Riots in Nigeria as Jonathan's camp says he has won

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: cnn

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Riots erupted Monday in cities across northern Nigeria as a spokesman for Goodluck Jonathan said he would emerge the victor in Sunday's presidential tally.

"He has won 25% in the necessary number of states and the majority vote -- he has satisfied the constitutional requirement to be president," said Ken Okolugbo, a member of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Council. Official results were expected Monday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission was posting on its website a running tally with results from 33 of the country's 36 states and its capital showing Jonathan far ahead of his main challenger -- Muhammadu Buhari.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/18/nigeria.elections/index.html?eref=edition

[Zax2me]

1. Angry Muslim youths set church filled with worshipers ablaze

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-19/news/17829325_1_muslim-youths-religious-violence-nation-s-muslim-population
Riot in Nigeria: Muslim youths set church afire

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Please elaborate.

[happyslug]

3. Nigeria has been divided between its "Moslem" North and its "Christian" South since Colonial Times.

I use the term "Moslem" and "Christian" in parenthesis for the dispute is NOT about religion but whose friends and supports get to control the Government.

Nigeria starts at the edge of the Sahara desert, as you go south the wetter the country gets, till you enter rain forests along the Atlantic coast. This causes the "Moslem" North to have much lower population per square mile then the "Christian" south. Northern Nigeria is dominated by the "Hausa" tribe which is overwhelmingly Moslem.

In the South you have two large tribes, the Igbo in the South East (and the center of the Biafria revolt of the late 1960s) and the Yoruba in the South West. Now, these are NOT the exclusive tribes in Nigeria, but the ones every political party tries to form around.



As with many other African nations, Nigeria was an artificial structure initiated by the British which had neglected to consider religious, linguistic, and ethnic differences. Nigeria, which gained independence from Britain in 1960, had at that time a population of 60 million people consisting of nearly 300 differing ethnic and cultural groups. The British also did NOT consider geography either, Rivers unite people and the Niger River unite most of the people into one country, but Niger River bypasses most of Northern Nigeria, thus unite Southern Nigeria with the Republics of Niger and Mali then with Northern Nigeria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_River

In fact the other major river in Nigeria, the Benue, along with the Niger also bypasses Northern Nigeria and the Niger and Benue act as a kind of border between Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benue_River

Based on a 2009 World Religious survey (Mapping out the Global Muslim Population) 50.4% of Nigeria's population were Muslims, 48.2% were Christian (15% Protestant, 13.7% Catholic, and 19.6% other Christian), and followers of other religions were 1.4%. The core north is largely Muslim, there are large numbers of both Muslims and Christians in the Middle Belt, including the Federal Capital Territory. In the west of the country, especially in the Yorubaland, the population is said to be evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, while in the southeastern regions are predominantly Christians with widespread traditional beliefs, Catholics, Anglicans, and Methodists are the majority with few traditional beliefs, while the Niger Delta region is mainly Christian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria

Furthermore, 2/3 of the Country is Moslem by land area, for most of the Christians are in the heavily populated Delta area, with 600-2000 people per square mile as opposed to the northern 2/3rds that never goes above 200 people per square mile and has huge areas with less then 50 people per square mile:



Side Note: There are indications that the Census data is NOT correct, seems to have been "Corrected" to keep the "Moslem" population over 50% of the total population. This seems to be more in line with Northern Political Leaders wanted to keep up their base, which tend to be Moslem, over those of the Southern Politicians, who tend to be Christian).

The "Christian" South is richer in water and thus population, but has always been secondary to the "Moslem" North. The Moslems used their common Religion and the connection that a common Religion gives them to the rest what was called the "French North Africa" before the 1950s. The English, when their ruled Nigeria, armed these Moslems to protect their colonies from raiders from "French North Africa", thus build up the Nigerian Military along Moslem lines.

The "Christian" south is more diverse (including people who worship traditional beliefs) while important in pre-Colonial days, except for slaves (which the British technically abolished in the 1807, but stayed legal in Northern Nigeria till 1937) not a good source for most items the British wanted. Thus tended to be ignored by the British Government and the Moslems. For that reason Christian Missionaries were permitted to preach to those southern Nigerians, and the subsequent state wide church provided a place for the various people of Southern Nigeria to come together and start to act as one people.

As far as Britain was concerned, the main concern was control of the Niger River Trade, the Moslems controlled that BEFORE the British appeared, and while the British defeated the Moslems, the British wanted control of the trade lines along the Niger more then anything else so left the Moslems in charge.

With Independence the pre-existing tensions between the three groups accelerated, especially after oil was discovered in Christian Southern Nigeria, but do to the Moslem Northern Nigeria ended up in control of the Government (mostly do to military coups) the Moslem leaders ended up with most of the profits from that oil, with the Christian South getting almost NONE of the profits from the oil wells drills in their part of Nigeria.

The most recent election seems to be a vote for the Yorba and Igno over the Hausa (which also means a Christian "victory" over the "Moslem" faction, please note the issue is NOT religion, but which tribe and which tribes allies will rule), thus to overturn what has been 50 years of misrule by the North. In the North they were objections to this for they see it as lost of control of the oil profits. Only time will tell how this will work out.