Religion & National Integration in Nigeria
By: Ibrahim Sa'adu a.k.a gco (B. Sc Sociology)
INTRODUCTION
RELIGION can be seen as a set of beliefs concerning
the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the
creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual
observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
NATIONAL INTEGRATION on the other hand, is the awareness of a common identity amongst the
citizens of a country. It means that though we belong to different castes, religions
and regions and speak different languages we recognize the fact that we are all
one. This kind of integration is very important in the building of a strong and
prosperous nation.
OVERVIEW
Nigeria
is a diverse country with about 150 Million people; it is multi-cultural,
multi-ethnic and multi-religious; hugely pluralistic and clearly heterogeneous.
In fact, the beauty and strength of its existence as a nation lie in the
variety and unity of its set up. Imagine the complexities and divergences that
exist in the stretch from Port Harcourt to Sokoto; from Lagos to Maiduguri, or
from Enugu to Yola. The geographical landscape of the country varies,
stretching from the Sahel Savannah in the far North to the rain forest down
South, just like the people who are also remarkably unique in their individual
outlooks and orientations, but united in their humanity. These diversities are
evidently manifested in the citizens’ cultural and religious practices. For
instance, there are more than 400 documented ethnic groups across the land
comprising of millions of people who are adherents of the two major religions
of Islam and Christianity and, to a lesser extent, the traditional religion
(Albert, 2002). The citizens are religious in profession and even the Constitution
is religious, as it begins with the words “UNDER GOD”, though the Nation has
not adopted any religion as a State Religion. God is centrally considered in
the affairs of the people.
Most
Nigerians adhere to the two religions, though, it is widely known that there
are differences in their understanding and projections of the religions both at
the intra and inter group levels. For instance, in spite of the fact that all
Muslims are united in their belief of the fundamental pillars of the religion,
many of them, however, differ in their actions, sometimes determined by
sectarian variation. The story is similar among the Christians. But that is not
the main problem; rather the politicization, manipulation or outright
mischievous projection of these sectarian differences or identities combined
with ignorance and deep seated suspicions and stereotypes are what often
resulted into violent shocks and conflicts at the intra and inter group levels
with severe consequences on the security and integration of the Nation (Pate,
2010).
A number of
factors account for the explosion in sectarian violence in the country. The
first is ignorance or insufficient understanding of the teachings of the
religions. For instance, Muslims are enjoined to live as far as possible in the
Islamic State. But, they are also taught to live with others (non-Muslims) and
to treat these others well. All Mankind is informed and reminded by Islam in
the Holy Qur’an that Allah created them from a Male and a Female, and made them
into nations and tribes , only so that they may know one another and that the
most honourable with Allah is the one who fears Allah most (Hujurat (49: 13).
In other words, we are all created equal regardless of gender, race or
nationality. Not only should Muslims treat all people as equal, but treat them
with respect, speak good to people (Baqarah (2): 83) and make peace among all
(fear God and make peace among (all) humans (Baqarah (2):) For the avoidance of
doubt, the Qur’an discourages Muslims from raucous arguments with the followers
of the other Religions of the Book (Christians and Jews) except to invite them
to slam through civility, good words, good manners, and good example Aminu,
2003).
The second factor
relates to aspects of politicization where individuals in particular places in
the country describe their religion or ethnic group as the majority or minority
for the sake of access to resources. Huge energies are expended and wild
arguments thrown around on who is the majority, minority, etc. Through careless
handling, some of these arguments degenerate into violent ethnic or religious
conflict that tends to be extremely savage and bloody with no end, because
neither group can effectively, let alone permanently, neutralize the other.
Failure to live in peace is thus not only lack of common sense; it is a charter
for periodic genocidal bloodletting. Both the Christians and Muslims should
know that, particularly the ordinary people who are the cannon fodder of these
senseless conflicts
Furthermore,
factors like lack of appreciation of different cultures, intolerance, poverty
and institutional fragility also fuel the degeneration in the appreciation of
issues of religious diversity in the country. Nigeria with about 150 million people has numerous cultural backgrounds.
Religious intolerance is rooting weaknesses and contempt against each other’s
religion. Such attitude still may lead to frictions misunderstanding,
discordance, hostility and confrontation. Islam, as a matter of fact, abhors
every traces of intolerance to the extent of giving serious warning in the
Quran that; “there is no compulsion in the religion”. Many adherents are
ignorant about their religious teachings and ultimately resort demonstrating
anti-religious behaviors. Others are: unemployment, influences of
international extremists, shallow media coverage, localization of knowledge and
spread of provincialism among young people, and similar factors contribute to
the promotion of singularity of identities with the attendant consequence on diversity
and multicultural outlook of individual and collective identities in the
country (Sen, 2006). All of these impacts negatively on the tolerance level of
Nigerians of diverse religions, which are reinforced by the poverty of ideas in
the body politics and the irresponsible behavior of the elites
Thus, for the
promotion of religious diversity for strengthening of Nigeria’s national
integration, we may need to positively consider the following: Promote general
knowledge about Nigeria among the people. The understanding of the Nigerian
nation and its citizens in terms of geography, history, sociological and
anthropological set ups and other basic information that can foster the spirit
of empathy are grossly deficient. This is why today even basic arguments on
general issues of governance are easily and stoutly localized into the ethnic
or religious prisms. Matters arising are simplistically ethicized or
religionised to the detriment of the collective good.
·
Promote
effective transformational leaderships that lead by examples; if the political
leadership appreciates the enormity of the challenge, it could strengthen
existing policies that promote mixing up in schools where young people of
diverse backgrounds are encouraged to learn in communities outside of their own
(others like excursions, sports, etc)
·
Strengthening
of weak institutions like the media, transport system, etc to encourage free
flow of ideas and goods and services across narrow boundaries (e.g. SW
broadcasting, railways, etc.)
·
Promote
active debates on democracy and related ideological issues to expand the
democratic space so that people would have enough to talk on instead of denying
them the opportunity to openly debate on such issues thereby confining their
imaginations to their ethnic and religious groups. We have to encourage open
debates on issues across ethno-religious boundaries.
·
Address
the challenges of poverty and mass unemployment in a more creative manner.
Poverty promotes desperation making the poor to believe any false proposition
made to him to exit from poverty. So, to reduce the vulnerability of the poor
to mischief makers, their conditions must be ameliorated
REFERENCES
i.
Aminu,
Jibril (2006). Regionalism and National integration in Democratic Polity.
Annual Distinguished Lecture, 2005.
ii.
Elaigwu,
Isawa (2004). Quoted in Newswatch Magazine, Nov 2, 2009
iii.
Amartya,
Sen (2006). Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. New York: W.W.
Norton.
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