El juicio contencioso administrativo sobre la declaratoria de Expropiación

CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Objectives 3.0 Main Body

3.1 Belief Systems in Nigeria.

3.2 History of Religious Conflicts 3.3 Causes of Religious Conflicts 3.4 Resolving Religious Conflicts 4.0 Conclusions

5.0 Summary

6.0 Tutor Marked Assignment 7.0 References/Further Readings 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Nigeria is made up of a very complex multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi- linguistic and multi-religious society. This, in itself, should have been an advantage and a veritable factor for national unity, national integration and national cohesion. Instead of the plurality of the Nigeria society serving as a catalyst for rapid national development and integration, it is now what is impeding and, therefore, responsible for backwardness and slow developmental phase of the country. Unfortunately, this plurality in culture, language, ethnicity and religion are the very source of conflicts in Nigeria.

In all parts of Nigeria today, there are communal, ethnic, religious and political conflicts that manifest in various forms and are accompanied by ferociousness and destructiveness. These conflicts constitute a threat to the nation’s fledging democracy, national stability and security. Of recent, these conflicts have become more recurring and pervasive as a result of repressed dissatisfaction, disillusionment and frustration of the many years of military rule.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to

i. Describe the different belief systems in Nigeria ii. Explain the history of religious crisis in Nigeria iii. Identify some resolution options.

3.0 MAIN BODY

3.1 Belief Systems in Nigeria

Nigeria is a heterogeneous society. This heterogeneity is also extended to the area of religion. That means that Nigeria is a multi-religious society. In spite of the multiplicity in religion, there are two dominant groups, namely, Christians and Muslims. Along with these main groups, exist those who are referred to as traditional worshippers. These traditional worshippers exist both in the North and South of the country and there are cases of members of the two dominant groups (Christians and Muslims) identifying with and participating in one form of traditional worship or the other. Examples of traditional worships that attract and get the members of other faiths involved are: Eyo festival, New yam festival, Ogun festival, Osun festival, Argungu fishing festival etc. People of other faiths join in these festivals that belong to the religion of traditional worshippers because they see it as helping them to keep in touch with their cultural values. However, there are some other faiths who would not join in these celebrations but are rather preaching against and condemning them.

Suffice to say here that, it is an erroneous belief that the North of the country is a homogeneous society particularly in the area of religion. It is widely believed by many people who are outside the region that the north is made up of the Hausa/Fulani and that Islam is the religion of all the people in the region. However, the truth is that the north of Nigeria, as other parts of the country, is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi- religious society. As a matter of fact, there exist in the north, not only Islam, but also Christianity and Traditional worship.

Before the spread of Islam into the north, there existed a variety of traditional worship. Although, this traditional worship differ from one community to the other, their beliefs revolved around a big distant god referred to as Ubangiji, who is surrounded by intermediaries called Iskoki who are directly in touch with men and control their everyday lives. Till today, we still have these traditional worshippers who are called ‘Magusawa’ in the north of Nigeria.

3.2 Religious Conflicts in Nigeria

Before the coming of the colonialists and after the independence of Nigeria up to the early ‘70s, there was little or no religious conflict aggravating to violence in any part of the country. People had always lived together in harmony, the faith and religion you belong to notwithstanding. In some parts of the country, there were cases where within a family setting, you could find members of the same family belonging to different faiths and living together harmoniously without any conflict arising as a result of differences in their faiths and beliefs.

However, in the late 1970s, our religious climate started changing for the worse with the violent conflict in October, 1977 between Christian and Muslim students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Ever since then the trend has been sustained but the tempo was increased in the early ‘80s with the outbreak of Maitasine riots in Kano in 1980.

The situation was further aggravated by the controversial design of the Federal Military government to join the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in January, 1986.

Both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) began a vicious propaganda against and for Nigeria’s membership of Islamic Organization.

While the Christian Association of Nigeria was calling on Christians to rise up and resist what they termed as the Islamisation of Nigeria, Jama’atu Nasril Islam and other powerful Islamic leaders on the other hand, sponsored demonstrations in favor of joining the OIC and called on Muslims to rise against what they perceived as the domination and marginalization of the Muslim majority by the Christian minority. On both sides, the conflict raged on in the media as well as among the elites who were at each other’s throats. The ordinary people were not left out in this crisis.

It was this crisis that culminated in the clash between Christian and Muslim students at Kafanchan in Kaduna State on 6^th March, 1987 over what was considered a blasphemous remark. The religious clash developed into an inter-ethnic war between the Hausa community and other local ethnic groups. The crisis quickly spread to other towns and villages within the state and scores of mosques, churches, hotels and business centres were burnt and destroyed while several thousands of lives were lost and property worth millions of Naira were also destroyed. It was a crisis where miscreants had a field day. Since then, this type of religious conflicts, particularly between the Muslims and the Christians, has become a recurring decimal cutting across many of our geo-political zones.

Since religion is value-based therefore, people are bound to be emotionally attached and any little whipping up of their sentiment along their religious belief will definitely result into catastrophe. However, it must be stated here that not all conflicts that are classified as religious actually began as one but are either turn into or are named as such because of the religious inclinations of the people involved in the conflict. Examples of conflicts that were regarded as religious conflicts but whose causes are beyond religion are: Fulani-Sayawa in Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi State conflict of 1991; Zango-Kataf crisis of 1992; Jos conflict of April 12, 1994; and the Kaduna crises of 2000 among others.

Conclusively, therefore, religious conflicts are disagreements arising as a result of differences in faith and belief. Many times these conflicts are inter-religions but some times they are intra-religion. An example of an intra-religion conflict was the Maitasine riots, which was between a particular self of Muslims and others who did not belong to this sect.

3.3 Causes of Religious Conflict

Identifying the cause of the conflict between the Christian and the Muslims in Kaduna share that the conflicts were not caused because of the contradiction in the Bible or the Koran. A Muslim cleric identified the cause to be:

“Lack of trust between various ethnic and religious group as a result of deep rooted misconception and stereotyping.

Lack of tolerance, poverty and fear of socio-cultural domination, media reporting, government failure to take action in

previous happening, lack of infrastructure , excruciating poverty and manipulation of the people by retired military officers to achieve their ambitions.”

While a Christian cleric had a similar opinion and he said the following were the causes of conflict:

“The first is the structural imbalance that disfavors the Southern part of the state in term of elections. The basis of this is what he called the “fictitious” census exercise in the state which under counted the southern part

and exaggerated the figures of the Northern parts (Fwa 2003)

The analysis confirm the position of some scholar that, ‘failure to resolve the natural question in an inclusive manner is evident in the varied responses across the country to conflicts over identify, nationality, self-determination and autonomy” (Fwa 2003).

Therefore, we don’t really have a religious conflict, but conflict as a result of socio- economic and political issues that is play up in religious tones weeping up emotions to seek sympathy, knowing that people get existed over religious issues.

3.4 Resolving the “Religious Conflicts in Nigeria

Just like any other conflict, effort to resolve these conflicts have always taken a multi-dimensional approach. Preventions come from both government and non-governmental organization. But the government has always adopted the establishment of Judicial Commissions of Inquiry. One major methodology adopted by he government in an attempt to resolve the conflict is to set up panel of inquiry. The government gives the mandate for each commission, including finding the cause of the conflict. They are advice to make recommendations on bring lasting peace to the conflict. The general consensus is that, the government always lack the political will to implement the recommendation because of some individuals involve.

State Creation Instrument: This is one tool used by successive governments to give a sense of belonging to the people, although this instrument has been a source of conflict too. The choice of the capital of the state or the Local Government headquarters and sometimes the division it brings into the ethnic groups, as one ethnic group could be divided into two states, all these has been sources of conflict.

The Use of Military Force: Federal Government has always resorted to military solutions to stop violence and internal aggression. Although the military government had found this method very helpful, it is very embarrassing to notice it is the civilian regime. There is a great deal of the use of force to stop violence many times, and it has not helped in the restoration of peace and reconciliation.

Peace and Reconciliatory Meetings: This is another method of resolving conflict employed by both the government and the non- governmental organizations. These meeting help to promote peace and reconcile the disputing parties. This strategy tries to appeal to the conscience of the parties to initiate dialogue in resolving their differences.

Self Assessment Exercise

Briefly explain the history of religious conflicts in Nigeria.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Reviewing the causes of these conflicts and the responses to resolving them, it will show clearly that they are not entirely religious conflicts as the bone of contention is not religious, neither are they as a result of religious interpretations, so, they are not religious conflicts, but socio- economic and political conflicts that are presented as religious conflicts.

Many of the perpetrators of the conflicts are people from different religious background engaging in socio – political and economic crises.

There are no textual or contextual interpretations of the religious books leading to any form of conflict. This conclusion they bring us to the question of “are all the conflicts called religious conflict, really religious conflicts or are they socio-economic and political conflicts.

5.0 SUMMARY

This has been able to discuss the belief systems in Nigeria. It also discussed the history of religious conflicts in Nigeria. It went further to examine various causes of religious conflicts I Nigeria and ways of resolving religious conflicts.

6.0. TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)

Identify and describe two religious conflicts in Nigeria, if there are any.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Fwa, K.L (2003) “Ethno Religious Conflict in Kaduna State” in Civil Society and Ethnic Conflict Management in Nigeria . Spectrum Books, Ibadan, Nigeria

Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson and Pamela Aall (eds) (2003) Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict.

United States Institute for Peace Press. Washington DC