AN ANALYSIS OF RELIGION AND POLITICAL CRISIS IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF KADUNA STATE)

AN ANALYSIS OF RELIGION AND POLITICAL CRISIS IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF KADUNA STATE)

Background of the study

Since the early 1970s, Kaduna State has experienced various forms of conflict. Additionally, Kaduna State has become divided along religious, ethnic and socio-cultural lines with different beliefs and traditions. On the one hand there is the northern and Islamic Hausa/Fulani ethnicity, and on the other there are the southern indigenous communities that are predominantly Christian. The northern part of Kaduna State became dominated by Hausa-Fulani Muslims and the indigenous Christian communities migrated to Southern Kaduna. Settlements based around religious affiliation and ethnic groups became replicated in major towns such as Zonkwa, Kafanchan and Kachia. Religion and ethnicity have become factors that generate identity conflict. Mutual distrust between communities and religious groups has grown so much that people place sectarian division over and above the common interest.

Violent conflict is a great predicament in any human society, and most times, it is predictable. While history shows that conflict is ubiquitous and often useful element in human relations and may occur within and among individuals and groups, violent conflict is rarely productive. In the case of Nigeria, one of the several types of violent conflicts that constantly plague the socio-political history of the nation is the sort of conflict that is based on, or centrally involves, religious differences. Such 'religious conflicts' are quite frequent and occur mostly between the Christian and Muslim population in the Northern part of the country. These conflicts have resulted in the loss of lives and property and have tremendously fractured the Christian-Muslim relationship in the country. Furthermore conflicts and crises as Onabanjo (2011) observes, have also hindered genuine national integration more than fifty years after Nigeria's independence thus raising serious concerns on the unity of the nation. In this vein, several debates and attempts have been made towards resolving the many crises facing Nigeria. This study seeks to contribute in this direction. The notion of a conflict can be understood in several ways. In the view of Barker et.al (1987) the potential for conflict subsists whenever and wherever people have contact. As people are organized into groups to seek a common goal, the probability of conflict greatly increases. Conflicts may occur at several levels and include families, friends and colleagues at work place. Conflict has also been regarded as a strategy and an attempt to coerce power when and where understanding and reason fall short. Religion could serve, and has indeed served as an instrument of social harmony in many civilisations. Paradoxically, however, it has also served as a motivation for violence, hence its indication in some literature as a ‘double-edged sword’ (Maregere 2011:17–23; Obasi 2009). From time immemorial, religious bigots have attempted to legitimise violence in the name of God. Contemporary acts of extreme violence such as terrorist attacks are often justified as ‘holy warfare’. In the past two decades, religion has been at the centre of most violent conflicts around the world, thereby gaining notoriety as one of the prime security challenges confronting the world in the wake of the Cold War (Juergensmeyer 2000:6; Abu-Nimer 2000). A study conducted in Spain has found that societies that are divided along religious lines are more prone to intense and prolonged conflict than those divided by political, territorial and ethnic differences (Reynal-Querol 2002). Perhaps this reality explains the prime position that religious violence occupies on Nigeria’s security pyramid. As we shall see in this article, religiously motivated violence has plagued the country more than any other security challenge. There are several causal diagnoses of religious conflicts in Nigeria, but much of the literature in this area pay premium attention to the underlying sociopolitical, economic and governance factors that precipitate, not only religious, but violent conflicts generally. This article presents, as a point of departure, an analytical inquiry into the immediate and visible factors that have triggered religious conflicts in the country. Primarily, this article identifies the immediate and visible drivers of religious violence in Nigeria and evaluates the management strategies that the Nigerian state had adopted for its containment over the years. It concludes by making recommendations to the various religious communities in Nigeria as well as the Nigerian state on appropriate strategies for managing religious violence. As noted earlier, religion sometimes plays significant roles in communal harmony; yet it is often instrumentalised for political and other established interests to the detriment of peace and social harmony. This article is therefore intent on objectively critiquing the negative deployment of religion as an instrument for social disharmony. In religious conflicts, it is not clear which aims are to be achieved. Gofwen (2004) regards political aims as primary; in his view, religious conflicts form a specific form of conflict between groups which differ ideologically along religious lines within a pluralistic setting with each striving for political relevance. In a similar vein, Takaya (1992) emphasizes the political import of religions Religions are parochial and emotional socializers. They specialize in building one-faith exclusive brotherhood communities; Religion, at some point, is politics and is the most potent and long lasting political association. Moreover, religious creeds excite and extract the deepest possible emotional and physical loyalties from their adherents when in political competition with people of other faiths.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Political marginalization, ethnicity and religious politics has constituted a major stumbling block to the development of Nigerian politics. Though many are of the opinion that it is not democratic in nature as such it application in the Nigeria setting has been questionable, as some also posit that it does not give room for the best brains to be elected. It is on this backdrop that the researcher intends to examine the analysis of religion and political crisis in Nigeria. It is in light of this that this study aims at analyzing religious and political crises in Nigeria.

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