Nigeria's problem isn't Islamist fundamentalism -- it's the country's corrupt and self-serving government.
BY JEAN HERSKOVITS | AUGUST 3, 2009
And so it goes. Nigeria's far north has a history of charismatic leaders who preach unorthodox Muslim beliefs and rally large numbers of young men in clashes with traditional Islamic and political authorities. In the early 1980s, a major wave of violence spread from Kano to Maiduguri. A smaller outbreak in 2004 in Yobe and Borno states was a forerunner to the present clashes. Then, a rebellious group of young men who called themselves "Taleban," having no doubt heard the name (but not the spelling) on the Hausa service of the BBC or Voice of America, demanded the imposition of full sharia law. That same plea was sweeping all the far northern states, thanks in part to strong popular feeling that Nigeria's secular institutions were not delivering justice. Sharia, it was hoped, would do a better job.
