Nigeria: Armed Violence (Rural Communities)

Stephen Kerr Excerpts

Tuesday 27th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I thank and commend the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for bringing this debate to Westminster Hall. It was a pleasure—indeed, it was rather humbling—to listen to my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell), who is a true expert on matters pertaining to Nigeria. I certainly do not want to detract from anything that has already been said.

Much was said about the situation in Nigeria, especially in the so-called middle belt, which straddles the divide between the largely Muslim north and the majority-Christian south, and which is the scene of an escalating cycle of violence between settled farmers, who are mostly Christian, and the mainly Muslim Fulani herdsmen. The Fulani are an ethnic group of about 20 million people across 20 west and central African countries. Exacerbating factors include the environmental impact of climate change and the proliferation of armaments—especially those that were looted from the arsenals of the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, which are smuggled across the region and used to dreadful effect.

We have already heard that the 2017 global terrorism index estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed across west Africa in clashes between Fulani herdsmen and settled communities since 2001. The number of violent deaths in Nigeria is again spiralling. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimated in a report in the summer that armed Fulani gunmen had killed nearly 1,000 people so far this year—more than Boko Haram. Those killings, which take place in villages and small farming communities, include the cold-blooded murder of women and children, of which we have heard accounts.

The Nigerian Government blame the violence on armed banditry and organised crime, but there are clear ethnic and religious issues at play. The violence seems to be based on economic insecurity, but its root causes run deeper. The conflict is rooted in the complex religious history of the region, going back to the Sokoto caliphate in the 19th century and the missionaries who brought Christianity to the region at that time. The long-standing conflict has been brutal and most inhumane.

Who can forget the atrocities of Boko Haram, which are funded by the most horrific crimes of kidnapping, slavery, human trafficking and rape? In June this year, 86 people were killed and 56 homes destroyed by herders. However, the situation is not without hope. I read an interesting and inspiring story about Christians who fled the scene of an attack. Brutal raiders descended on their homes in the middle of the night, but many of them got away by running for their lives. Shelter came in the form of an imam from the local mosque, who took them in and gave them sanctuary, and protected them within the walls of the mosque. In that instance, the family survived.

That is the paramount value of faith—that in the sight of such adversity and violence we can still see humanity in each other. When we acknowledge our common humanity, we can truly achieve peace. Peace with each other is one thing, but we also need peace within ourselves, which is another transcendent value. Despite claims to the contrary, the central truth of Islam, as with the message of the Christian gospel, is about love for one another and our common humanity.

[Jim Shannon]

One thing to come out of our recent trip to Pakistan were three words that were used by those of the Islamic and the Christian faiths: love, tolerance and respect. If we get those three things together, and we believe in them and act them out through our faiths, people in society can move forward with respect for each other.

[Stephen Kerr]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention.

The situation in Nigeria is riven with mixed signals. The Government make claims about reduced violence and say that the situation in the north is improving, and a significant amount of UK aid has been spent trying to help the Nigerian authorities fight the insurgents. However, the late Catholic bishop, Joseph Bagobiri, accused President Buhari’s Government of actually siding with the herdsmen, saying Buhari

“unabashedly takes sides with the armed herdsmen, his kinsmen, thereby failing in his responsibility as a true statesman.”

That is quite an accusation, and such allegations of complicity between the Nigerian President and those who perpetrate these acts of violence must be shown to be unfounded, as there is no room for such complicity, if it exists at all. As long as there is endemic corruption in Nigeria, there will be conflict, and if the Government have no moral authority, there is a vacuum into which extremism will step.

The attacks take place on an ethno-religious basis, but there are no doubt also economic and political aspects to them. In a country such as Nigeria, in which 90 million Muslims and 76 million Christians live together, under- standing and tolerance are essential. The attacks will dissipate only when there is a sense of fairness, a Government who have moral authority, and a world community that stands alongside the decent people of Nigeria.

I have some questions for the Minister, which are concurrent with other points that have been raised today. What is the UK Government’s assessment of the situation on the ground in northern Nigeria and the middle belt? What is the Minister’s assessment of the effectiveness of the part played by the UK to strengthen internal security and encourage cross-border co-operation to control the movements of marauding terrorists and the illicit trade in armaments? What are the Government doing to strengthen existing local machinery to support conflict resolution? My hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) raised a point about DFID. What are we doing to build sustainable solutions to the issues impacted by climate change? That point was also raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) in relation to the establishment of grazing reserves. Such things would be significant steps.

I will conclude with the haunting words of Lord Alton. Speaking in the other place earlier this year, he quoted the Archbishop of Abuja, who described the escalating violence as “territorial conquest” and “ethnic cleansing”, and said that

“the very survival of our nation is...at stake”.

Lord Alton went on to ask:

“Are we to watch one of Africa’s greatest countries go the way of Sudan? Will we be indifferent as radical forces…seeking to replace diversity and difference with a monochrome ideology that will be imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply? We must not wait for a genocide to happen, as it did in Rwanda. Ominously, history could very easily be repeated.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 28 June 2016; Vol. 792, c. 286.]

I repeat his warning today.

[Mr Clive Betts (in the Chair)]

I thank hon. Members for their co-operation. We will now move on to the winding-up speeches, for which there are a good 10 minutes each, and we will leave a couple of minutes at the end for the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) to respond to the debate.