Ranking next to ethnicity is religious identity. In fact, in parts of the North commonly referred to as the ‘core’ or ‘Hausa-Fulani North’ – which is roughly coterminous with those states that adopted Sharia law in the Fourth Republic – religious identity is more critical than ethnic identity and in fact serves to activate ethnicity. Thus, among Nigeria’s “two largest ethnic groupings, the [southern] Yoruba were considerably more prone to define themselves ethnically… than were the [northern] Hausa-Fulani …who rather opted for a religious [Muslim] identity”. Religious identities in Nigeria are usually classified into three – Christian, Muslim and Traditional. Of
the three, traditional religions is the least politically active; numbering several hundreds of ethnic groups and subgroups, villages, clans and kin groups; and, involving the worship of different gods and goddesses. However, in parts of the Kogi, Kwara, and Nassarawa states, masquerade activities associated with traditional religion have been a major source of conflicts. In effect, Christian and Muslim identities have been the mainstay of religious differentiation and conflict, with Nigerian Muslims much more likely to evince or articulate a religious identity than Christians. We have already referred to how this differentiation underlies the North-South cleavage (in terms of the North being predominantly Muslim and the South predominantly Christian) and sharpens ethnic cleavages in the North.
However, underneath the broad Christian-Muslim categories are several sub-cleavages that have at one time or the other been politically salient or have the potential to be, and have generated intra-group conflicts. Among Christians, there are several denominations, including: the Protestants (Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran), the Catholics, the Evangelical Church of West Africa, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a host of ‘home-grown’, ‘white garment’ (Aladura and Celestial) and Pentecostal churches. Pentecostal churches, which by some accounts represent the fundamentalist segment of Christianity in the country, have witnessed a rapid growth in number in the recent past with many adherents, especially youths, crossing over from the older and more traditional denominations. Through umbrella bodies like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), and the Catholic Bishops Conference, churches have played important roles as an integral part of civil society in anti-military struggles and democratization.
But even so, the politicization of Christianity has been largely dependent on the moves made by Muslims and interventions by the state. Nevertheless, Protestant-Catholic cleavages have been a major factor in elections among the Igbo of the southeast.
Muslims on the other hand belong to different sects, including the Ahmadiyya, Sanusiyya, Tijanniyya and Quadriyya, among which there have been conflicts. There are also some umbrella organizations, which aim at the propagation of Islam. One of these is the Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), which was founded by the Sardauna of Sokoto in 1961. Following the Iranian Islamic revolution of the 1970s, there was a surge of radical and fundamentalist activities especially among Muslim youths. This was the context within which some fundamentalist Muslim sects, notably the Maitatsine, Izala movement, the Muslim Brothers or Shiites, and most recently the Talibans emerged to demand, amongst others: purist Islam based on Sharia law; the eradication of heretical innovations; and, the establishment of an Islamic state or theocracy. The activities of these sects were a major precipitant of the religious conflicts that proliferated the Northern political landscape in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of these involved conflicts between Muslims and Christians, with clear ethnic undertones, but some especially those involving the Izala, also entailed anti-state mobilization. Factors that have accentuated the politicisation of Muslim identities include: state policies and interventions, which Christians allege are pro-Muslim (state sponsorship of pilgrimage to Mecca and membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference – OIC – are cases in point); the attempts to extend Sharia law to the federal level; and the adoption of Sharia law as the basic law by a number of states.
