Under colonial rule the British allowed different land laws in northern and southern Nigeria, and prohibited Christians and Muslims form evangelizing. After independence, he said, the conflict assumed a new dimension with Christians and Muslims each trying to evangelize the other. Where Christians relied on persuasion, he said, Muslims were coercive, resorting to withholding jobs, encouraging Christian women to leave their husbands and permitting the deaths of Muslims who tried to convert. In Kano, for example, Martins said, it is impossible for Christians to acquire land to build a church in the city. Churches are permitted in only one area, on the outskirts of town.
Muslim bureaucrats refuse to accredit Christian schools.
And many police officers and army officers had to convert to Islam to advance their careers, he said. Despite assurances from Muslim governors that Sharia would not apply to non-Muslims, that has not been the case, Musa and Martins said. Musa said even the agitators among the elite do not want Nigeria to split into two countries with a Muslim north and a Christian south because the country's petroleum industry is in the south. It is a way of making themselves politically relevant, maybe acquiring political positions. They want to create an atmosphere of confusion and chaos.