Christians fear that persecution especially in predominantly Islamic northern Nigeria will increase following the election April 21st of Muslim Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as president. As governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria, Yar’Ardua had imposed sharia (Islamic law) and presided over a system of deliberate denial of land for building churches, as well as government agencies that arbitrarily closed some churches, Christian leaders told Compass Direct News. Major political parties in Nigeria nominated only Muslims from the north as part of an unwritten agreement among leaders that the presidency would alternate between north and south. Bulus Polit of the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Jos told Compass that between the two Muslim presidential candidates, Yar’Adua’s opponent was the more hard-line Muslim who would have presented greater problems to Christians in the country.
Religion Today Summaries