Nigeria’s Jonathan declares state of emergency

ABUJA,  (Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan  declared a state of emergency today in parts of Nigeria  plagued by a violent Islamist insurgency, and ordered shut the  borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.        
Coming nearly a week after radical sect Boko Haram set off a  series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one  at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57,  Jonathan told state television the measures would aim to restore  security in troubled parts of Nigeria’s north.       
“The temporary closure of our borders in the affected areas  is only an interim measure designed to address the current  security challenges and will be resumed as soon as normalcy is  restored,” he said.         
He added that his chief of defence staff had been instructed  to take other “appropriate” measures, including setting up a  special counter-terrorism force.        
The blasts have raised fears that Boko Haram, a movement  styled on the Taliban and whose name means “Western education is  forbidden”, is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria,  Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer.       
Jonathan has been criticised by the opposition and Christian  groups for what they said was a slow response to the bombings.              
“The crisis has assumed a terrorist dimension,” Jonathan  said. “I therefore urge the political leadership (in northern  local governments) to give maximum cooperation to ensure that  the situation is brought under control.”   
He listed the northern local governments affected by the  decree, including a part of Niger state near the capital Abuja,  the northern half of the conflict-prone city of Jos, and parts  of Yobe and Borno in the remote, semi-arid northeast.         
The bombings by the northern-based movement have strained  Nigeria’s already fractious north-south divide.       
Jonathan, a Christian from the south, upset many northerners  by running for and winning the presidency in April, which in the  eyes of many tore up a tacit deal to rotate the top job between  a northerner and a southerner every two terms.       
More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence  in the north after Jonathan’s victory, reflecting long-standing  northern grievances about perceived alienation and exclusion by  the central government from the fruits of national oil riches,  concentrated in the south.          
        
 “CRUSH THE TERRORISTS”         
Earlier in the day, Jonathan visited the scene of the  deadliest Christmas attack, on St. Theresa’s Catholic church in  Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja.         
“We will crush the terrorists. If there are institutions …  which are harbouring terrorists, we will deal with them,” he  told weeping relatives of the victims gathered in the church,  amid tight security by dozens of armed soldiers.       
Traces of the devastation were still evident, with the  church windows shattered and glass on the ground.         
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Yushua  Shuaib said authorities were on “full alert” for more attacks.        
“The government has put security throughout the federation,  including near the flashpoints. We are optimistic, but we are  fully mobilised,” he told Reuters.         
The government held an emergency meeting with security  officials on Thursday and is also looking at using other  channels to stop the conflict, which started as a local northern  problem but is fast destabilising the whole country.   
National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi told  Reuters the security services were considering making contact  with moderate members of Boko Haram via “back channels”, even  though explicit talks are officially ruled out.         
In Jos, which was also bombed at Christmas, two dozen  armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the streets ahead of  New Year celebrations.       
The commissioner of police for Plateau state, Dipo Ayeni,  told Reuters: “We have deployed this tactic of a show of force  so that we can celebrate the New Year without any hindrance, and  so there should be no cause for panic.”      
“The events that caused Nigeria’s civil war are repeating  themselves,” said Uche Udemezue, an Igbo woman in the southeast,  referring to the secessionist war of her people against northern  rulers in which more than a million people were killed in the  late 1960s.        
“The north should know nobody has a monopoly on violence.”   
Attacks in and around the capital – including one on the  U.N. headquarters in August that killed at least 24 people –  suggest Boko Haram is trying to raise its jihadist profile.   
In a separate, unrelated incident, clashes between rival  ethnic groups in southeastern Nigeria’s Ebonyi state on Saturday  killed at least 50 people, the state government spokesman said,  and police said mobile units had been sent to the state to quell  the violence.      
There was no suggestion they had anything to do with wider  security problems, but the clashes are likely to add to  Jonathan’s woes at a time when his forces are already stretched.