Christian-Muslim violence in Nigeria bad for America

If the deadly religious clashes last Sunday and in January aren’t reasons enough for the United States to become actively involved in what’s going on in Nigeria, perhaps the economic fallout from the turmoil in Africa’s largest country will prompt action.

Nigeria is the United States’ No. 1 trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, largely due to the high level of petroleum imports from the West African nation. It supplies 8 percent of U.S. imports, nearly half of the country’s daily oil production.

That’s what at stake if the current violence between Christians and Muslims isn’t stopped. Given the country’s bloody past, a civil war could be brewing.

On Sunday, at least 300 Nigerians, many of them women and children, were slaughtered in the central city of Jos by Muslim tribesmen from neighboring Fulani. The women and children were fleeing their homes after they heard gunfire and were cut down by machete-wielding Islamists.

The attack follows the January clash that resulted in 150 Muslims being killed by Christians.

According to Human Rights Watch, witnesses said the attackers not only went after people as they tried to run from their homes, but burned many others alive. The death toll included at least 20 children. Homes were burned to the ground and three mosques were set ablaze.

Human Rights Watch urged the government to investigate, but the political instability in Nigeria brought on by President Umaru Yar’Adua’s being too sick to govern has been a detriment to ending the violence.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has been trying to keep the country from imploding, but the latest bloodletting reveals a deterioration in law and order that is troubling.

The Obama administration and other developed countries cannot wait for tensions to ease. There is too much at stake. The United Nations should dispatch a task force to Nigeria as soon as possible to determine what the government needs to do to quell the violence.

Why should we care? Obviously because as in all such civil strife, the innocent are victimized. Women and children, in particular, are in harm’s way. Beyond that, there is the economic impact if one of the world’s major oil producers collapses.

Two-way trade

For the United States, two-way trade in 2008 was valued at more than $42 billion. Led by machinery, wheat and motor vehicles, U.S. goods exports to Nigeria were worth more than $4 billion. Imports were over $38 billion, according to the U.S. State Department.

The United States is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria. U.S. foreign direct investment is concentrated largely in the petroleum/mining and wholesale trade sectors. Exxon-Mobil and Chevron are the two largest U.S. corporate players in offshore oil and gas production.

Nigeria’s proven oil reserves are estimated to be 36 billion barrels; natural gas reserves are well over 100 trillion cubic feet. The nation is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and its current crude oil production averages around 1.6 million barrels per day.

Poor corporate relations with indigenous communities, vandalism of oil infrastructure, severe ecological damage, and personal security problems throughout the Niger Delta oil-producing region continue to plague Nigeria’s oil sector. In the absence of coherent government programs, the major multinational oil companies have launched their own community development programs.

But with the population equally divided between Muslims and Christians, the bloodletting could spread like wildfire.