The series of bombings in Nigeria, for which the extreme Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility, reveal many interconnected problems.
There is widespread resentment in the northern region because of the country's unequal development; poverty and low educational levels mean hardliners there can spread hostility to the central government in Abuja. The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Nigeria under siege. The north stands to lose much more than the south by any separation, because Nigeria's greatest foreign earner, oil, lies in the southern states.
The overwhelming majority of Nigerians do not take religious differences to extremes; inter-faith marriages are common, and the public are angry about the same things, such as police brutality and official corruption.
President needs to find effective ways of leveraging these qualities of Nigerian society into an effective political weapon against Boko Haram's deadly violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To check spam, comments on older posts are moderated, so expect some delay before your comments are published