Many believe the recent clashes were politically-motivated

JOS, Nigeria — Political ends rather than religious rivalries were the engine that fueled deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians in the central city of Jos, religious leaders agree.

"When the politicians want to perpetuate their own political agenda or evils, they can cause chaos in this kind of place," Sheikh Khalid Aliyu, spokesman for the council of imams in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital, told Reuters on Tuesday, December 2.

Hundreds of people were killed in Jos over the weekend during clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs.

The clashes erupted after rumors that the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP), a predominantly Muslim party, had lost the local election to the federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which is mainly Christian.

Several mosques and churches were razed in the violence and overturned and burnt-out vehicles littered the streets.

The state government has said about 200 people died in the clashes, though other sources have given a toll twice as high.

"Religion is just used as a cover-up, a camouflage," affirmed Ignatius Kaigama, the archbishop of Jos.

"Religion is very volatile, very vulnerable and it is very easy to manipulate."

Politically-motivated

Aliyu, the Muslim leader, doubts that the clashes were spontaneous and believes they were deliberately ignited to help politicians meet their ends.

"As far as I'm concerned, this was well-planned."

Abubakar Momoh, a professor of politics at Lagos State University, shares the same conviction.

"It is clear that people were armed, that politicians encouraged people to be violent and invariably that people became victims," he told Reuters.

Momoh insists that exploiting ethnic and religious rivalries in Nigeria is an old story.

"Look at the history of political violence in Nigeria, every time it is fomented by the politicians themselves."

Nigeria, one of the world's most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south.

Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria's 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.

But ethnic and religious tensions have bubbled for years.

Hundreds were killed in ethnic-religious fighting in Jos in 2001.

Hundreds more died in 2004 in clashes in Yelwa, also in Plateau state, leading then President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare an emergency.

Unrest in the state has in the past triggered reprisal attacks between different ethnic and religious groups in other areas of the country.

Professor Momoh regrets that the country's politicians never look back to history to realize the hazards of playing with the card of religion.