Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Fellowship, Christopher O'Connor interviewed Francis Alimigbe, Abuja provincial secretary for Justice, Development, and Peace/Caritas (JDPC). JDPC is an organ of the Catholic Church that implements human development programs aimed at improving the lives of the economically disadvantaged, the structurally deprived, the unjustly punished, and those under threat and violence. Alimigbe, who has been with JDPC for the past 16 years, is responsible for coordinating JDPC’s development programs throughout Abuja Province, which consists of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi state, Nasarawa state, and Benue state. Additionally, he is in charge of a portion of the Catholic Church’s health programs in this region.

How did you get involved with interreligious dialogue and peacebuilding issues at JDPC? What are your official responsibilities as provincial secretary?

I have been with Justice, Development, and Peace/Caritas (JDPC) for 16 years. First, I was posted to do my one year National Youth Services with JDPC. During the service year I initiated some projects such as the Adult Education Program for Traders in the auto-mechanic village and collaborated with another NGO, Daughters of Abraham, on empowering prostitutes who were willing to embrace legally acceptable vocational skills, equipping them to start their own businesses. However, upon the completion of my service year, the JDPC retained me as a full-time staff essentially to consolidate the Adult Education Program. For over a decade I served in various capacities at JDPC before I was appointed the provincial secretary by the provincial bishops on March 1, 2006.

As the provincial secretary, my major responsibility is to coordinate the sociopolitical sphere of the Catholic Church in the areas of health and JDPC in the dioceses within Abuja Province, filling in the capacity gaps of the diocesan commissions, ensuring the quality of intervention through monitoring and evaluation, and carrying out advocacy on behalf of the diocesan commissions.

Abuja Province covers the majority of the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa, and Benue. Within Abuja Province there are six dioceses. Each diocese has two commissions: one for health, and another for JDPC that falls within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Abuja Province.

How does religion come into play with conflict in Nigeria, especially with regards to the central states?

Religion is a sensitive and important issue in Nigerian society. Nigeria is a highly religious country. Most Nigerians would go very far to defend their faiths. To an extent, religion is more a factor in identity than a strong moral adherence. Though Nigerians strongly identify with their religions, many fail to practice what they claim to preach. Furthermore, it is intrinsically tied to geography and ethnicity.

In the last census report religion was not even covered. If we extrapolate from earlier censuses however, we can estimate that Nigeria is approximately half Muslim and half Christian. The last census that considered religion put the Muslims at 50.85 percent of the population and the Christians at 48 percent of the population. The remainder of the population is not associated with either religion. In the North West [geopolitical zone] almost 90 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, while in the North East approximately 70 percent are Muslim. The North Central is about evenly split between the two faiths, with perhaps 52 percent being Christian and 48 percent being Muslim. In the South West there is roughly an even split. And in the South East and South South the population is almost entirely Christian.

After the 1992 census, many Christians felt that the results had been doctored in favor of the Muslim community. The latest census therefore dropped religion because of political complications and fears of exacerbating the religious tensions already present in Nigeria. In the far-north religion is the determinant factor for resource allocation. In the South East and the South South, Muslims are equally marginalized.

What other factors are perpetuating conflicts in central Nigeria?

When referring to the most recent conflicts in central Nigeria, which have occurred around the city of Jos in Plateau state, there is a settler-indigene issue that has been a time bomb waiting to happen. The administration of General Ibrahim Babangida exacerbated this situation through the unjust creation of local government councils aimed at favoring a given ethnic group in states. In Plateau state, for example, the creation of Jos North was designed to have Hausa settlers as a majority over the indigenes, which has created tension between the Hausa settlers and the indigenes over who should preside over the affairs of the council. Military rule prevented these tensions from getting out of hand. With the restoration of democracy, however, people had the opportunity to express their grievances. In general, with democracy in Nigeria, when people do not get the result they want, we have trouble. Over the past decade or so, the federal government supported the settlers, and the state government supported the indigenes in Jos.

How can Nigerians work to mitigate the current conflicts in the central and northern states?

In Jos we need to address structural political injustice, and this can only be done through constitutional reforms, because it was the federal government that created the local governments. This will be very difficult to address. We could address this structural issue by doing away with the local governments as a tier of government, letting the state government take control, or we could create two local governments that allow both the Hausa and the indigenes to have majorities in their own zones. There is currently no federal solution because of mutual distrust. The federal government has set up a committee to look for solutions, but the state government has challenged the right of the federal government to set up this committee, fearing that it is biased. The federal government in turn has challenged the state government’s opposition in court. No ruling has been issued yet.

Does this settler-indigene crisis exist in any of your dioceses?

The region under my supervision does not have the same settler-indigene political-religious dimension that Jos does. In Benue state, we have both indigenes and settlers, but they share the same religion, and so tensions are not as heightened. In Lafia Diocese, where we have rough parity between Christians and Muslims, there are religious tensions, but no ethnic tensions.

I am, however, growing increasingly concerned about a situation similar to Jos’s developing on the outskirts of Abuja. This area of the Federal Capital Territory has a settler-indigene dimension where the indigenes are now trying to assert their authority in local councils; however, they are now outnumbered by settlers. If these issues are not resolved, we could very well see conflict just outside of Abuja.

What is JDPC doing in your dioceses and throughout Nigeria to mitigate conflict and build a more peaceful country?

One project that operates in some of our dioceses is the Peacebuilding Project, which is funded and backed by MISEROR of Germany. JDPC commissioned this project after a study examined the root causes of the conflicts that have erupted in North Central Nigeria since the restoration of democracy. We shared our findings with MISEROR, and collectively we decided that JDPC had an obligation to work to prevent and mitigate conflict.

Our pilot program started in 2002, after which we expanded. The purpose of this project is to monitor crises and to link up with the authorities to prevent these crises from escalating. In this program, each diocese has a peace officer with a five-man support team called the Core Peace Team, representing various interests extending beyond the Catholic Church. Core Peace Team members are drawn from both genders and both religious communities. Additionally, each diocese has a Peace Team of 25 members that feeds information back to the Core Peace Team. These Peace Teams are the real grassroots of our peacebuilding efforts. They are our eyes and our ears. Like the Core Peace Team, these teams are generally diverse in nature, partially composed of Muslim and women members. There are representatives from traditional institutions as well.

The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria and Jama'atu Nasril Islam have also offered us their support in some instances. Consequently, our efforts are not seen as purely Catholic, but rather as inclusive. Generally, our Peacebuilding Project team members have good relations with the local government and police. In some cases the security services actually come to the dioceses’ offices to ask where they should focus their efforts to prevent and mitigate conflict. The security advisor to the governor of Benue state even goes for frequent conflict briefings with our teams.

In addition to our Core Peace Team structure, our Peacebuilding Project has several other big initiatives. One of these initiatives is our Community Peace Committee Program. We have 22 of these across the six dioceses aimed at facilitating engagement and discussion across communities. A second major initiative is our Education Program. Throughout many of the schools, both religious and secular, we have established peace clubs. Originally we started these programs in schools owned by the Catholic Church focusing on older teenagers. Gradually however, we introduced these clubs into secular schools and invited younger students. More recently, we have even had some success in opening up these clubs in other non-Catholic religious schools. We now have children as young as 10 years old getting involved. It is absolutely imperative to catch people at a young age, especially as many of our conflicts are the result of deep-seated perceptions of mistrust that are ingrained throughout childhood. We must deconstruct these hostile perceptions and promote more tolerant views.

Realizing that many of those who have dropped out of school are prone to participating in conflicts, we have been working to involve them in our peacebuilding activities as well. Often, they find employment as motorcycle taxi drivers, and so we have targeted those in this profession in particular.

Would these programs work in other states outside your jurisdiction?

The farther north you go, the more difficulty there would be with these programs. The education system in these states seems to be somewhat weaker. As the Christian population decreases, the level of suspicion would increase. It would be imperative for a Muslim organization to spearhead the effort. As of right now, to the best of my knowledge, this is not occurring, but this might be a possibility in the future. At times JDPC has worked effectively with the Muslim Consultative Forum to execute development and peacebuilding programs. They could plausibly be a partner that could replicate our projects in Muslim communities in the future, potentially producing a positive result.

How will the recent political developments affect interreligious relations in Nigeria?

With Goodluck [Jonathan] as president, we now have an interreligious conference investigating the challenges posed by Jos. Moreover, the sultan of Sokoto has helped lend authority by endorsing this investigatory conference. This body is looking for solutions, seeking to erase the mistrust that exists between the different levels of government, regardless of whether or not the bias is real or merely perceived. I personally feel that there is some degree of bias. Hopefully, this conference will lead the way forward. It recently submitted its report, but no actions have been taken yet.

What are some of the greatest challenges that you face in your work?

In some locations we have faced significant obstacles to establishing our peace clubs. There was a level of opposition to introducing these clubs into secular schools because of Muslim suspicion about our real motives. There was a fear that the true aim was evangelization. These difficulties presented themselves in Lafia, the capital of Nasarwa state, where there is a considerable Muslim population; however, there was no issue with starting peace clubs with the school dropouts. Challenges have by no means been uniform. While we have been successful in establishing our programs in all six dioceses, success has varied by region, just as demographics vary.

Another major challenge is the limited capacity of those with whom we work. The capacity of those working in Jos and elsewhere has not reached the level where we are capable of properly intervening. JDPC has one formally trained peace advisor, and this simply is not enough. We have done a lot of peace training, but our people still are not skilled enough to execute interventions, and I fear that they could possibly improperly intervene, doing more harm than good.

The disposition of government agencies is not helpful either. We have good working relationships with them, but they often demand funding and assistance from the NGOs. The government does not adequately provide for its peacebuilding institutions, failing to provide proper funding and resources. Furthermore, the government is hesitant to fund faith-based organizations, and this relates back to the issue of religious bias.

A final massive challenge is Nigeria’s poverty. Many of the peacebuilding proposals ask for local communities to make a contribution to the efforts and programs, but often the communities have little money, and consequently, little time to contribute. We are challenged by severe funding restraints, and we cannot expect people to participate in our programs under these circumstances.

What are some of the lessons that you have learned from your work that might be useful for others engaging in peacebuilding work, both in Nigeria and internationally?

It is absolutely imperative that peacebuilding efforts be broad based and inclusive, reaching out to all stakeholders. Additionally, we need more cooperation and coordination. We must recognize that we can’t do it alone, that we need governments and NGOs to work in unison. With our pilot programs, JDPC mostly worked alone, and we realized that alone, our capacity to positively impact the situation on the ground was limited. We have shifted to a "big tent" mentality and encourage others to operate this way as well. All government agencies and all NGOs must work together towards a common goal in order for peace to be attainable. JDPC recently held state forums to address some of these issues, to promote inclusivity, and to try to increase government involvement and funding. Hopefully these efforts produce tangible results. We have also realized the necessity of international support, from both governments and corporations. Again, we must all work together to achieve peace.