Follow Us on Google
Since independence on October 1, 1960, Nigeria has largely remained a disunited country of tribesmen that is still far from being the ideal united nation of citizens it should be. Whereas the British colonial authorities created a Nigerian country, the Nigerian political leadership that took over from them has failed to create a Nigerian nation of Nigerians with a common identity, purpose and collective agenda for national development and security within the global framework of international economic competiveness in the last 64 years.
However, this problem of Nigeria’s inability to transform from a country of tribesmen into a nation of citizens 64 years after independence has its foundation laid in the configuration of the structure of Nigeria’s federating units at independence. Convinced that Nigerians are irreconcilably different arising from what they considered the deep differences in ‘tribe and tongue’ to be one united Nigerian nation, Nigeria’s founding fathers negotiated from the British colonial authorities a federal republic of Nigeria whose federating units were structured along ethno-geographic fault lines, from Regions to Provinces and from Divisions to Native Authorities.
With the First Republic structure of three, and later four, regions, dozens of Provinces, Divisions and Native Authorities mostly carved up along more than 500 ethnic groupings of Nigeria, a strong foundation for a weak Nigerian state was laid, as this configuration set off an intense contestation by the constituent peoples of Nigeria for the power to control its internal resources. And it was in this fierce contestation for power that the politics of ethno-geographic identity was forged as the primary fulcrum of Nigeria’s democratic leadership recruitment process. Even political parties were formed out of tribal unions, cultural groupings and regional affiliations. And in identity politics the seeds of corruption were planted and watered to bloom, as corrupt practices such as nepotism, sectionalism, favouritism, influence peddling, impunity and general abuse of office are culturally acceptable by the champions of the over 500 ethno-geographic groupings in Nigeria as tools to get a slice of the national cake. International scholars of political science call it prebendalism.
Interestingly, the evolution and eventual dominance of the politics of ethnic identity in the First Republic obliterated one of the main elements of a functional democracy, which is the element of democratic citizenship. Without a deliberate mechanism for assimilation and integration of Nigerians, wherever they were resident within the country, with full political and economic rights extended to them, irrespective of ethnic or regional background, it was impossible to be Igbo and Northern Region, Yoruba and Eastern Region or Hausa and Western region in the First Republic. This also meant that the best may not always be suitable for leadership on the basis of ethnicity. This situation soon led to the collapse of Nigeria’s first democratic republic six years later in an ethnic-inspired coup, counter-coup and civil war that were violent manifestations of a clash between Nigerian nationality and ethnic nationality.
Probably, if Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was born in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria, in 1905 and whose first spoken language was Hausa, had been a Northern Nigerian in line with the principles of democratic citizenship, he would have been a member of the Northern Peoples Congress and the political crisis that rocked the First Republic would not have happened. Similarly, if Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogu, a man resided long enough in the capital of the northern region of Nigeria to bear it as his name, had been a northern Nigerian, the unfortunate coup of January 1966 may not have happened as the young military officer would not have turned his gun on his beloved premier. And, last, if Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was also born in Zungeru, had been a northern Nigerian, he would not have led the Biafra separatist republic and Nigeria would not have fought a civil war.
Religion and politics in Nigeria
Nigeria is a deeply religious country with its constituent people are adherents of the two leading Abrahamic faiths of Christianity and Islam. The religion of Islam has been practiced in Northern Nigeria since at least the 11th century when the Muslim religion made an entry into the ancient Borno Empire in present-day northeastern Nigeria from the deserts of North Africa. By the 15th century, Islam was already the state religion of the Hausa City State of Kano during the reign of Muhammadu Dan Yakubu, who was popularly known as Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa. The practice of Islam reached its zenith with the Uthman Dan Fodio-led jihad in 1804, which established the Sokoto Caliphate over most of northern Nigeria and as far south as Ilorin. On the other hand, the Christian religion arrived in Nigeria by sea through the work of European missionaries in the south of the country as early as the 17th century. At the time of the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914, its northern half was predominantly Muslim while the south was mostly Christian.
Initially, religion was not a sticking point in Nigerian politics as the pre-Independence and First Republic democratic leadership recruitment process was primarily driven more by ethno-geographic, rather than religious, identities. But this changed drastically in the early 1970s when the hurricane of Salafi Islam and Christian Pentecostalism raging across the globe made a landfall in Nigeria. While, the military authorities that took the reins from Nigeria’s First Republic civilian leaders worked had to unite Nigeria and heal its open wounds of ethno-geographic fault lines through deliberate policies and programmes of unification, a different strand of identity politics was evolving in a manner that outpaced their steps. Added to the festering ethnic and regional identities was the politics of religious identity that eventually took a regional dimension in the form of Muslim North and Christian South and the fierce contestation for the soul of the Nigerian state by the two dominant Abrahamic faiths in Nigeria.
Islamism and political Islam
Whereas the First Republic northern Nigerian region was majority Muslim, it was nevertheless secular in outlook with the Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello [Sardaunan Sokoto], having the inclusive leadership distinction and diversity management ingenuity to have woven a mosaic of ethnic and religious identities into a super “Arewa” identity that was neither Christian nor Muslim or as Christian as it was Muslim. While there were indications that the wind of global Islamist revivalist movements that blew forth from the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt was beginning to have an impact on the leadership style of the Sardauna by 1965, alcohol was no longer served at northern regional government events, with the premier now embarking on Dawah missions into non-Muslim areas of the region, Sir Ahmadu Bello didn’t live long enough to undo his most enduring legacy of One North, as by 1966 he was killed in a military coup. But so enduring was his legacy of One North that, among the crop of northern military officers who plotted and executed the July 1966 counter-coup to avenge the killing of Sir Ahmadu Bello were Christians from the non-Muslim areas of northern Nigeria.
However, by the early 1970s, a revivalist brand of Islam, the Salafi movement, surged across the Red Sea from the Islamic university of Medina in Saudi Arabia into the Madrasahs of Egypt and Sudan through the Sahel to Kaduna, the capital city of northern Nigeria. The arrival of Salafism in northern Nigeria altered the secular, inclusive and religiously harmonious entity that was the region in the First Republic. At the core of the belief system of the Salafi branch of Islam is the ideology of Islamism in its absolute form with political Islam as its main tool of enforcement.
Islamism can be defined as religious ideological movement that believes Islam should influence political systems, decisions and implementation while generally opposing secularism within a multi-cultural and religious geographic entity. The proponents of Islamism believe that Islam is innately political, from which the state cannot and should not be separated. As far as Islamists are concerned, Islam is superior to other forms of political, administrative and socio-economic systems, including western-style liberal democracy and capitalism. In place of a secular constitutional democratic order, proponents of Islamism seek the full implementation of the Sharia law as the supreme law of God over the man-made constitution. And pending when the full supplanting of the constitution with Sharia is achieved, Muslims should hold on to the levers of power and authority through the surreptitious use of political Islam as a tool for mobilization.
Within a few decades of its arrival in Nigeria, Salafism along with its ideology of Islamism appears to have been mainstreamed in the Islamic theological framework that is operational in northern Nigeria. The immediate precipitation of the Sharia movement in Nigeria almost led to a logjam in the 1978 constitution drafting committee as Northern Muslim delegates insisted that Sharia be incorporated into the constitution to satisfy the majority of their base that have now come under the influence of Islamism. In the Subsequent presidential election of 1979, the voting pattern in the Muslim majority states clearly indicated a leaning towards religion and complete rejection of non-Muslim candidates. For example, Borno state with a total vote cast of 710,968 saw the Muslim candidates Ibrahim Waziri [383,278], Shehu Shagari [246,778] and Aminu Kano [46,385] leading in that order while the two Christian Candidates Obafemi Awolowo [23,885] and NnamdiAzikiwe [9,642] trailed far behind. Similarly, in Kano with a total votes cast of 1, 195, 136 the trio of Aminu Kano [932,803], Shehu Shagari [243,423] and Ibrahim Waziri [18,482] led in that order while the duo of Obafemi Awolowo [14,973] and Nnamdi Azikiwe [11, 081] trailed behind. In Kaduna with a total vote cast of I, 382, 712 the scenario wasn’t so different as the trio of Shehu Shagari [596,302], Aminu Kano [437,771] and Ibrahim Waziri [190,396] carried the day while Obafemi Awolowo [92,382] and Nnamdi Azikiwe [65,321] trailed behind. It was the same scenario in Sokoto and Bauchi states.
Other News
This pattern didn’t have much impact at the time and went by almost unnoticed because the total votes of 8,735,375 cast in the South was larger the total votes of 8,100,570 cast in the north in election that Produced Shehu Shagari, a northern Muslim as winner. But because the Muslim north has emerged overtime as the largest voting bloc in Nigeria, the impact of Islamism and political Islam is being felt across the country.
With the exception of June 12 1993 [MKO Abiola and Bashir Tofa] and 1999 [Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae] presidential elections that had the leading contenders were from the same faith, subsequent elections in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023 have followed the pattern that was first established in 1979. In fact, so pervasive is Islamism in northern Nigeria that the most powerful and influential organ of the political leadership establishment in the region is the Ulamah class. More powerful than the traditional rulers and partisan politicians combined and mostly of the Salafi branch of Islam, these clerics deploy the use of pulpits 5times a day to prolysterize Islamism, advocate for Islamist separatism and promote political Islam at every given opportunity. Whomever they bless is blessed politically and whomever they curse is cursed politically. The pinnacle of their influence was seen in the 2023 presidential election, when after many of socializing Muslims to vote for Muslims only, the two leading parties in Nigeria, APC and PDP broke all rules and convention to field Muslim candidates after the eight year run of Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim. And as was in 1979, the top contender from the Christian south met a ‘’fire wall’’ of rejection in the Muslim north.
Pentecostalism and political Christianity
Whereas, the Christian Pentecostal movement made a remarkable entry into the Body of Christ in Nigeria, it was mostly about an aggressive membership drive to increase church revenue and bolster the prosperity of the various CEOs of the different denominations. Prosperity gospel of the Pentecostal denominations contrast sharply with the liberation theology of the Catholic Church in the sense that the former concentrated more on individual prosperity through the miracle powers of God while the latter focused on collective good of the society through the effective leadership of the state. While Pentecostals in their bid for larger membership numbers embark on aggressive evangelism in Muslim communities seeking to make them see the ‘’light’’, orthodox churches maintained a posture of tending to the flock of Christ rather than seeking an increase in number. Interestingly, the aggressive evangelism of Pentecostals inadvertently went a long way to reinforce Islamism in the Muslim as the suspicion grew on the notion that ‘’they will never rest until they turn you away from your way’’. The more mass crusades are held and evangelical materials distributed, which sometimes questions the validity of the faith of Islam in its entirety, the other side hardens its ground as a way of religious self-preservation
However, this is as far Pentecostal Christianity goes because fundamentally the entire Body of Christ in Nigeria without exception believe that the state and religion should be separate by ‘’giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’’. Christians generally believe that faith is an interpersonal relationship between Man and his Creator and do not seek to undermine Nigeria’s secular constitutional order with Canon laws but only seek to find accommodation of religious freedoms therein. Whilst it does not push for an agenda of Christianism, the Body of Christ in Nigeria have expressed concerns and worries over the preponderant tendency Islamism only as means of demanding for equity, fairness, justice and egalitarianism.
And despite the disputes over the incorporation of certain aspects Sharia law in the 1979 constitution, the Christian north south voted along party lines and not on religious basis. For example, out of the total vote cast of 538,879 in the predominantly northern Christian state of Benue, Shehu Shagari, a 411,648 Muslim polled ahead of Obafemi Awolowo [13,864] and Nnamdi Azikiwe [63,097]. Similarly, out of the 548,405 votes cast in Plateaux, Shehu Shagari came second with 190,458 votes just behind Nnamdi Azikiwe with 269,666. Predominantly Christian states in the south like Cross River and Rivers, voted overwhelmingly in favour of Shehu Shagari against Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe. In the 3rd Republic, the predominantly Christian state of Imo, elected Alh Umaru Maduagwu, a Muslim against the iconic Francis Arthur Nzeribe to represent Imo West Senatorial District in the 3rd Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This pattern of voting will continue into the 4th republic until 2023, when political Islam was confronted by political Christianity for the first time in the history of Nigeria. And political Christianity was championed by the Pentecostal part of the Body of Christ in Nigeria. At the risk of creating a false equivalence, it is trite to mention that political Christianity was only a reaction to long entrenched culture of political Islam, which culminated into the Muslim/Muslim candidacy of the ruling APC. While, it did not achieve the level of compliance that has been achieved by the promoters of political Islam, political Christianity made a resounding point when it propelled a fringe candidate to be among the top three contenders for the presidency. It is certain that going into Nigeria’s democratic future, political Islam and political Christianity may become mutually reinforcing with catastrophic consequences, which may drag Nigeria down the road to Lebanon.
Averting the road to Lebanon
Lebanon has been theatre of sectarian conflict between its Christian, Sunni and Shite Muslim communities resulting into two civil wars and imminent state failure. To avert the road to Sudan, we must drop our Qurans and Bibles and pick up the constitution and return Nigeria back to a secular, democratic order, where religion is effectively separated from the state. In a multi-religious country such as Nigeria, it is the constitution and not the Quran or the Bible that should be governing and guiding legal framework for the democratic good governance and conduct of its political affairs.
As imperfect as the letters of the constitution maybe, it allows for the uninhibited religious freedoms and practice of our Sharia and Cannon faiths. Therefore, seeking to impose a set of values upon others and seeking to enforce same through subversive political religiosity can only lead to domination, oppression, marginalisation, injustice and violent insecurity. As Muslims, we must make conscious efforts to roll back Islamism, along with Islamist separatism and political Islam and substitute same with absolute fidelity to Nigeria’s secular constitutionalism. Islamism is not Islam. In a sense, Islamism is Un-Islamic because Islam seeks to convince while Islamism seeks to compel. And there is no compulsion in religion. The most Islamic state is not that is dominated by Muslims and ruled by Sharia laws but one that is plural, secular, democratic and where justice, equity and fairness reigns supreme without prejudice to creed, ethnicity or race.
The intersection between religion and politics has further diminished the vital element of democratic citizenship, which is essential for the democratic process for leadership recruitment as well as decision making process as religion now confers privilege or disadvantage on individuals. This system has ensured that the best doesn’t emerge while the worst continue to misrule.
Conclusion
Islamism and political Islam, which has equally provoked the rise of political Christianity, have left the Muslim north socio-economically backward if not destitute. With heightened insecurity, poverty, illiteracy and disease the Muslim north has embarked on religious and cultural self-immolation, which is threatening to incinerate the entire Nigeria. To reconfigure Nigeria’s political system and rid it off all religious embellishments will require a deliberate participatory political process of a coalition of like minds under the banner of political party, whose objective will be to mobilize Nigerians away from aligning their democratic choices with their ethnicities and religion to common concerns around economic, environmental, social and security interests in their places of residence. And in deciding to elect a political leadership, the consideration should be that that has the right levels of integrity to uphold the spirit, intendment and letters of Nigeria’s secular constitutional order for the purpose of collective good democratic governance. Going forward, our federating units should be detribalized, politics de-religionized and language de-ethnicized in order to restore democratic citizenship. The holy book of our democracy should be the constitution the state religion should be fidelity to constitutionalism.
