Thousands of Muslims rallied peacefully in northern Nigeria on Saturday to demand the return of Egypt’s Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi, ousted by the military early last month.
Around 4,000 demonstrators carrying banners and placards chanted pro-Morsi songs and slogans outside a mosque in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, an AFP reporter witnessed. Organisers put the number of protesters at 5,000.
Egypt has been rocked by political unrest since Morsi’s ouster in a July 3 military coup after massive protests against him.
“We call for the immediate release of president Mohamed Morsi and all political prisoners being detained by the illegitimate Egyptian authorities,” protest leader Sheikh Abubakar Mujahid told reporters.
“Morsi must return to his position as president.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 160 million people, is evenly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.
It is grappling with a four-year insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram mainly in the country’s northeast.
The violence has claimed some 3,600 lives, including killings by security forces, which launched a military offensive in May to try to end the insurgency. [AFP]
This is how journalist starts your wahala. How did you know that the south is predominantly christian? Where is your statistics? Even your major report is somehow misguided. You had better goes straight to the news you want to disseminate rather than dwelling on unnecessary side distraction.
Nice talk my broda. Really journalist cause a lot of trouble in this nation tru publication and dwelling in on necessary matters in an article. God help us
You have serious problem, u didn’t complain about the mainly Muslim north and you are complaining about the predominantly CHRISTAIN south, what is wrong with you? The journalist said how Nigeria is which we all know, and you want to make an issue out of it.
Journalist in Nigeria are like that my brother, they have coursed almost half of the crises in Nigeria since independence. I think if I was the president I will ensure that journalist who report like this should be charged for sedition. They are simply lazy & don’t do much research before they log on to the internet & post jaga-jaga.
Your reasoning is jaundiced. By not complaining about what the journalist wrote about Northern Nigeria, you impliedly agreed with him that it is “predominantly” muslim! Is that really the situation? Are you not aware that there are millions of Christians in Northern Nigeria?
IBRAHEEM, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. I DONT KNOW WHERE HE GOT HIS STATISTICS FROM.
Nice talk my broda. Really journalist cause a lot of trouble in this nation tru publication and dwelling in on necessary matters in an article. God help us
All this people using this false names to support you can’t fool even a child.
i want to put the record straight.first nigeria is not populated by a mainly muslim north and a predorminantly Christian South. That publication by AFP is wrong and misinforming.it is a predorminantly muslim north and an equal predorminantly Christian South. Secondly on the protest by some mis guied elements in kano calling for Morsi’s return i think it is a pipe drean to even think of such a thing.i am speaking on good authority as a cofounder of the Nigeria Community Association in the Arab Republic of Egypt, an umbrella organisation for all Nigerians there and i live and work in Egypt since 2oo6. i want to beg the Imams who organised that Charade not to do anything that will endanger the lives of Nigerians in Egypt they should remember what happened to black people in Libya in the height of d uprising and war there.they should stop every kind of rally for Morsi because it cold cause the over 83 other Egyptians who are not fundamentalist to turn against Nigerians and other African People. To put the record straight, mohammed Morsi is a man that you can’t find words to describe. He was so terribly inept, unpopular and religously fanatical.he neglegted the rebuilding of the countrys economy and went into d pursuit of entrenching Islamic laws with fundamentalist ideals. He made a law that made him absolute and destoyed the very democratic principle that brought him to power.the egyptian economy is sustained by th tourism industry and this indutry employs about5million Egyptians directly or indirectly. Morsis killed tourism in egypt with his fundamentalis ideas and no tourists were coming to Egypt. Hotels were closing down and people were out of work and hungry.the nations public sectors were filled with the brotherhood members by Morsi and they were neither technocrats nor trained for those positions.so everything apsed and the egyptian people were angry and were daily staging protest @ Tahri square even in the deadness of winter. Egypt before Morsi was a wonderful place where everything was working and including electricity, water, transportation and the health sector even during the 25 Jan revution that remoe Mubarak. i don’t want to talk about Mubarak but it may interest u to know that this man did for his people what Nigerian Leaders had not done since independence.Mohammed Morsi was not a national leader but a sectional leader who afflicted other muslims and Chritians alike, those who were building the economy.he hunted the richest man in egypt a Christian and made trumped up charges against the man who alone employs over 50,000 Egyptians. It is well that he was pushed out by the Egyptian people befofore he sank the country. It is ignorancce,undemocratic, insincerity,and misguided for anyone in Nigeria to go into the street and do a rally calling for Morsi’s reinstatement when the over 85 milliion Egyptians are heaving a sigh of relief. We should not be misled by Western News reports and endanger the lives of our people in Egypt.MUBARAK
Infact, i don’t know the problems of northern muslim. For God sake is nigeria Egypt? Why protesting in Nigeria here, pls go to Egypt and protest there. That is how u people killed some christians in the north in the name of protesting what happened between palestine and isreal.
@ ime,well said!!! Tem! Tem!! Tem!! For that write up! Pls northern muslims,we have issues that are boiling everyday in this country waiting to explode,you have not rally to demand a reform & now you are rallying for another people that don’t know you exist. Muslims when will you people have sense? Imam will persuade you & you will sheepishly go out to the street.if you should be asked what are you rallying 4,95% will not be able to explain it & themselves. Till when will you muslim have common sense? Maybe,its when armageddon w comes!!!
These people are VIOLENT by DEFAULT period.