Historically conjoined, religiously disjoined: Religion and Nigeria’s political trajectory since 1986

Abstract

Abstract Nigeria is a motley of about 250 ethnic nationalities spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. This omnibus political union rests on a twin tripod provided by the three major religions namely African Traditional Religion, Islam and Christianity as well as three major ethnic groups: Igbo; Hausa; and Yoruba, though these are not coterminous with the three religions. This study explores the intricate tapestries among religion, ethnicity and politics and its implication for nationhood in Nigeria. The study argues that this interface has created two laws and two nations in Nigeria between whom there is hardly any intercourse. It found entrenched, systematic segregation along ethno‐religious fault lines, and concludes that it is this deliberate exclusion of peoples from the plums of office that has engendered the recurring ethno‐religious upheavals and separatist agitations.