ABUJA – Northern Nigerian Christians said yesterday they feared that a spate of Christmas Day bombings by Islamist militants that killed more than two dozen people could lead to a religious war in Africa’s most populous country.
The warning was made in a statement by the northern branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, an umbrella organisation comprising various denominations including Catholics, Protestants and Pentecostalists.
The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose sharia law across Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the blasts. It was the second Christmas in a row that it caused carnage at Christian churches.
Saidu Dogo, secretary general for the organisation in Nigeria’s 19 northern provinces, called on Muslim leaders to control their faithful, saying Christians would be forced to defend themselves against further attacks. “We fear that the situation may degenerate to a religious war and Nigeria may not be able to survive one. Once again, enough is enough!” Mr Dogo said.
The attacks risk reviving tit-for-tat sectarian violence between the mostly Muslim north and the largely Christian south, which has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.
Mr Dogo said the association was calling on all Christians to continue respecting the law but to defend themselves when needed.
“We shall henceforth in the midst of these provocations and wanton destruction of innocent lives and property be compelled to make our own efforts and arrangements to protect the lives of innocent Christians and peace-loving citizens of this country,” Mr Dogo said.
The most deadly attack killed at least 27 people in the St Theresa Catholic church in Madalla, a town on the edge of the capital Abuja, and devastated surrounding buildings and cars as faithful poured out of the church after Christmas Mass. Security forces also blamed the sect for two explosions in the north targeting their facilities. Officials have confirmed 32 people died in the wave of attacks across Nigeria, though local media have put the number higher.
But the church bombs are more worrying because they raise fears that Boko Haram is trying to ignite a civil war in the nearly 160 million nation split evenly between Christians and Muslims, who for the most part co-exist in peace.
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has come under pressure to do more to fight the growing security threat which risks derailing economic gains in the Opec member and Africa’s top oil-producing nation.
Nigeria’s main opposition leader, Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner and former military ruler who lost a presidential election in April to Jonathan, yesterday accused the government of incompetence, saying it was slow to respond and had shown indifference to the bombings.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said in the statement it was concerned that the perpetrators and their sponsors “are well-known to government and no serious or decisive actions have been taken to stem their nefarious activities”.
Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language means “Western education is sinful,” claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bomb attack on the United Nations building in Abuja on August 26th in which 24 people were killed. It also claimed several Christmas Eve blasts last year in Jos that left 80 people dead and another blast on New Year’s Eve at an Abuja military barracks that killed at least 12 people. – (Reuters, Bloomberg)