who broke away from their erstwhile mentor, the pro-Iranian preacher Ibrahim Zakzakhy. "They are men, 17, 18, up to 28 years old, and they are people who have nothing to lose, who have life rather more than death to fear," said Mr Kumo.

After initially agreeing to hold discussions with the inter-ethnic peace committee, the Brothers have gone underground. They allege that four of their members were executed on 22 June by the military government.

The Brothers' message is that Christianity is being favoured by the military government and that traditional leaders such as the emirs have forfeited their role as the champions of Islam. "The military undertook not only to give them fat salaries; they built very beautiful palaces for them, gave them fat contracts, and they in fact keep on dishing out large amounts of money to them," said Abdullahi Mahadi, Director of the Ahmadu Bello University Centre for Research and Historical Documentation in Kaduna.

"It is the suspicion that Christianity could change the whole religious landscape of this place that has been consciously or unconsciously has been responsible for the repeated religious crises we have had," said Father Joseph Bagobiri of the Roman Catholic Kano Independent Mission.

Mr Sule, the chairman of the peace committee, said Muslims might have as much to fear as Christians from the new radicalism. "The fear is that if this thing is allowed to go on without check, it may be the non-Muslims tomorrow, the next day it may be a section of the Muslims."

Anger over Nigeria's economic collapse, the result of instability, rampant corruption and mismanagement by 12 years of military rule, runs deep in Kano. "Whenever you find people not properly employed, there is no other way to express yourself, because you have the police, and the emirs and their agents looking for troublemakers," said Professor Mahadi. "So the most important thing is to express this in Islam."

Observers from both sides of the ethnic and religious divide blame Nigeria's military authorities for worsening the crisis. "The military have always played this card very well," said Fr Bagobiri. "Because the whole thing started during the [Ibrahim] Babangida regime. That was when the religious divide became very strong."

The government's disastrous handling of the Akaluka affair is a case in point. Mr Sule, normally a defender of General Sani Abacha's military regime, describing it as "experienced and responsible", was outraged by the incident. "I can't understand how in a society where we have a government, the police and judiciary, that a group of people take the law into their hands, go to the prison, break into the prison, and get somebody out of his cell, cut off his head, and take the head around the next day with impunity."

Observers like Father Kukah see the sinister hand of the military and the northern elite behind the trouble. "Let's be clear: there are Nigerians who have invested heavily in violence, in ignorance, in poverty, in turbulence. Because it is when you now have this anarchic situation, that they present themselves as the praetorian guard."

One Nigeria indeed.

This is the kind of news that the Yorubas and Awusa/Fulani do not want you to hear.

Sanusi was involved but he is still working freely

ambac2bust:
Sanusi was involved but he is still working freely

When Yorubas see posts like these, they play the Ostrich. Hausas have really spilled a lot of blood in this country

From time immemorial, the hausa uslimd are intolerant of other tribes and religion. That is why some of us clamour for sepststionv. I mean divide this country into North, East and West or noth central.

Eeyaa

omolami:
From time immemorial, the hausa uslimd are intolerant of other tribes and religion. That is why some of us clamour for sepststionv. I mean divide this country into North, East and West or noth central.

Of course. The country needs to split. Have you heard of any muslim killed by christians for insulting Jesus Christ?

Big Difference

E go better one day.

It's funny, Muslims want islamic state and everyone is denying it and minding d Chibok girls and d killings.

U'd see a yoruba man make a post and say it's d western Nigerian NATION and it's overlooked.

When igbo man coughs then dey cry for water to quench a dragon spittle.


It dnt start today and what dey give is wat dey wanna give, meet d igbos who stayed in d north to reel out ordeals for u den u'd no how far.

Am a victim and all I need is Biafra

We are never one and can never be.

Let d sleeping dog lie.

Yam pepper scatter scatter.

Nigeria is backwards today because the people pretend to be together but work differently.

Continued forceful union of these different people and the pretence that follows will continue to be a hitch in Nigeria's development.

Nigeria is a country where the Yorubas already have special hatred for Igbos so also Igbos for them. Igbos aren't proud to be associated with hausas and the hausas feel the Igbos are dominating in nature. Hausas hate yorubas with passion so also yorubas for them but pretend about it.

I suggest we go back to confederation or go for an outright divi$ion to end this madness. Even in a zoo, every specie get im own territory.

The OP isn't telling me anything i don't already know!....The core northern muslims (esp' Hausa/Fulani) hate Igbos with a passion! I say 'hate' because it takes a strong negative kind of emotion like that to be responsible for the death of millions of my kinsfolk! They've been murdering us in cold blood right from the 50s to date! All that talk of 'one Nigeria' and such piffle is nothing but bullshit!

Benswaggy:
Let d sleeping dog lie.

At whose expense?

JIHADIST EMIR, I read he was crying earlier,There is no peace for the wicked!

IGBOSON1:
The OP isn't telling me anything i don't already know!....The core northern muslims (esp' Hausa/Fulani) hate Igbos with a passion! I say 'hate' because it takes a strong negative kind of emotion like that to be responsible for the death of millions of my kinsfolk! They've been murdering us in cold blood right from the 50s to date! All that talk of 'one Nigeria' and such piffle is nothing but bullshit!

Bros. You and your ilk should stop displaying your ignorance. You say hate with a passion. if that's the case, why do we still have millions of you in the north. Your brothers are still in the north building businesses and running things despite your perceived hate with a passion. Sabon Gari in Kano is filled with igbos who own much of the real estate there, car accessories & spare part dealers , tiles dealers etc.
Go to katsina, in Sabon layi; More than 90% of the boutiques & eateries there are Igbo owned. One of the biggest hotels in Katsina (Fadama Hotel) is owned by an Igbo chief.

Just because you've lived all your life in the east and swallowed enough hate pills, you think you have a say. Please talk for yourself..

AMvanquish:


Bros. You and your ilk should stop displaying your ignorance. You say hate with a passion. if that's the case, why do we still have millions of you in the north. Your brothers are still in the north building businesses and running things despite your perceived hate with a passion. Sabon Gari in Kano is filled with igbos who own much of the real estate there, car accessories & spare part dealers , tiles dealers etc.
Go to katsina, in Sabon layi; More than 90% of the boutiques & eateries there are Igbo owned. One of the biggest hotels in Katsina (Fadama Hotel) is owned by an Igbo chief.

Just because you've lived all your life in the east and swallowed enough hate pills, you think you have a say. Please talk for yourself..

The Igbos building up their businesses up north has nothing to do with the Hausa's hate. This doesn't stop the Hausa-Fulani from razing it down at the slightest provocation. The Igbos should be commended for their daring spirit/attitude to still go up there to do their business in spite of the hate.

He was killed for islam,mohamed and allah. . . . . . Tears sorrows and blood

One reason they want to kill Radio Biafra

Candyrain:


The Igbos building up their businesses up north has nothing to do with the Hausa's hate. This doesn't stop the Hausa-Fulani from razing it down at the slightest provocation. The Igbos should be commended for their daring spirit/attitude to still go up there to do their business in spite of the hate.

Daring Spirit!! There are Igbos in the north that have virtually lived almost all their life there. Speak hausa like indigenes, some even still living in Maiduguri despite all the insurgency issues. Its not a matter of going up there, they have always been there and it is home to them. There are more comfortable up there.. And they can differentiate bad people from good people. It has nothing to do with hate. Its unfortunate people would hide under religion, politics etc to do harm to others. There are good people and Bad , that's just it. Nothing like hate.

Jealousy ?

I'm not surprised , the Brits knows them better then I do

AMvanquish:


Daring Spirit!! There are Igbos in the north that have virtually lived almost all their life there. Speak hausa like indigenes, some even still living in Maiduguri despite all the insurgency issues. Its not a matter of going up there, they have always been there and it is home to them. There are more comfortable up there.. And they can differentiate bad people from good people. It has nothing to do with hate.

dude come off it. My mother used to be a teacher in Kaduna, I remember in her narration about her life up north, according to her anytime the north goes on their killing spree the first group they run after is those Igbos living up north. I remember specifically her mentioning how she used to cry and hide in her house due to fear. Yes I will not deny she mentioned good people as well but pretending those Igbos living up north are loved or secured is a pure lie. Personally to all Igbos worldwide, the Igbos living up north are daredevils with suicide missions.

Observers like Father Kukah see the sinister hand of the military and the northern elite behind the trouble. "Let's be clear: there are Nigerians who have invested heavily in violence, in ignorance, in poverty, in turbulence. Because it is when you now have this anarchic situation, that they present themselves as the praetorian guard."
.



The truth since creation of Nigeria.

onenaira3:


dude come off it. My mother used to be a teacher in Kaduna, I remember in her narration about her life up north, according to her anytime the north goes on their killing spree the first group they run after is those Igbos living up north. I remember specifically her mentioning how she used to cry and hide in her house due to fear. Yes I will not deny she mentioned good people as well but pretending those Igbos living up north are loved or secured is a pure lie. Personally to all Igbos worldwide, the Igbos living up north are daredevils with suicide missions.

Well Suicide mission you may like to call it. And those that have been there Since the 60's & 70's till date. I know igbo's that are over 40 years that were born up north, they only go home maybe Christmas or some big occasion. For them to be there that long I think you should now term it " A death sentence"... [quote author=onenaira3 post=36116201]

Benswaggy:
Let d sleeping dog lie.

guys lik u are d problem of Nig.if akaluka was ur bro,ao would u feel about is dead? Why wia d killers not arrested? Is it a crime for him to hav justice?

omololu2020:
guys lik u are d problem of Nig.if akaluka was ur bro,ao would u feel about is dead? Why wia d killers not arrested? Is it a crime for him to hav justice?

d last time i checked, I didnt quote u I jux md a comment & It will do u a lot of gud 2 read my comments & pass wen nxt u c it.

Benswaggy:


d last time i checked, I didnt quote u I jux md a comment & It will do u a lot of gud 2 read my comments & pass wen nxt u c it.

go and create ur own forum if u want no one to quote u.d op created a topic too,u should hac just read and pass,cos u dont want anyone to quote u....arindi

omololu2020:
go and create ur own forum if u want no one to quote u.d op created a topic too,u should hac just read and pass,cos u dont want anyone to quote u....arindi

got no time for u, attention seeker.
keep quoting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Benswaggy:


got no time for u, attention seeker.
keep quoting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mumu who get ur tym....ko to mah shey apa bi itan,olofo!