The idea of Nigeria splitting into different sovereigns has gained traction over the last several weeks.

One of the 46 churches burned by mobs of Muslims during the inter-communal violence in Jos, Nigeria in 2009. Source: Human Rights Watch
A growing chorus of local leaders in Nigeria, looking to avoid what happened in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan are urging the federal government to look at splitting the nation before there is too much bloodshed. Muammar Gaddafi notoriously said the OPEC nation should split into two distinct nations; although everyone knows his motives were not pure. Still, when one looks at what a divided Nigeria would look like, the character of the Nigerian people and the incendiary faction, along with recent political events; one finds a strong case for unity.
Religious strife has gripped Nigeria, Africa’s most populace country. As predicted, the terrorist group Boko Haram bombed churches near the capital of Abuja and another in Jos, on Christmas Sunday of last year, killing 27 worshippers. Just a couple of weeks later, the radical Islamists killed 20 more people at a town hall in Mubi, a town in northeastern Nigeria near the Cameroon border, then again in Yola, killing 12 worshippers. This is nothing new for the oil rich, West African nation. Boko Haram, whose name in the regional Hausa language means, “western education is sinful,” has been credited, and taken credit for, over 500 deaths in the past year alone.