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Title: | Religion, Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria |
Author: | Kukah, Matthew Hassan |
Year: | 1993 |
Pages: | 280 |
Language: | English |
City of publisher: | Ibadan |
Publisher: | Spectrum in association with Safari Books |
ISBN: | 9782461962 |
Geographic terms: | Nigeria Northern Nigeria |
Subjects: | Islam Church and State political conditions 1950-1999 law Muslim-Christian relations Shari'a |
Abstract: | Northern Nigeria is the focal point for Nigerian politics, whether defined in terms of North/South political intrigues, or on the basis of Islam and Christianity. The Christian response to Islam in Northern Nigeria has been shaped by both the geographical and religious realities of the region. The Middle Belt, with its clusters of Christians and traditional religious worshippers, remains central to the geopolitical calculations of the ruling classes in the North and the South, each laying claims on a different basis: the North on the basis of geographical contiguity, the South on the basis of religious brotherhood. The author examines the emergence of the Hausa-Fulani hegemony (1950-1965) as distinct from the emergence of Northern hegemony (1966-1976), and the mechanism for defending Northern interests as seen in the use of the New Nigerian Newspapers Ltd. and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (Kaduna). He describes the political implications of the sharia question and considers the manipulation of religion to serve political ends. Finally, he focuses on the riots in Kaduna State in 1987 and looks at how the military has used religion as a political platform, with emphasis on the concept of secularity and the Babangida agenda. |