Nigerian Islamist attacks point to the African problem

Once again, Nigeria is in the news-for the wrong reasons. I woke up on a beautiful Monday morning to hear of the unfortunate Islamist killings in Bauchi state, an impoverished, predominantly Muslim state in the northern region of Nigeria. My very own Nigeria.

Truth is, I was not in the least surprised. Religious clashes in the northern parts of Nigeria are not uncommon. Call me a cynic, but I usually expect a religious-related conflict to happen in the country at least once every year. They are almost always instigated by my muslim ´friends´.

And so, in this new case, Boko Haram, an extremely fundamentalist Islamist group in the area, which prides itself in its anti-west doctrines and policies, raided the local Police station and burnt down buildings. As is always the case, innocent Nigerians were caught in the crossfire, and as the time of this writing, about 50 people have been reported dead from stray bullets. I am devastated by the reports, but my consolation is that some members of the sect, while exchanging fire with the police, were killed.

Boko Haram, a self-styled ´Taliban´ group, was founded in 2004 and is made up mainly of University dropouts. They are Islamic extremists. For some reason, they oppose western education, and insist on the Sharia law being imposed on all Nigerian states. Boko Haram actually means, ´Education is sin.´ They had always planned a demonstration to put across their ideologies, create awareness of their activities and recruit more members for their sect. The government objected to their plans many times. Out of anger, they decided to put the go

I never understand why Nigerian muslims resort to violence to put across their grievances.

I, for one, am not particularly a fan of the Sharia law. I think it is, well, barbaric. That is my personal opinion. Body mutilations, public stoning as consequence for criminal activities is dehumanizing and insults our dignity as human beings.

The demanding of the adoption of the sharia law in all of Nigeria by this group is actually, just plain stupid. Nigeria is not in any way, an Islamic country, and so we cannot embrace Sharia law.

The northern parts of Nigeria pride themselves in their sharia law. Truth is, the rest of us in other parts of Nigeria are doing just great without it. The criminal and constitutional laws already in place in the other parts of Nigeria are doing us fine. We do not like violence, and we are glad just having the ´normal´ courts with us. I think they do us justice well enough.

And so, this unfortunate event points out to the simple-mindedness of the members of this sect. It is also a clear demonstration of the African tragedy. In an Africa where there is so much poverty, underdevelopment, corruption, and poor governance, some backward, small-thinking people are still trying to plunge the nation into further peril by destroying property all to put across some mundane religious ideologies.

It is unfortunate that while these young people should be thinking of ways to develop the state and improve their lot, they are concerning themselves with frivolous religious clashes.

At the end of the day, a big problem with Africa are its stupid people, living among the few, good ones, who make the whole continent look terrible. Through ethnic and religious clashes, they destroy the little development they have achieved, making their development retrogressive. With their own hands, they destroy the little development they have attained over the years and cause the deaths and destruction of individuals who might have been instrumental to growing the African nation.