The Crisis in Nigeria

With each passing week, it seems that the crisis in Nigeria continues to escalate. Last weekend, an estimated 400+ people were killed after members of a machete-wielding Muslim group attacked a mostly Christian town south of the city of Jos. Some authorities believe the weekend slaughter was a revenge attack for the killing of around 150 members of the Hausa Muslim community by Christian mobs in Kuru Karama, south of Jos, in January 2010.

As tensions escalate, people are aware that what can be considered small skirmishes could erupt into a major conflict.

In September 2001, simmering tension erupted into violence leading to the deaths of 1,000 Christians and Muslims after what seemed to be a relatively minor incident. In February 2004, allegations of cattle theft led to the murder of around 700 Muslims and Christians in the city of Yelwa. Again in November 2008, several hundred more people of both religions were killed after disputed local elections in Jos. Aside from religious tensions, the ethnic groups are fighting for land, resources, job and opportunities in a region stricken by poverty. Authorities say that economic difficulties are exacerbating past tensions.

The Nigerian government has issued a red alert for the region amid fears of revenge attacks and calls for justice by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, the crisis continues.

A Light for the World

“A living example of faith put into action,” is how many describe Immaculee Ilibagiza -- a young woman whose life was transformed dramatically during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Immaculee and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor's house. She entered the bathroom as a vibrant, 115-pound university student with a loving family. When she emerged, she weighed just 65 pounds and discovered most of her family had been brutally murdered.

Overcome with grief and hatred, she began praying the rosary as a way of drowning out the negativity that was building up inside her. Now whenever she talks about her ordeal at workshops or lectures, she explains that she found solace and peace in prayer ... and began to pray from the time she opened her eyes in the morning to the time she closed her eyes at night. She even found it possible, and in fact imperative, to forgive her tormentors and her family's murderers.

Today Immaculée is regarded as one of world's leading speakers on peace, faith, and forgiveness. Indeed, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

For more information on Immaculee’s amazing story, go to www.immaculee.com.

And Justice for All.

As the season of Lent begins, many people spend time wondering what they should “give up” or sacrifice in order to make these 40 days as spiritually fruitful as possible. The other day while I was visiting a nursing home, a rather elderly woman recalled how very many years ago she gave up chocolate during Lent. And after 40 years, she still recalls the difficulty of that season.

But as a person grows in faith, one may begin to consider how their lenten sacrifice will help them after lent.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of “justice” in his Lenten message and how “the meaning of the term ‘justice,’ in common usage implies ‘to render to every man his due.’” But he was not speaking of merely material things.

The indifference that today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine is deplorable, the Pope stated, “yet ‘distributive’ justice does not render to the human being the totality of his ‘due.’ Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God.”

May yours be a blessed and fruitful Lent.

As Kenya goes, so goes East Africa ...

... or so it seems. In the midst of the struggles and crises rising throughout much of East Africa, struggles in Kenya are erupting once again as well.
Last month, the United States and Britain suspended education aid to Kenya after auditors accused the government program of fraud. Then this week, Prime Minister Odinga suspended agriculture minister William Ruto and education minister Samuel Ongeri for three months after a corruption scandal in their ministries. The prime minister claims that millions of dollars worth of subsidized maize and education funds have disappeared in recent months said.

But then, shortly after the prime minister made the announcement on Sunday, President Kibaki revoked the suspension. He said Odinga had no power to suspend the ministers and he had not consulted him before announcing the suspension.

Kenya leaders are calling on former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to intervene in the dispute between the nation’s prime minister and president. They are asking for Annan's “immediate intervention.”

Let us hope and pray that a full crisis can be averted.