Kaduna, Nigeria--A Sunday Mass was faintly audible in the background as Ene Orgha recalled the violence that left her stranded from her home in the city of Kaduna after Nigeria's general elections four years ago.
As the country anxiously awaits the results of Saturday's knife-edge vote, many in the religiously-divided northern city insisted that lessons had been learned since 2011.
Hundreds, including many Christians, were killed in that election after ex-army general Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim, was declared the loser.
But Orgha, 52, claimed that such assurances were premature, warning that Buhari's supporters were demonstrating a similar attitude to that of 2011, "a mindset that does not allow room for defeat".
She told AFP said she was out of town when the results were announced last time and "couldn't get back to Kaduna... because the problems had engulfed the city".
If President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, defeats Buhari this year, Kaduna's Christians may again have reason to worry, she warned.
"Why shy away from saying the truth?" she asked on the grounds of St Joseph's Catholic Cathedral, one of several churches in the mainly Muslim neighbourhood known as Kaduna North.
The resentment "is religion based", she said. "Unless we tell the truth, we won't get out of this mess."
- Sure of Buhari's win -
Buhari, who lives in Kaduna, had throughout the 2015 campaign refused to discuss the prospect of defeat in his fourth run at the presidency.
A handful of his supporters were lounging outside an office where ballots were being counted on Sunday, finding relief in the shade from the hot northern Nigeria sun.
"I am sure Buhari is going to win the election, not Jonathan," said 41-year-old Abubakar Umar Mandalla.
Asked how he would react if the president was re-elected, the petty trader said "that is not going to happen", allowing only for the prospect that Jonathan would rig his way to victory.
AFP
