Muslim North, Christian North

By Suleiman A Suleiman

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 6:09:43 WAT

Some conflicts are pointless, precisely because certain fundamentals and facts about the parties involved cannot be changed by the conflict itself, however gruesome it may be, and because the conflict will remain unwinnable by either side. The internecine strife between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria, which has been running for the best part of 25 years, if not longer, is an example of a pointless conflict.

Consider the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war far afield. Stripped of all propaganda by both sides, the fundamental issues involved cannot be resolved by war. Russia cannot annex the whole of Ukraine because doing so will pose existential threat to the rest of Europe, and NATO might be forced to intervene. On the other hand, Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO because that would pose a direct and existential threat to Russia, which could then panick and strike first. Most important, Russia and Ukraine, and by extension Europe, are neighbours and will remain so for a very long time because neither land will move. Therefore, the only sensible option on the table for both sides is peace, and it must be found.

Consider another example nearer home. Were Iboland an independent Biafra nation today, the only neighbours it would have will still be Nigeria because land does not move. The six states of the Niger Delta and the two northern states of Kogi and Benue that all border Iboland cannot move elsewhere because of Biafra. Not all of the Ibos and their investments in other parts of Nigeria will move back to Biafra because what moved them out in the first place—a poverty of land relative to the population—will not change. Therefore, agitating for Biafra through conflict—verbal and physical violence against other Nigerians and federal institutions and personnel—is either an agitation of the ignorant, or worse, an agitation of the deaf and the blind.

A similar but far more serious and complicated situation obtains in northern Nigeria. I have no space here to recount all the reasons why religious, ethnic and communal conflicts persist in much of northern Nigeria, and my aim this morning is not another round of finger-pointing. But one fundamental issue is most often overlooked by all.

Northern Nigeria is bound by geography and culture, but now divided by religion. None of these three things can be changed by the endless cycle of episodic violence by one group against another, however long it persists. All over the northern region, you sense the two tendencies of majority recklessness superimposed on minority paranoia and sometimes false victimhood, which only further this cycle of turn-by-turn violence, however much we pretend otherwise. Consider the majority.

Many Muslim northerners like the idea of a “Muslim North”, or of a northern state where no Christians have any indigenous claims at all. In fact, some people understand this as a sort of measure for the “purity” of their community, such that states with more northern Christians are seen as being “sullied”, even though the Qur’an makes it abundantly clear that Christians and Jews are also people of faith.

This thinking—deeply ingrained in the northern Muslim community—is not just reckless, but also dangerous, and I cannot say that loud enough. But worse, it is often accompanied by unguarded and derogatory speech like “Kafiri” and “arne/arna” in reference to northern Christians. The truth, however, is that Northern Nigeria is a Muslim land. It is equally a Christian land. The existence of a majority does not deny the rightful claim of a minority. Of course, Christianity is relatively recent in northern Nigeria. But the people who are now northern Christians are not new to the region. They have always been here from the very beginning, regardless of their current religion. Northern Christians are as bona fide northerners as any others. The northern Muslim majority today must accept and respect that, as our forefathers wisely did.

On the other hand, some people like to think they no longer identify with the “North”, but with what they call “Middle-Belt”, as a land for the northern Christians within the northern region, much like those who think of a “Muslim North” as a region only for the Muslims within the same historically multi-religious northern space. These recent attempts at constructing new identities within the northern region are not, however, supported by history, culture or geography. There is no number of units in which Nigeria can be split to give anyone a wholly Muslim or a wholly Christian nation within the current northern Nigeria. That is the sort of limitation geography sets on human action, not just here but everywhere.

Moreover, northern Christians generally believe that everything that happens among the Muslim community is deliberately designed against them. And worse, many believe anything done by any individual Muslim or a small group of Muslims is given a religious colouration and interpreted as a deliberate anti-Christian agenda by all northern Muslims. Recent tragic stories in northern Nigeria like Boko Haram, banditry and farmer-herder clashes are considered by most northern Christians as deliberately designed to annihilate them, even though far more Muslims have been victims of these. As far as most northern Christians are concerned, they are the victims in every situation and the Muslims are the aggressors in every situation.

This thinking, similarly deeply entrenched among the northern Christian community, only makes victims out of us all. The southern media, southern politicians and religious leaders, foreigners of all hue, and many among ourselves on both sides of the divide, all exploit these paranoiac emotions for political gain, whether by default or by design. We must know that it is only us, all of us Northerners, who suffer the consequences. It is only our part of the country that is in perpetual conflict with itself, and only our women, children and youths who bear the brunt of it all.

Therefore, this collective paranoia and perpetual sense of victimhood is not only false but also dangerous. Northern Christians are not victims in every situation, nor are Muslims the aggressors in every case. The two sides are a bit of both depending on individual circumstances, which is unfortunate in itself. Sometimes, the Christians are the aggressors, and the Muslims are the victims. Other times, the roles are switched. This is the reality, and in that sense, we are all victims of our own making because we can, and should, all see things differently.

There are two ways to be a Christian Northerner. If the North is taken as a whole, you are a minority; if it is taken by individual states, then it depends on your location. If you are in Benue, Plateau, and Taraba states, you are the majority. Everywhere else you are either a small or a sizable minority. The converse is also true for Muslims in majority Christian states. The problem is that people sometimes overstretch their minority status, and their sense of victimhood, into contexts where it cannot logically or statistically apply. In Benue and Plateau states particularly, the Christians cannot claim perpetual victimhood precisely because they are the overwhelming majority.

Most importantly, the Muslim majority in northern Nigeria cannot expel the Christian minority, and the Christian majority in states like Benue, Plateau and Taraba cannot also expel the minority Muslim populations in those places. The fates of both groups are bound together forever by history, culture and geography. These fundamentals cannot be changed by perpetual conflict. We must either reclaim our One North, One People map, or reimagine new social and political arrangements that will enable us to live together and thrive within the same northern, and indeed Nigerian, space.

Whatever we do, I must remind us all that this is a conflict neither side can win, and one which both sides will always lose. There can be no victory or victors in a conflict situation such as that we find ourselves, because it is not a situation in which either victory or victors can be found by any side. We are either all victors or all vanquished, either peace for all or peril for all. These are the only options on the table for us all, and the earlier we all realise this fact, the better for all of us. I rest my case.