LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review cut across
democracy, religion, religious conflicts, ethno- religious political strives, and
the effect religious beliefs have on the growth of democracy, false religious
practices hampering democratic ideals.
Abraham Lincoln (1863) defined
democracy as “the government of the people, by the people and for the people”.
According to the American Heritage
Dictionary of the English language, democracy is “government by the people or
their elected representatives, a political or social unit governed ultimately
by all its members.
Edward Burnett Tylor (1871) defined
religion as “The belief in spiritual begins”.
William James (1902) defined religion
as “The feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so
far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may
consider the divine”. By the term “divine” James meant “any object that is
godlike, whether it be a concrete deity or not’ to which the individual feels
impelled to respond with solemnity and gravity”
Emile Durkheim (1912) defined
religion as a “unified system of believes and practices relative to sacred
things”. By sacred things, he meant things “set apart and forbidden”. Sacred
things are not however, limited to gods or spirit. On the contrary, a sacred
thing can be a “a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a price of wood, a house,
in a word, anything can be sacred”.
Jibrin Ibrahim and Toure Kazah- Toure
(1999) opines that there has been an explosion of political and religious
conflicts in Nigeria since the return of democracy in May 1999. The
expectations that the departure of military rule would reduce arbitrary rule,
allay fears of ethnic and religious persecution, consequently reduce political
tension and conflict have not happened yet. On the contrary, the number of
conflicts has been increasing and their spread has been widening. As the level
of violence grows, their locations are becoming more provincial and the
consequence is that political, ethnic and religious tolerance has been
declining dramatically.
Jibrin Ibrahim (1991) argues that
the usual explanation for the growth of ethno- religious conflicts in Nigeria
is that one majority group or the other is monopolizing power. A closer
appreciation of the political situation in the country will however reveal that
it is simplistic to continue to assume that the steady decline of political and
religious tolerance in the country is a direct result of the political
domination of the country by one or even three hegemons. The Nigeria political
elite have been involved in an intense struggle to have access to what has been
called the national cake. In that process, patterns of political domination are
constantly being transformed. The most significant sociological variable in
Nigeria over the past twenty years is the astronomical growth of the level of
religiosity in society.
Laura Huber (2012) states that ethic
tensions are often connected with religious relations and conflicts as certain
ethnic groups generally identify with a specific religion. Conflicts that may
begin with an ethnic issue can easily take on a religious character and vice
verse. In the north, the predominant religion is Islam which is practiced by
the majority Hausa-Fulani ethnic group. According to the United States
department of state, muslins account for about 50 percent of the population of
Nigeria. In the southern eastern region are Igbo where Christianity is the
major religion and southern western section is the Yoruba’s with a mixture of
Christianity and traditional beliefs. Great diversities still exist within
these religions. For example, both Sunni and Shia muslins live within Nigerian.
Similarly, various members of Christian denominations such Roman catholic,
Anglican, Baptists Methodists etc exist throughout the country.
Aguwa Jude C. (1997) believes that
religious affiliations in Nigeria and historical memories of domination and
oppression create a deep seated fear among Nigerians that their rights and
religion will be violated by their fellow Nigerians. This sense of insecurity
has been cultivated and manipulated throughout Nigerian’s history.
The United States national
intelligence council (2005), revealed that religious strife in Nigeria could
lead to military take over of power. Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of
Nigeria, dismissed it as spurious and the authors of the reports as ‘prophets
of doom”.
Pastor Ladi Thompson (2008);
initiator of Macedonian Initiative (MI) and researcher on religious terrorism,
raised a similar alarm in his publication to that of Untied States national
intelligence council that terrorists (religious terrorists) had infiltrated the
country.
Gwamna Dogara Je’adayibe and Amango
kudu A. (2012) wrote in their publication “sliding towards Armageddon:
revisiting ethno religious crisis in Nigeria” that Nigeria has witnessed violent
ethno-religious crises since the exit of democracy in 1999.The democratic space
seems to have provided the launching pad of these crises. Today, the term
“ethnic-religion conflicts” has become popular due to its religious and ethnic
underpinnings. We seem to be heading towards a precipice of unpleasant
consequences.
Amango Kudu A.et al stated in “sliding
towards Armageddon” that ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria have presented many
challenges that border on security. What we are witnessing according to them
through these crisis is a transfer of aggression from one grievance to innocent
Nigerians. For example, in the Jos crisis, the Hausa –Fulani have been piqued
against Christians instead of confronting plateau state government in order to
resolve their areas of disagreements.
Rev. Fr Kukah (2010) writing on the
politics of the second republic (1979-1983) and the success of the NPN in the
election that took place while citing Louis Cantori’s work, noted that apart
from having the great advantage of old politicians, or because of it, the NPN
displayed a great sense of political ecumenism. The NPN has perfected this
trick of pragmatic politics during the first republic, when, in some
constituencies where it knew its chances were slim, it backed Christian
candidates rather than Muslims. The NPN managed to expand this strategy in
1979, that at that election, it succeeded in moving through the middle belt and
other non-Muslim minorities states with ease of a combined harvester, picking
up the ripe votes on its way to victory. While many watchers or participants in
those elections could have disagreed with this argument, it nevertheless helps
to explain the connection between religion and politics in a particular
context- Nigeria’s complex political terrain.
Louis Cantori (1998) wrote that in
1993, Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Baba Gana kingibe, the presidential and vice presidential
candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) were both Muslims. But
Nigerians regardless of their religious inclinations voted for the joint Muslim
ticket. In fact, most Christians did not support the Muslim/ Christian ticket
of Alhaji Bashir Tofa and Dr. Sylvester Ugoh. But following the nationwide
resistance against the annulment of the June 12 presidential election, religion
was exploited to keep the people divided by General Ibrahim Badamogi Babangida,
himself a Muslim. Since then, religion and ethnicity have been manipulated by vision-less ruling elite to confuse the masses and divert their attention from
the crisis of under development in the land.
Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) (2001) noted in
the forward to the book – the fundamental right to religion, “In the midst of
the search for democratic norms to stabilize the new democracy, religion
ferment is brewing”. Essentially, the core principles that formed the
underlining foundation on which most religious are based include truth, moral
uprightness, love and the unity of all mankind, among others. Some contributors
to the debate on the role of religion in the building of Nigerians democracy
have feared that the prevailing conscious deviation from these principles by
religious leaders and adherents might soon lead to the extinction of religion
as an agent for propelling social change. Even among religious leaders
themselves, concerns have been expressed that the replacement of love, truth,
oneness and unity, which had been the roots on which all faith had been based,
with vices such as self-centeredness, lies and falsehood, greed and hatred bred
by fanaticism, had eroded the respect that was once accorded religion and
religious leaders.
Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa
(1997) in his speech at the second biennial conference of the Pentecostal Fellowship
of Nigeria held in Lagos from February 11 to 13, 1997 quoted by Ananaba, stated
that through the conference the Pentecostals in the country should be able to
identify the genuine ones from the non-genuine ones and to say to the
government, “these are whom we are and these are not ours… false prophets,
money extractors, gamblers, money doublers that are wearing cassocks are suckers
of the public and are not priests. Noting that such imitating shepherds are
everywhere, the PFN president urged government to “help locate these men that
are using tricks to suck people and get money from ….those who are selling
prayers, government should get them arrested. Those who are doubling money in
the church, government should get them arrested.
Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa
(1997) also asserted that the advent of democracy has worsened the above
situation as it has elicited the concerns expressed by him. The situation today
is such that some religious leaders directly engage in large scale corrupt
practices through various subtle means or encourage the governing class in the
act of loathing public funds. Just as the political leaders in the country have
failed to imbibe democratic principles which preach fairness sand equity, they
have found allies among the country’s religious leaders who assist politicians
that have stolen the people’s mandates to conduct thanksgiving service in their
worship places as a way of “thanking” God for making it possible for them to
rig, elections. Why should respected men of God join in celebrating, and even
lead, a ceremony to mark the robbery that has been perpetrated in the polling
stations and other places connected with the process of electioneering? Under
normal circumstance, religious leaders should only adhere to the truth and
follow the path of honour and righteousness, but with due respect, there is a
common deviation from this virtue among most of our religious leaders. Quite a
large section of the populace have lost confidence in leaders who represent
various faiths in the country for the failure of the religious leaders to
support what is right at crucial times rather than lining behind corrupt
politicians who deny the people the benefits that are associated with democratic
governance.
G. A. Akinola (2009) of the
Department of History, University of Ibadan in expressing displeasure at the
negative impact of religion on Nigeria democracy highlighted that “the
neo-Christian unabashed identification of God with mammon has reduced the
teaching of Jesus to a hankering after material success, including the
acquisition of power and influence, often at the expense of the lives and
happiness of others. Since a quasi-blind faith in the new doctrines is
guaranteed a solution to all problems, may evangelicals cultivate or affect a
blank optimism, whose effect is comparable to that of a narcotize merely
“believing” and declaring that all is well, without a reinforcing and pragmatic
ethnic, is yet to produce lasting results, especially in the ness that pervades
the country today.
As Akiatola observed, “the wider
significance of punctilious religious observance, devoid of basic humanity, is
constantly manifested in recurrent sectarian riots and upheavals, particularly
in northern Nigeria. Even the most highly educated of the latter are starkly
ignorant and lacking in creativity with respect to bringing the teaching of
Jesus to bear on societal problems. This is surprising since they are
ill-informed about, or prejudiced against their own culture. Their imported
doctrines, which promise a panacea to all mundane problems, serve only to keep
a hid on popular discontent, to the advantage of reprobate rulers. The latter,
perhaps in appreciation neither tax the churches, nor inquire into the fortunes
they make in the enterprise of commercialized evangelism.