wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Nigeria: development and justice needed to address communal conflicts

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>World Council of Churches - News

DEVELOPMENT AND JUSTICE NEEDED TO ADDRESS COMMUNAL CONFLICTS IN  NIGERIA

>For immediate release: 27 May 2010

Although it is often portrayed as a religious conflict, the crisis  in
Nigeria's Central Plateau State is of social and economic nature,  the
country's foreign minister told church representatives. The church
delegation advocated for government action to develop the area and  to
bring to trial those responsible for an outburst of communal violence  last
March.

For Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry Odein, the country  faces "a
lot of challenges which are largely misunderstood by the international
community".

The situation in the central Plateau State, where several hundred  people
were killed last March, is "much more complicated" than it is usually
portrayed, Odein argued. According to him, the religious factor  compounds
a conflict between an indigenous population and an immigrant community  in
that area. "The issues are of social and economic nature", he said.

Odein expressed his views at a meeting with the World Council of  Churches
(WCC) programme executive for Africa Dr Nigussu Legesse and the  programme
director of the Christian Council of Nigeria Rev. Babatunde Olusegun  on 21
May.

The church representatives met the minister at his residence in  Abuja on
behalf of a WCC Living Letters team that had visited the country  15-20
May. “We came here in solidarity with the people of Nigeria�� �, Legesse
told Odein, explaining the purpose of the WCC Living Letters visit.

“We visited the villages near Jos, in the Plateau State.  We were in
Bukuru, where houses and markets were burnt and in Dogonahawa, where  323
people killed last March have been buried in a mass grave. We have  met the
survivors, talked to them, listened to them and prayed along with  them and
assured them that the global community of churches is with them  in their
moment of crisis”, Legesse said.

Legesse urged the minister to "help facilitate development in Jos  through
the federal government". He pleaded that those responsible for the
killings are brought before the court of law, "as the question of  impunity
was a concern widely mentioned by the people we met during our visits�� �.

Living Letters are small ecumenical teams visiting a country to  listen,
learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order  to
overcome violence, promote and pray for peace. The team visiting  Nigeria
was made of representatives of churches and WCC staff from Ghana,  Kenya,
Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, India and Ethiopia.

(Gbenga Osinaike, the publisher of the Church Times of Lagos, Nigeria,
reported from Abuja.)

WCC member churches in Nigeria (Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=4de57ee412d8825f4240
)

Other stories on the Living Letters visit to Nigeria:
WCC Living Letters team calls on religions to work for peace in  Nigeria
(Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=7c3c95a75892100fa321
)WCC Living Letters team in Nigeria listens to survivors of violence,
prays at mass grave  (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=873f011c328d1056eba9
)Governor of Nigeria's troubled Plateau State receives WCC delegation
(Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=40968429ea9f45cb8df1
)Ecumenical celebration welcomes Living Letters team in Nigeria
(Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=d68cd300d63a9066d885
)WCC Living Letters team to visit Nigeria  (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=00e86ce5b4115faf2092
)WCC calls for security for all citizens of Nigeria  (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=1079b8a13cbf55ce5f08
)

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,  witness and 
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship  of churches 
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560  million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the  Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.