Lagos, Nigeria — Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara, which blazed the trail in introducing the Islamic legal code, the Sharia, 27 January 2000, rolled out the drums in marking its first anniversary at the weekend.

As dignitaries from all walks of life, including diplomats from Islamic nations and politicians, thronged the state, Governor Sani Ahmed expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the controversial law.

Reports from the state said though prostitution and alcohol consumption, both banned under the Sharia, had not been fully eradicated, they had gone down while crime was said to have been reduced to the barest minimum.

One of the earliest victims of the law was a cow thief, Jangegbe, who had his right hand amputated.

The fate of another victim, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, a nursing mother who got 100 lashes for pre-marital sex, almost marred the anniversary celebrations, which started with the declaration of Thursday and Friday as public holidays.

Despite appeals for mercy from governments and human rights organisations around the world, 17-year-old Magazu was flogged publicly, eliciting criticisms and condemnations.

Even as the criticisms continue, the governor, who said there was no provision for clemency under the Sharia, has remained upbeat about the implementation of the law in the state.

Ahmed said in an interview published Saturday that Sharia had brought peace and security to the state and "has also steered the people towards moral re-orientation and made them more alive to their responsibilities to their God".

He also said that since the introduction of the law in the state, much had been achieved in the provision of infrastructure for the largely peasant population.

One of such achievements was the commissioning of a 1,500- unit housing scheme by the state government Friday.

These houses, to be completed in July, would be allocated on owner/occupier basis on 40 percent discount, the government announced.

The governor said at the commissioning that additional 2,000 houses would be built before the end of the year.

"We believe a provision of 3,500 housing units will go a long way in solving the housing problem of the state capital."

Ahmed said roads in the state were also being constructed while buses were to be given as loans to desiring beneficiaries.

But the chest-beating and self-praise have not dampened the fire of critics of the law, mostly southern Christians.

The critics argued that introduction of the Sharia in a secular country like Nigeria, whose 110 million people are almost equally divided between the two religions, was unconstitutional and that it smacks of insensitivity to the rights of the Christian minority in the states which have adopted it.

The controversy generated by the Sharia, which has since been adopted by many other states in the predominantly Moslem north, has threatened the country's nascent democracy and led to a series of religious violence.

In one state alone, the northern state of Kaduna, hundreds of lives were lost and property worth millions of naira damaged in two clashes between Moslems and Christians in 2000, over a plan to introduce the Islamic law.

And in Zamfara, Christians said the past year had been very difficult for them.

"We have suffered all kinds of abuse, especially our women," said Linus-Mary Awuhe, a clergy who is the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, or CAN, in the state.

"The cyclists will not carry them (women) because they have been barred from carrying women," he said.

The CAN president said the Sharia had also curtailed free interaction among Christians in the state. He accused the government of discriminating against the Christians in terms of "patronage and award of contracts".

"You as a Nigerian cannot get anything from the state unless you are a Muslim, and he (the governor) is saying the Sharia does not affect us. What kind of law is this that polarises the people, and treats people of different conviction like dogs?" Awuhe queried.

In the one year that the issue of Sharia came to the fore in Nigeria, the federal government, headed by a southern Christian, has smartly stayed away from the controversy, leaving the fight to adherents of the two religions and wishing it would just go away without causing further havoc.

As Zamfara marks the first anniversary of the Sharia, and other Sharia-ruled states prepare to mark theirs, it may well be a long way to the end of the controversy.