BAUCHI, Nigeria - At least five people died in a religious riot in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi on Monday while the death toll from a weekend of sectarian violence in two other northern cities climbed to at least 28.
Though the triggers were different, several religious leaders said the violence was rooted in uncertainty over the political future -- specifically, a rumoured ambition by President Olusegun Obasanjo to stand for a third term in 2007.
The fighting in Bauchi was sparked by an argument over the Koran while in Maiduguri it started with protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and in Katsina it was about a planned public hearing on constitutional reform.
The Red Cross put the death toll in Maiduguri and Katsina at 28, but the Christian Association of Nigeria said it had counted at least 50 dead bodies in Maiduguri alone.
"The country is tense because everybody has been fed with the rumour of a third term and no one has come out to deny or confirm the rumour," said Abdulkadir Orire, secretary general of Jama'atu Nasril Islam, the nation's largest Muslim organisation.
"That is why the bottled up tension is now finding expression through these violent outbursts," Orire was quoted as saying in Daily Trust, the main newspaper of northern Nigeria.
There is strong feeling against a third term across the north because many northerners feel the presidency should go to one of them in 2007 after eight years of Obasanjo, who is from the south.
Obasanjo has said he would uphold the constitution, which says a president can stay in office for just two terms. But some of his supporters are campaigning for a constitutional amendment that would allow him to stay on. He has not commented on that scenario.
Public hearings on constitutional reform are due to start in Katsina and other centres on Wednesday. Opposition politicians said that was the cause of the weekend fighting there, which killed seven people according to the Red Cross.
Religion and Politics Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri, Tume Ahemba in Lagos and Estelle Shirbon in Abuja
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