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Nigeria's twin challenges
- The population of Nigeria is made up more or less equally of Christians and Muslims, with a small minority following traditional religion.
- The first crisis was triggered by deadly Christmas Day bombings near the national capital, Abuja, for which Muslim community takes the responsibility.
- The second crisis can be traced, in part, to International Monetary Fund pressure to end fuel subsidies.
- The proposal has generated widespread opposition, despite the fact that Nigeria intends to put the projected $8 billion savings towards creating domestic refining capacity, and possibly towards limiting the influence multinationals such as Shell have on Abuja's policies.
- Nigeria is one of the world's major oil producers. It is also one of the world's most corrupt countries.
- The connection between the communal violence and the fuel price issue lies in the fact that the benefits of oil have not reached the majority of its population. Other reasons are:
- serious dysfunctionality in public services and institutions.
- persistent and widening inequalities, with poverty especially severe in the Muslim-majority north, alienate citizens and give fundamentalists ready audiences.
- If the central government is to respond effectively to these challenges, it will need to dig deep and draw on the democratic and secular spirit of the Nigerian masses, who struggled valiantly to end military rule and have — since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999 — voted decisively on political, not religious or ethnic, lines.
