Political Violence in Nigeria: The Role of the Church (original) (raw)

Causes and dynamic of political violence in Nigeria 1

Critical examination of the causes of the political violence in Nigeria revealed that the immediate causes of the phenomenon in the country include the imposition of candidates on party members. The Others are, lack of democratic institutions and culture; the prevailing political mind of-set of do -or die and winner takes-all; partisanship of law enforcement agencies; lack of prompt judicial response to the cases of electoral offences, the general socioeconomic downturn that has rather remained unaddressed over the years. This leads to key question: Is there a role and message that religion brings which can help to achieve a safer and more peaceful world? This is the burden of this paper. The paper is of the opinion that Islam advocates a system of representative government and sets down capacity and integrity as the only conditions that should govern the election to the offices. According to Islam the privilege to rule is a trust, not rights; Islam teaches equality and balance such that society should not allow itself to become polarised; Islam therefore enjoins upon the rulers to remain always impartial judges between the citizens. Islam believes that conflicts often stem from inequality and injustice. The paper concludes that if the government was to adopt and take care of the principles of equality and justice for all, and ensure that no party is allowed to become deprived or lose hope, this would ultimately restore the social and political peace into the country.

Ethno-Religious Factor and the Menace of Election Violence in Nigeria

Journal of Culture, Society and Development, 2020

Elections in Nigeria have been characterized by high scale of electoral malpractices, money politics, electoral violence and the use of ethno-religious divide strategy by political elite in order to influence the majority votes, claimed and announced as authentic election winners, these phenomenon's has dominate Nigerian electoral process since the return of democracy in Nigeria during 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 elections. Electoral violence is one of the strategies employed by Nigerian politicians during electioneering period to win election by illegal and dubious means. Desperate challenges of democratic governance operations and poor attitude of our leaders in Nigeria whose fails to meet the public demand of protecting lives and property as well as citizens welfare provision, the power drunk politicians often sponsor unemployed youths and stark illiterates to carry out assaults on their perceived political opponents with a view to manipulating election results to their own advantage. Therefore, this paper discusses electoral violence in the context of religion and its implication for sustainable development. Since electoral violence has been the bane of political stability and development in Nigeria. The researcher has uses secondary source of data to reviewed various literature on the subject matter to investigate the problem of election violence connecting it with religious or ethnic factor differences and used Karl Marx's dialectical materialism theory on the discussion of the problems of election violence in Nigeria. This paper has made an in-depth analysis of electoral violence in Nigeria with particular focus on the Fourth Republic. The paper was of the view that right application of religious teaching, moral values is considered to be a veritable tool for ensuring violence free elections, which will guaranteed development of democracy in Nigeria.

Religious Overview of Post Election in Nigeria: Challenges for National Development

The aim of this paper is to explore post-election violence in Nigeria and the role religion plays in Nigeria"s political processes especially during electoral processes. The work adopts the historical methodology to analyze the profound influence of religion in shaping the character of partisan politics in Nigeria and finds that politics in Nigeria has always been based on ethnic and religious considerations. Moreover, Nigerian politicians exploit the emotive power of religion in their quests for electoral offices. This leads to conflict resulting in violent destruction of lives and property. This unpleasant situation poses grave challenges to the development of the country as both local and international investors do not commit their resources investing in an unsafe environment. The paper recommends political education through sensitization and effective security measures to check violence. It concludes that politicians should put national interest above personal gains by accepting the outcome of election results so as to enhance and sustain developmental strides in Nigeria.

Persisting Political Influence on Religious Crisis in Nigeria

2020

One of the deadly perils that bedevil the contemporary Nigerian state is the phenomenological interface between politics and religion as co-principalities for the insinuation and perpetration of conflicts in the society. Standing on the functionalist view point, this paper argues that being a very popular religious country, Nigerian political system has not utilized such wealth of religious experience of both the politicians and the citizenry to advance a worthy paradigm for fair and peaceful democracy. Positing that the negligence of the use of moral sanity of religion results to poor governance in the country, the study maintains that religious crisis, insurgence, poverty and social crimes are traceable to poor performance in governance from the political office holders in the country. Consequently, religion seems to have been politicized, stripped of the didactic capabilities and converted to weapon of political tension, trauma, extra-judicial killing, oppression and insecurity i...

Politics for God: Religion, Politics and Conflict in Democratic Nigeria

Nigerians have been observed to be more loyal to religion than the state. This is manifested in the growing trend of religiosity, the phenomenal rise in the number of worship centres and influential clergies in Nigeria today. In this regard, this paper discusses the phenomenon of religious politics in the present democratic regime of Nigeria. It also highlights the series of recent conflicts, situated within the context of a growing theoretical discussion on the global resurgence of religion in politics, and its significance to modern politics and how this accounts for increasing manners of conflict in different states. Thus, this paper advocates for the assignment of dignified roles for religious leaders in the constitution in order to reduce the tension that usually accompanies religious politics in Nigeria.

THE USE, MISUSE OF RELIGION AND IMPLICATIONS IN NIGERIAN POLITICS

2ND NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF POLYTECHNICS (ASUP), 2015

Religions, especially (Islam and traditional) have for long period of time even prior to colonial domination determined both spiritual and temporal lives of our people. In fact, in some places like the Sokoto Caliphate and Oduduwa Empire, Islam and traditional religions had shaped and influenced both private and state matters. Today, Nigerians follow different religions but majority are either Muslims or Christians who apart from their differences share many religious provisions as in peace, justice, tolerance, offences and punishments. The Role played by religion in Nigerian politics has at the recent times increased and heated the polity so much that it (the religion) is now used and misused for political and other ends with negative implications on the religions, body polity, social coexistence, unity and development of the country itself. From colonial to the independence period and adoption of secular state, religious role has been relegated to personal lives and silent in politics until in the late 1970s. From then on, religion has continued to gain prominence in Nigeria’s political activities and politicians have come to use it for both good and bad ends. This paper explores the complex and confused relations of religion and politics in the art of Nigerian politics. The paper used secondary sources of data, and among others the following were found: that Nigerians vary on issues of religion and politics and to some beliefs like Muslims, politics is inseparable from religion and so they go together; Nigerians are so much attached to their respective religions; all religious adherents use it to achieve some other ends; the religions mean a lot and are very sensitive to Nigerians. The study found that: failure of the state and the leadership to discharge their obligations has largely contributed to the proliferation of religious misuse in politics and most Nigerian politicians have resorted to use of religion as a cheap means of vote catching device; most Nigerians have been lured into religious politicking; misuse of religion by politicians has led to excessive ethno-religious and sectional divisions and lack of trust of one another among the various religions and their adherents; use and misuse of religion has heated the polity (Sharia, elections, North-South divide, etc.); created unhealthy religious and political rivalry among Nigerians and as a result, most political activities especially elections are today largely influenced by religious intonations. The paper recommends among others: extensive religious education, proper and extensive enlightenment on religious and social coexistence, extensive civic education, proper control of religious preaching and other activities, proper dispensation of social justice among Nigerians, control and guarding politicians in their actions and utterances, ensuring properly regulated campaigns/political activities, especially during elections and adequate and equitable distribution of social amenities.

Religious Violence in Contemporary Nigeria: Implications and Options for Peace and Stability Order

2016

The article looks at the rising incidence of religious violence in Nigeria. It also investigates the causes and the implications of religious violence for a peace and stability order in contemporary Nigeria. The prospect for combating this religious violence is equally examined. The method of approach is purely from written sources which comprise of documents, monographs, manuscripts, books, journals as well as magazines. The study reveals that the religious violence in Nigeria has claimed many lives and property worth billions of Naira. The violence has not helped in the growth and development of the nation. However, education, tolerance, dialogue and reconciliation among others should serve as tools with which to douse the social violence that emerges from the practice of religion in Nigeria. This will ensure peaceful co-existence of Christians, Muslims, Traditionalists and members of other religions. This would also help in the restoration of a peace, security, growth and stabili...

VIOLENCE AS A RECURRING THEME IN NIGERIA'S POLITICS

Violence employed as a tool of political engagement is a prominent feature in politics overtime. Similarly, Nigeria, a product of colonialism is also not an exception to this adopted tool of power relations. This paper aims to bring to fore various deeds of violence and also examines the rationale behind its incessant presence in the politics of the country. The study shows that the struggle for power among dis-unified elites in Nigeria is shrouded with economic ends and this consequently makes power play a 'do or die' affair. This results in several political assassinations, arsons, destruction of properties etc. The paper therefore, argues that unless the basis for power struggle which is to gain exorbitant economic advantage is religiously dealt with, that is, making political office holder as no one else other than normal civil servants and also strengthening key institutions of coercion and electioneering, political violence which has become endemic, will only continue to rear its ugly head in the politics of the nation

Religious Violence and National Security in Nigeria, 1999 – 201

Journal of Advance Public Policy and International Affairs (JAPPIA)

Nigeria which is multi-ethnic and multi-religious in nature is faced with religious violence. Religion that supposed to be a unifying factor among several ethnic groups in Nigeria has turned out to be one of the catalysts that are causing destruction of lives and properties due to narrow-mindedness, misunderstanding, fundamentalism and fanaticism of religious adherents. Several political problems take on religious dimensions; manipulated by politics, poverty, illiteracy and ignorance in Nigeria. Violence based on religious affiliation and religious policies have indeed caused physical and psychological damage to several people thereby legitimising religious schism among Nigerians who simply have different religious affiliations. This upheaval threatens the national security of the country. Thus, study will make use of survey methodology in examining the effect of religious violence in Nigeria from 1999 to 2011 and intends to find out how religion which has been the bone of contention can bring peaceful co-existence.