Spread of Sharia law does not threaten Nigeria, says President

Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's President, has said he does not see the adoption of Sharia law by a dozen states in Nigeria as a threat, amid international pressure on him to amend laws calling for execution by stoning for Islamic crimes such as adultery.

Religious and ethnic clashes have cost thousands of lives in Nigeria in the past two years and the restoration of strict Islamic law in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states has sparked bloody riots between Christians and Muslims.

Now with more harsh Sharia punishments pending, including stoning, whipping, amputation and execution, and the prospect of Sharia being extended to at least one state in the predominantly Christian south, the issue might tear the country apart.

"To say Sharia must be removed from Islam is like saying that the 10 commandments must be removed from Christianity," President Obasanjo, a devout Christian, told The Independent. "Sharia is not a new thing and it's not a thing to be afraid of. What we need is justice."

Sharia law had been the experience in parts of the country "since time immemorial", he said, adding that the federal government would not dispute the rights of states to use it.

On 25 March, an Islamic appeal court dismissed Safiya Husaini's sentence of stoning to death for adultery on technical grounds, after it provoked global outrage.

But last month Amina Lawal, 30, became the second woman to be sentenced to death for adultery when an Islamic court in northern Katsina convicted her. The mother of three has appealed.

The Sharia issue was under the spotlight again last week when an Islamic court in Jigawa sentenced Sarimu Mohammed, 50, to death by stoning for raping a nine-year-old girl – the first death sentence imposed on a man for rape or adultery under re-introduced Sharia law. Mohammed, who was caught by neighbours, also got 100 strokes of the cane and a fine.

In Bauchi, Adama Yunusa, who is 19 and pregnant, was sentenced to 100 lashes for having sex with her fiancé. And earlier this month Muslim clerics in Oyo, in the mostly Christian south, said they would apply Sharia for the first time to civil matters, such as divorce and land disputes, involving Muslims there.

President Obasanjo's federal government, mindful of the danger of fanning religious tensions, is attempting to grapple with the Sharia problem through compromise. He said problems arising out of applying "ordinary" and Sharia law side by side could be dealt with constitutionally, by requiring states to impose equal sentences for equal offences nationwide.

Last month, the Justice Minister declared certain sentencing aspects of the Sharia system unconstitutional and the federal government has asked states using it to modify their laws. Muslim leaders in these states indicated that they intend to ignore the decision.

Sharia was not a problem when practised by genuine Islamic adherents, President Obasanjo insisted. "Only when it is political it becomes something to worry about." But everything will be political in the year leading to elections in April 2003 – and in Nigeria politics tends to spark violence.

In January, hundreds of people reportedly lost their lives in religious clashes in Jos. The elections will be a severe test, because never before has the country – ruled by the military for nearly 30 out of 40 years since independence – held a successful second democratic poll. Violence that followed elections in 1983 gave the military a pretext to topple a civilian government.

Widening legal disparities between the Muslim north and Christian south may aggravate tensions.

In February, worried by the unrest, President Obasanjo held a meeting of parties and groups to look at ways of ensuring peaceful, free and fair elections. While the meeting was taking place, 10 people were killed in clashes between rival factions of his own People's Democracy Party.