Behind Nigeria’s violence
Inside Story discusses whether the country is on the road to becoming a ‘failed state’.
Another wave of killings in the Nigerian city of Jos took place on Sunday.
Now, the federal government blames the local government, while the local government blames the army.
Three mainly Christian villages were targeted by Muslim herders and the police estimates that 150 men, women and children were killed but state officials say the figure is far higher.
Residents had already begun burying their dead – but fresh gunshots on Tuesday sent them scattering.
The latest wave of violence in Nigeria was described as retaliation for the outburst of killing in January in which hundreds of people were killed.
Back then the largest losses were suffered by the Hausa Fulani community. In the village of Kuru Karama more than 100 people were killed and their bodies thrown into wells and sewers.
Grave accusations were made that the local government had stoked the violence.
In the past decade violence between Christians and Muslims has killed more than 2000 people – Christians and Muslims – in Plateau State.
Now religious leaders are calling on the federal government to help stop the violence.
But what are the real causes of the violence? Who is to blame? And is Nigeria on the road to becoming a ‘failed state’?
Inside Story presenter Shiulie Ghosh is joined by Senator Ibrahim Mantu, the former deputy senate president and a member of the Nigerian Government Committee to investigate the latest violence, Cameron Duodu, an African affairs analyst and writer, and Eric Guttschuss, Human Rights Watch’s Nigeria researcher.
This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, March 10, 2010.