Nigeria Recalls Ambassador To Libya Over Gaddafi's Comments

[Richard Akindele]

Nigeria on Thursday recalled its ambassador from Libya over a diplomatic row caused by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's comments made earlier in the week that Nigeria should be divided into a Christian and a Muslim state for ending the country's frequent inter-religious violence.

In a strongly worded statement, Nigerian Foreign Ministry said it was recalling its ambassador because the "irresponsible utterances of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, his theatrics and grandstanding at every auspicious occasion have become too numerous to recount."

The Foreign Ministry said in the statement that Abuja welcomes "well-meaning comments from concerned members of the international community," adding that the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nigeria are sacrosanct and non-negotiable."

The statement read out by Foreign ministry spokesman Ozo Nwobu described the Libyan leader's comments as "unacceptable and unbecoming of any leader who claims to advocate and champion the cause of African integration and unity."

Earlier, Gaddafi addressing African students in Tripoli on Wednesday said a radical solution was required to halt the frequent sectarian violence in Nigeria as it was a "deep-rooted conflict of a religious nature."

Gaddafi proposed dividing Nigeria into a Christian state in the south and a Muslim state in the north and share the country's oil and other natural wealth in a peaceful manner, citing the post-independence partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 as an example.

Stressing that such a move in lines of the India-Pakistan partition could benefit Nigeria, Gaddafi proposed that the Christian south could could have Lagos as its capital while the Muslim north took Abuja as its premier city.

Gaddafi's comments came just days after over 200 people, mostly Christians, were killed in a sectarian attack on villages in the suburbs of Jos last week. The perpetrators of that attack are suspected to be Muslims from the Fulani group and the attack appeared to be in retaliation to the slaughter of some 400 Muslims in the villages around Jos in January.

Such periodic outbursts of religious violence are frequent in Nigeria, the northern regions of which are predominantly Muslim with the South being dominated by Christians. The city of Jos lies in Nigeria's volatile Middle Belt, where the majority of the population either follow traditional religions or are Christians.

While some 700 people were killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in Jos during 2004, rioting in September 2001 left at least 1,000 dead in the central Nigerian city. Over 500 others were killed in a similar outburst of religious violence in the city in November 2008.

by RTT Staff Writer

[Richard Akindele]

While it is true that Gaddafi is a nutcase, I seriously see no fault with his statement on this matter.

I believe sooner or later, Nigeria is going to have to be broken up. Nigeria is a seriously balkanized country. The different groups are too married to their own ideologies, and too much against the believes of other groups, that I do not see how Nigerians could ever get along.

So long as Muslims believe that Christians don't deserve to live,
so long as Hausas predominantly cast votes for fellow tribespersons, and Yorubas and Igbos for Yoruba and Igbo candidates respectively, I see no end to the incessant unrest that Nigeria is facing.

I'm on Gaddafi's corner on this one. The funny aspect of all this, is that Nigeria decides to pull it's ambassador from Libya, but nobody among the leaders has yet offered any solution to the prevailing violent clashes that waste hundreds of innocent lives.

We can sweep Nigeria's problems under the rug all we want, but nothing short of a real solution, like what Gaddafi is proposing, is going to resolve Nigeria's problems.

Only smart thinkers can pull Nigeria out of the predicament it finds itself in. So far, the current crop of leaders only respond to things in a knee-jerk fashion. They do not have a real solution to problems.