Religious Conflict in Nigeria: Impact on Nation Building
Author(s)
Aguwa, Jude C.
Abstract
This paper discusses the danger of the use of religion to attain political ends. It focuses on Islam and Christianity and these religions’ attitudes to the secularity of the Nigeria state. It examines the danger of equivocations by governments who have sympathy for a particular religion and how this partisanship fuels fundamentalism, fanaticism and conflicts. Recommendations for dialogue and tolerance are presented through the example of the Yoruba, a major Nigerian ethnic group which so far appears to accommodate traditional religion, Islam and Christianity with relative success. As the experience of the negative impact on nation building is common in many other African countries this discussion can have relevance in the wider African context.
