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Beyond Belief

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Beyond Belief: Nigeria

19/03/2012

Nigeria

BBC Radio 4 - Beyond Belief, Nigeria

Ernie Rea and guests discuss the religious dimensions to Nigeria's current crisis.

Guests from different faith and non-faith perspectives debate the challenges of today's world. Ernie Rea and guests discuss the religious dimensions to Nigeria's current crisis.

Nigeria is in crisis. Thousands of Nigerians have fled their homes following a spate of Islamist killings.
The attacks have been carried out by a group calling itself Boko Haram which has demanded that Christians leave the North of the country where the majority population is Muslim. Christians have taken revenge by attacking mosques and Muslims living in the South.

Nigeria is said to be one of the most religious countries in the world. Its also Africa's biggest producer of oil so it is wealthy. But more than half of its people live in poverty. Corruption and mismanagement is endemic. So is this conflict really about religion at all, or is religion simply a presenting issue? 

Joining Ernie to discuss the role of religion in the conflict in Nigeria are 
Dr Jameel Yusha, senior lecturer in media and politics at Northumbria university, Dr Steven Pierce, lecturer in the history of sub Saharan Africa at the university of Manchester and Dr Leena Hoffman who has just completed her PhD on democracy and patronage politics in Nigeria at the University of Birmingham.

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