RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS

RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

 1.0     Introduction 

Many will attest to it that the Jos crisis vividly exemplifies or by locus classicus describes a rancorous experience against religious intolerance. In a nation bound with vast geographic and vast ethnic and religious differences, these religious differences aid conflict which is a basis for showing religious biases and prejudices with the adherents being too fundamentalistic and extremistic in nature.

Naturally, the psycho-social description of man shows him as genetically selfish, fighting for his own interest alone. However, this does not necessarily explain or construe the religious nature of man. With various descriptions of the religious nature of man especially Africans, Mbiti have described him as ‘notoriously religious’.¹ Maybe this can adequately give a hypothesis for action that is behind religious conflict in Nigeria. But how rational or how plausible is it for two notable religions to fight against each other, killing and giving a psychological aftermath or psycho-negative effect since God can neither be described as a Christian nor a Muslim?

However, the underlying principle for religious conflict is not purely religious but also political as we have seen in the last six years with the encounter with the Islamic fundamentalist known as Boko Haram.  The episodes of mass killing structured or engineered by this extremism is enormous. However, all written above has not defined what religious conflict is but has only given us an introduction to what the researcher tends to discuss.

1.1       Background to the study

RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS