USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria's Religious Policy

Religious Policy, Nigerians and the State

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 7th March 2016

The essence of the religious policy of the Nigerian state is best
expressed by Section Ten of the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions which
carry a short prohibition section stating: "The Government of the
Federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as a State
Religion." This formulation followed the acrimonious debate in the
1978 Constituent Assembly over the establishment of a Shari'a Court of
Appeal. Specifically, many Christians saw the suggestion as the first
step towards the establishment of an Islamic state in the country.
Muslims on the other hand argued that the established of the Appeal
Court was a logical extension of the existence of inferior Shari'a
courts, which Muslims had been demanding for, for a long time. In the
compromise that emerged, the Shari'a Court of Appeal was established
but its appellate jurisdiction was limited to civil law. The Shari'a
question entered a new phase on 27th October 1999 when the then
Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima of Zamfara state inaugurated the adoption
of the Shari'a legal system, which took effect from 27th January 2000.
The Zamfara Law extended the application of Shari'a from personal law
to criminal law. Following the Zamfara example, eleven other Muslim
dominated states in the North also adopted similar laws.

Constitutional provisions often reflect mediating between difficult
choices and that is the reality of Section Ten. In general, Christian
activists have argued for a secular clause while Muslim activists
consistently opposed the idea of a secular provision in the
Constitution respectively. The formulation in Section 10 was done by
the Obasanjo Administration in 1979 in such a way as to assure each
group that the Constitution respects its core values. To satisfy
Muslim concerns, the word secularism is not used in the Constitution.
To satisfy the Christians, the Grand Norm provides a guarantee against
the adoption of a state religion. To achieve this dual purpose, the
formulation of Section 10 has to a certain extent been coined to be
deliberately ambiguous. The result has been constant haggling over the
"true" meaning of Section 10. While some have argued that the
provision guarantees secularism, others have contested the assertion.
The major problem with the provision is that it appears to allow for
preferential treatment to be accorded to particular religions without
formally adopting the said religion as a state religion.

The 1989 Constituent Assembly tried to clarify the situation by
formulating a less ambiguous provision: "No Government shall overtly
or covertly give preferential treatment to any particular religion".
This formulation was however rejected on the grounds that Nigerians
are a very religious people so their state cannot hands off from
religion. Indeed, the Preamble to the Nigerian Constitution declares
the resolve of Nigerians: "To live in unity and harmony as one
indivisible and indissoluble Sovereign Nation under God." The question
that is posed therefore is how can such a country in which the resolve
to obey and live under God's guidance has become an article of faith
declare itself to be secular. Many Nigerians, not all, have come to
accept that the State has a duty to sponsor or promote religious
education and pilgrimages.

Section 10 expresses a political choice for an ambiguous formulation
deliberately made to allow political actors have more room to make
public policy choices on the terrain. It is this ambiguity that has
created the conditions for the political crisis over the introduction
of Shari'a criminal laws in some states in 1999. What was interesting
about that debate was that each side interpreted the provision in a
manner that supports particular conceptions of Nigeria's political
order – federalism. The basic principle of federalism is that such
problems have to be politically negotiated. Section 10 allows us to do
that and is therefore adequate for our current needs.

The most important objective of the religious policy of the state is
to guarantee religious freedom. Section 38 (1) in Chapter four of the
Constitution on Fundamental Human Rights has clear provisions on
religious rights. "Every person shall be entitled to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his
religion or belief and freedom (either alone or in community with
others, and in public or in private), to manifest and propagate his
religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance." Of
course this right can only be exercised by adults. The problem that
usually arises is that this constitutionally entrenched right is often
breached in practice. It is therefore imperative the state makes
constant efforts to protect this right.

One of the most important reasons why religion has become such a
contentious issue is that basic policy decisions are often not
implemented in Nigeria. Section 38 (2) and (3) in Chapter four of the
Constitution has clear provisions on the rights of people to receive
religious instructions of their choice. "No person attending any place
of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to
take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such
instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than
his own, or a religion not approved by his parent or guardian. No
religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing
religious instruction to pupils of that community or denomination in
any place of education maintained wholly by that community or
denomination." The reality in many of our schools however is that some
pupils and students in different parts of the country are obliged to
take religious instructions they have not chosen to take. Religious
courses in particular, are often denied or imposed on students. All
educational institutions must guarantee the freedom of worship to
their pupils and students, especially those from minority faiths.

Religion has remained a bastion of conservative practices that often
work against the interest of women. Within the Christian tradition,
one of the legacies of Christian missions and colonial influence in
Nigeria relates to the underdevelopment of girl education. Education
for girls followed the gender stereotypes of Victorian England in
which the utility of female education was de-emphasised. The same case
has been made for Islam in which conservative and erroneous readings
of religious tenets have been used to discourage girl child education
and promote girl child marriage. In general, states should desist from
supporting oppressive and anti-democratic forces in their use of
'religion' against women. At the same time, there is a need to subject
official discourses on gender to greater scrutiny, critical analysis
and public debate.

One of the disturbing developments in the country is the systematic
denial of land to certain religious groups to build places of worship.
In such places, the groups denied such land allocations have resorted
to securing land meant for residential purposes from the commercial
market and erecting their places of worship in such places. They are
in turn harassed for not adhering to planning rules and the result is
attempts to destroy such places of worship and the heightening of
tensions. It is important that all state governments must have
policies that guarantee the acquisition of land for building places of
worship to all religious groups.

The Constitution guarantees the right to proselytization. There is
however no standard content of what can or cannot be preached. Often
therefore, extremist views as well inflammatory and provocative
speeches and hate speech are routinely preached. It is imperative that
such behaviour should stop if we are to promote religious harmony.
Nigerians need to consciously promote civility towards each other.
Polished and refined manners are expressions of respect for other
members of society. It is a pre-condition for democratic practice as
citizenship cannot be effective if the rights and the dignity of the
person are not respected. Part of the African tragedy is that refined
and civil manners, which are essential elements of socialisation in
most traditional societies, have been eroded by economic crises, state
terrorism, hunger and the parochial politics of authoritarian leaders,
which have pushed people into losing respect for their neighbours.
What has not been sufficiently emphasised is that many active
religious movements have an even more effective capacity and record of
inculcating intolerance, an ideology of contempt and exclusion and
indeed, incitement to annihilate the other.

One of the most important sociological traits of contemporary Nigeria
is that religiosity, that is, the intensity of the performance of
religious rituals has increased significantly over the past three
decades. At the same time, the level of ignorance people have of the
basic tenets of their own religion and the religions of others remains
high. The promotion of religious education aimed at eliminating
religious bigotry rooted in ignorance is imperative. The younger
generation should be educated in such a way that they can question
religious interpretations that encourage extremism, hate speech and
action towards others.






--
Jibrin Ibrahim PhD
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development
16 A7 Street,
CITEC Mbora Estate,
Jabi/Airport Road By-pass,
P.O.Box14345, Wuse
Abuja, Nigeria
Tel - +234 8053913837
Twitter- @jibrinibrahim17
Facebook- jibrin.ibrahim

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