Nigeria: Gaddafi Wants Nigeria Split Into States

Posted by Admin on Mar 30th, 2010 and filed under Afrique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Daily Champion (Lagos)| 30 March 2010 | AllAfrica.com|

Lagos — For the second time in about a month, Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi yesterday suggested that Nigeria should be broken up into several states along ethnic lines like the former Yugoslavia.

Gaddafi had earlier called for the division of Nigeria along religious leanings, one for Muslim north and one for Christian south.

His comment followed violent clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in Jos, Plateau State last February, where over 500 persons were killed. His position prompted the Federal Government to question whether Libya might be sponsoring the violence, saying his comments were insensitive and irresponsible and “diminished his status and credibility”.

Calling the response of the Federal Government bluff, Gaddafi repeated the idea of dismantling Nigeria, but this time suggested not two but several independent states for its multiple ethnic groups.

“The partition into Christian and Muslim states will not resolve Nigeria’s problems because there are other peoples claiming independence despite the religion issue,” official news agency JANA cited Gaddafi as saying.

He compared Nigeria to the former Yugoslavia, which collapsed after the end of the Soviet Union and split into several independent states, sparking conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and then Kosovo.

“Nigeria … resembles the Yugoslav union which included several peoples and then these people gained independence and the Yugoslav union was ended in peace.”The model that fits Nigeria is the Yugoslav one,” he said.

Gaddafi was chairman of the African Union until recently and has adopted the title “King of African Kings”, but the veteran Libyan leader has a mixed reputation on the continent.

Praised by some African leaders as a generous benefactor and champion of development, he stands accused by others of financing rebellions and fomenting instability, often to counter the interests of the United States and its allies.