Africa Inside Line: Nigeria Riots Overshadow 50th-Anniversary Celebrations

New EA correspondent Seth Kikuni Masudi files his first report:

Nigeria is preparing to celebrate 50 years of independence and sovereignty on 1 October this year. Any expectations, however, have been dampened by recent rioting in the city of Jos between Muslim and Christian gangs.

Religious conflicts have always been an important issue for the Federal Republic, with Muslims prevalent in the northern part of the country and Christians in the south. Jos, with its central location, has always been a battleground for the two communities. There were similar conflicts in 2001, 2004, and 2008, killing more than 2000 people and displacing many others.

The main cause of these clashes remains, according to the local population, provocation and manipulation by religious leaders. Those leaders, on the other hand, claim no responsibility and associate the trouble with poverty and unsolved tribal issues.

In the absence of President Umaru Yar’adua, who has reportedly been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November 2009, interim leader Goodluck Jonathan ordered the deployment of the army and imposed a curfew on Jos, apparently restoring calm.

The wider issues, which include but are far beyond the headline arrest of the young Nigerian militant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for his alleged attempt to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day, remain. "Terrorism" and religious conflicts are likely to dampen the 50th-anniversary excitement for some time to come.