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Site 1: "COLONIALISM, SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND CLASS FORMATION: IMPLICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA"

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Site 1: "COLONIALISM, SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND CLASS FORMATION: IMPLICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA"

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After the British government assumed direct control of the Royal Niger Company's territories, the northern areas were renamed the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, and the land in the Niger delta and along the lower reaches of the river was added to the Niger Coast Protectorate, which was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Lagos remained the capital of the south, with Zungeru the new capital of the north. On January 1, 1914, following the recommendations of Sir Frederick Lugard, the two protectorates were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria under a single governor-general resident in Lagos. Between 1919 and 1954 the title reverted to governor.

Following Lugard's success in the north, he set out the principles of the administrative system subsequently institutionalized as " indirect rule." Essentially, local government was to be left in the hands of the traditional chiefs, subject to the guidance of European officers. Native institutions were utilized and interference with local customs kept to a minimum, although the British did not always understand the local customs. While this system had built-in contradictions, over the years the Nigerian system developed into a sophisticated form of local government, especially in the emirates and under the banner of "native administration," which became the hallmark of British colonial rule in Africa.

Many changes accompanied British rule: Western education, the English language, and Christianity spread during the period; new forms of money, transportation, and communication were developed; and the Nigerian economy became based on the export of cash crops. Areas with lucrative crops such as cacao and peanuts (groundnuts) profited, while many people in different parts of the country had to migrate to work elsewhere as tenant farmers or use their newly acquired education and skills to work in cities as wage earners, traders, and artisans. Two tiers of government emerged, central and local. The central government, presided over by the governor-general and accountable to the secretary for the colonies in London, was more powerful but distant from the people. Local administration, where the colonial citizens typically experienced colonial authority, was based on the policy of indirect rule first developed in the north.

To prevent any united opposition to its authority, the British adopted a divide-and-rule policy, keeping Nigerian groups separate from one another as much as possible. Traditional authorities were co-opted in the north, where the spread of Western education by Christian missionaries was strongly resisted by Muslim leaders. In the south the British occasionally created a political hierarchy where there had been none before; in most cases they ruled through those who were most malleable, whether these people had held traditional positions of authority or not. Because Western education and Christianity spread rapidly in the south and not in the north, development was much slower in the north, and the growing disparity between north and south later caused political tensions.

Further dislocation accompanied the outbreak of World War I. Locally this involved the immediate invasion of the German-held Kamerun ( Cameroon) by Nigerian forces, followed by a costly campaign that lasted until 1916. Later Nigerian troops were sent to East Africa. (During World War II they again served in East Africa, as well as in Burma [now Myanmar].) In 1922 Kamerun was divided under a League of Nations mandate between France and Britain, Britain administering its area within the government of Nigeria; after 1946 the mandated areas were redesignated as a United Nations (UN) trust territory.

Although colonial rule appeared secure in the first two decades of the 20th century, the British struggled to keep control of their Nigerian colony and continued to do so until Nigeria became independent in 1960. The British, when faced with dissent, tended to grant political reforms in an effort to dispel the attractiveness of more-radical suggestions. Early on in colonial rule, for example, Nigerians protested the manner in which water rates and head taxes were collected. Nigerians also requested more political representation. The Nigerian Legislative Council was established in 1914 and was given limited jurisdiction; it was replaced in 1922 by a larger one that included elected members from Lagos and Calabar, although its powers also were limited and the northern provinces remained outside its control. A more representative system did not appear until 1946, when each geographic group of provinces had its own House of Assembly, with a majority of nonofficial (though not yet all elected) members; there were also a House of Chiefs and, in Lagos, a central Legislative Council. By 1919 the National Council of British West Africa, an organization consisting of elites across West Africa, was demanding that half the members of the Legislative Council be Africans; they also wanted a university in West Africa and more senior positions for Africans in the colonial civil service.

Beginning in the 1920s, a number of Nigerians joined other Blacks in various parts of the world to embark on the wider project of Pan-Africanism, which sought to liberate Black people from racism and European domination. In 1923 Herbert Macaulay, the grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, established the first Nigerian political party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party, which successfully contested three Lagos seats in the Legislative Council. Macaulay was despised by the British, but he came to be regarded as the "father of modern Nigerian nationalism."

After the 1930s, political activities focused primarily on ways to end British rule. A national party, the Nigerian Youth Movement, emerged in 1934, and its members won elections to the Legislative Council. After 1940, political activities were broadened to include more people. In 1944 Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo who had been educated in the United States, united more than 40 different groups to establish the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). The forces unleashed against the British were now diverse, including soldiers who had served in World War II, the media, restless youth, market women, educated people, and farmers, all of whom became committed to the anticolonial movement. Political leaders resorted to the use of political parties and the media to mobilize millions of Nigerians against the continuation of British rule.

The British answered this activity by attempting to create a more representational colonial system. The Macpherson constitution, promulgated in 1951, provided for a central House of Representatives, but friction between the central and regional legislatures, related to the question of where supreme party authority lay, soon caused a breakdown. In response to Azikiwe and other nationalists, the Lyttelton constitution of 1954 created a fully federal system, comprising the three geographic regions of Nigeria, the Southern Cameroons, and the Federal Territory of Lagos. Each region had a governor, premier, cabinet, legislature, and civil service, with the significantly weaker federal government represented in Lagos by a governor-general, bureaucracy, House of Representatives, and Senate.

The southern protectorate was divided into two provinces in 1939-Western and Eastern-and in 1954 they, along with the northern protectorate, were renamed the Western, Eastern, and Northern regions as part of Nigeria's reconstruction into a federal state. Internal self-government was granted to the Western and Eastern regions in 1957. The Eastern region was dominated by Azikiwe and the Western one by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba lawyer who in 1950 founded the Action Group. Demanding immediate self-government, the Action Group was opposed by the Northern People's Congress (NPC), which was composed largely of northerners and headed by several leaders, including Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. At its own request the Northern region was not given internal self-government until 1959, because northerners feared that their region might lose its claim to an equal share in the operation and opportunities of the federal government if it was not given time to catch up with the educationally advanced south. Among the problems needing attention before the British would grant full independence was the minorities' fear of discrimination by a future government based on majority ethnic groups. After the Willink Commission examined and reported on this issue in 1958, independence was granted.

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After the British government assumed direct control of the Royal Niger Company's territories, the northern areas were renamed the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, and the land in the Niger delta and along the lower reaches of the river was added to the Niger Coast Protectorate, which was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

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Time Line Nigeria's History of Turmoil

| 1960s |1970s |1980s |1990-97 |1998 |1999 |

1960
Nigeria declares independence from Britain in October. Three years later, it becomes a republic.
1966
Middle-ranking members of the Nigerian military stage an attempted coup in January that is suppressed by federal troops, but results in the installation of a military government.

1967
The Eastern Region of Nigeria secedes in May, proclaiming itself the Republic of Biafra. Country plunges into a civil war that kills an estimated one million.

1970
The Biafra secessionists capitulate in January. Successive governments promise elections but military rule continues.

1979
Nigeria returns to civilian government rule in October, electing Sheu Shagari as President of the Second Republic.

1983
Shagari regime is deposed in December, as a military coup ousts the democratically elected government.

1985
A second coup ushers in a regime headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida later promises new elections.

1993

Nigerians go to the polls in June, elect Social Democratic Party candidate Moshood Abiola as the new president of the country with 58 percent of the vote. On the eve of election results, General Babangida annuls the election. The United States suspends aid as a political crisis ensues.

Eleven die in riots protesting military rule.

Babangida steps down in August and chooses interim government.

Gen. Sani Abacha seizes power in November.
1994

Nigerian police arrest Abiola in June after he declares himself president of the country.

In July, a federal high court charges Abiola with treason for declaring himself president.

The 50,000-member Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers declares a strike as the government sends in soldiers to replace workers in July. The strike increases the price of crude oil worldwide.

Most of Nigeria's oil workers return to their jobs in September.

Wole Soyinka, winner of 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, flees Nigeria in November.
1995

In October, General Abacha vows he will step down in three years after reforms are complete.

Nigeria's military government hangs nine political activists in November, including well-known playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was accused of involvement in the killings of four pro-government traditional chiefs in 1994.

Nigeria is suspended from the Commonwealth, the 52-member organization grouping Britain and its former colonies, after the hangings.
1996

Kudirat Abiola, the outspoken wife of detained Nigerian presidential claimant Moshood Abiola, is shot and killed while being driven along a Lagos street in June.
1997
Exiled writer Wole Soyinka is charged in absentia with treason in March by the country's military government.

May
7: Nigeria announces that it has freed 142 prisoners on orders of General Abacha.

(AP)
General Abdulsalam Abubakar

June
8: Abacha dies at his villa in the Nigerian capital. He is quickly replaced by a close ally, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar.
9: The Clinton administration offers improved ties with Nigeria's new military government if it frees political prisoners and moves toward democratic reform.

12: Hundreds of Nigerians hold scattered protests in Lagos to demand an end to military rule. They are dispersed by troops and police.

July
3: Nigeria's new military government confirms that they intend to release the country's political prisoners, including Moshood Abiola.

7: Nigeria's imprisoned political leader, Moshood Abiola, dies of an apparent heart attack as he talks with Nigerian officials and senior U.S. diplomats about how to resolve the country's five-year-old political crisis.

20: In a major television address, Maj. Gen. Abubakar promises that free elections will be held in early 1999 and a civilian sworn in as president of Nigeria on May 29.

January
20: Nigerian and international election monitors declared that local elections in December and state elections Jan. 9 were fair. The country enters high campaign season for the election of its first national civilian leadership in 15 years.

February
27: Nigerians vote for a civilian president in an election marred by claims of voter fraud and irregularties. Two days later, Nigeria's election commission confirms the winner: former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo.

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

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Time Line Nigeria's History of Turmoil | 1960s |1970s |1980s |1990-97 |1998 |1999 | 1960 Nigeria declares independence from Britain in October. Three years later, it becomes a republic.1966 Middle-ranking members of the Nigerian military stage an attempted coup in January that is suppressed by federal troops, but results in the installation of a military government.

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A chronology of key events in the history of Nigeria from its earliest civilisations to the present day.

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Former President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria had been a schoolteacher raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. He sometimes seemed an unlikely figurehead for a nation that projected itself as Africa's colossus. Credit... Akintude Akinleye/Reuters

Shehu Shagari, the former president of Nigeria who sought to revive democratic rule only to be deposed by military officers impatient with his seeming inability to confront endemic corruption and economic crisis, died on Friday in Abuja, the capital. He was 93.

Mr. Shagari died at the National Hospital after a brief illness, his grandson Bello Shagari said on Twitter.

It was a token of Nigeria's long tug-of-war between the barracks and the ballot box that President Muhammadu Buhari - who, as an army general, removed Mr. Shagari from power in 1983 - returned to office in the 2015 elections. It was the first peaceful transfer of power between civilians of different political parties since Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960.

By then Mr. Shagari, patrician and mild-mannered, had become what his followers called an elder statesman as his country grappled with challenges that had become familiar: an almost reflexive recourse to graft; an economic malaise relating to falling prices of oil, Nigeria's dominant foreign-currency earner; and a fierce divide between its northern Muslims and southern Christians that became ever more stark with the rise of a bloodthirsty jihadist movement called Boko Haram.

On his 90th birthday, in 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan and five previous presidents came to visit him, Nigerian news reports said.

"I mourn the departure of a patriot, who served Nigeria with humility, integrity and diligence," Mr. Buhari said Saturday on Twitter.

Mr. Shagari was president for just over four years, winning two elections, both of them disputed by his opponents. He was criticized by his adversaries for his meekness in governing Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa's most populous nation. Indeed, with his scholarly manners, the undemonstrative Mr. Shagari, a former schoolteacher raised as a devout Sunni Muslim, sometimes seemed an unlikely figurehead for a nation that projected itself as Africa's colossus.

He was the first civilian leader to take office under a constitution modeled on that of the United States, with an executive president, a bicameral legislature and significant powers given to the governors of the country's 19 federal states.

While most post-independence rulers were high-ranking soldiers bent on enforcing their will with scant regard for consensus-building, Mr. Shagari, in his flowing Islamic robes and distinctive beaded headgear, described himself as a conciliator who operated above the daily joust of Nigeria's politics.

But he could not remain aloof from a global glut in oil that sent prices tumbling in the early 1980s, just as the people who had voted him into power were expecting better lives. In 1983, as economic troubles seized the land, he presided over one of his country's most dramatic peacetime upheavals, ordering the expulsion of foreigners who had been drawn to Nigeria by its oil wealth.

Image

Mr. Shagari was met by Queen Elizabeth II upon his arrival at Victoria Station in London in 1981. Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. Credit... David Levenson/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Up to two million people, many of them Ghanaians, fled the country in what was seen as one of modern Africa's biggest population shifts.

It was not the only sign of turmoil. In northern cities like Kano and Maiduguri, followers of an Islamic cult rampaged for three successive years, sacking churches, attacking religious rivals and threatening the authorities' ability to deal with sectarian passions.

In October 1982, Mr. Shagari was criticized by his foes for granting amnesty to 1,000 members of the so-called Maitatsine cult - sometimes depicted as the forerunner of Boko Haram - who had been imprisoned since 1980. A month later, a fresh convulsion of violence killed hundreds of people and challenged the government to restore calm without calling on the military, an action that would have been seen as a tacit acknowledgment of civilian failure.

It was on Mr. Shagari's watch, too, that the authorities made it a priority to proceed with the construction of a new capital in Abuja, to escape the chaos and tribal affiliations of Lagos, which remained the commercial heart of the country.

In theory, the location and design of the new capital were emblems of unity among the dominant ethnic groups, lying roughly equidistant from the Yoruba heartland in the southwest, Ibo strongholds in the east and the largely Hausa Fulani north. The grand project, however, was slowed by the economic crisis and became a byword for lucrative construction contracts.

When Mr. Shagari was re-elected for a brief second term in August 1983, shortly before his ouster on Dec. 31, Pat Utomi, a political scientist and commentator, remarked: "Nigerians see Shagari as a nice man, a gentle man, but not as a particularly strong man."

Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was born on Feb. 25, 1925, in a thatch-roofed house built of sunbaked clay in the village of Shagari, founded by his forebears near the city of Sokoto, according to "President and Power in Nigeria" (1982), a biography by the British journalist David Williams. Sokoto, in northwest Nigeria, sits on a broad, arid savanna.

In later years, the honorific Alhaji was added to his name to denote his participation in the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, which began in 1960.

As permitted by Islamic law, Mr. Shagari was a polygamist, and he fathered numerous children. Nigerian news media said he had three wives, though Mr. Williams's biography said he had four. Information about surviving family members was not immediately available.

Mr. Shagari was the fifth child of Aliyu and Mariamu Shagari. His father was a farmer and a trader before he became the village's headman. Shehu studied at a Koranic school and an austere government boarding school before attending a teacher training college in Kaduna. He later returned to teach science at his old school in Sokoto.

He became active in local youth politics in his 20s and held ministerial posts in the governments that followed independence. But after the first military coup, in 1966, he fled the capital to avoid arrest and returned to farm in Sokoto. He remained there during Nigeria's civil war, which started in 1967, pitting government forces against eastern secessionists in the self-proclaimed state of Biafra.

Mr. Shagari, left, and Gen. Yakubu Gowon, center, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Abuja in 2009. Credit... Sunday Alamba/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

After the secessionists' surrender in 1970, the military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, invited Mr. Shagari to Lagos to join the government as a minister of economic affairs.

General Gowon was himself overthrown in 1975 in a coup led by Brig. Murtala Muhammed. The next year, Brigadier Muhammed was assassinated in a coup attempt and replaced as head of state by General Gowon's deputy, Brig. Olusegun Obasanjo. It was Brigadier (later Lieutenant General) Obasanjo who presided over the preparations for the return to civilian rule in 1979, when Mr. Shagari stood as the candidate of the National Party of Nigeria and won by a narrow margin.

"Basically, he was a compromise candidate," said Dr. Utomi, the political scientist. "He had no blemishes on him. He was not particularly ambitious. Power was thrust upon him."

After the vote, Mr. Shagari's adversaries challenged his victory, saying he had not secured the requisite electoral endorsement, but their complaint was rejected by Nigeria's Supreme Court.

"The president has the whole nation as his constituency, and he should be above any petty differences between the various sections of the community," Mr. Shagari told a news conference.

A year later, on his first visit overseas, he was feted in Washington by President Jimmy Carter, who told him that the United States shared Mr. Shagari's passion to end white minority rule in Africa. Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, had just achieved independence, but South Africa and Namibia remained under white rule.

In 1981, Mr. Shagari returned to the theme of liberation politics on a glittery state visit to London, where he told Queen Elizabeth II in a banquet speech that Nigerians expected Britain to combat "the horrible state of affairs" in apartheid-era South Africa.

But problems were piling up closer to home. The 1983 elections drew widespread allegations of fraud. Economic woes piled up. On New Year's Eve, the army moved in again to seize power.

The reason for the coup, the iron-fisted General Buhari said, was that his country had been "enslaved by a handful of people who had been sharing the wealth among themselves and who were determined to stay in office at any cost."

Some high officials, notably Umaru Dikko, Mr. Shagari's campaign manager, fled the country. But Mr. Shagari was arrested, along with hundreds of other officials.

Only in 1986 did a judge acquit him of corruption charges and order his release. And only in 1999, after a brief interlude of civilian rule in 1993, did Nigeria return to democratic rule, again under General Obasanjo, who had by then assumed the mantle of a civilian politician.

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Shehu Shagari, Nigerian President During '80s Oil Crisis, Dies at 93 (Published 2018)

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Shehu Shagari, the former president of Nigeria who sought to revive democratic rule only to be deposed by military officers impatient with his seeming inability to confront endemic corruption and economic crisis, died on Friday in Abuja, the capital. He was 93.

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Site 7: Nigeria current issues - British colonialism

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Site 7: Nigeria current issues - British colonialism

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The name Nigeria first appeared in print in an editorial written for The Times newspaper in London in 1897. The author was - surprisingly for Victorian England - a female journalist named Flora Shaw who, in her own way, epitomized the drive and individualism of the high Victorian Era.

Shaw, at the time she wrote the article, was a 45-year old journalist who had traveled extensively and had pursued a career in journalism contrary to the social conventions of the day. She was an unmarried woman with a mind of her own.

Early in 1892, Miss Shaw had gone to South Africa, where she explored the diamond and gold mines. She had inexhaustible energy, writing hundreds of letters about labor conditions, agriculture, and other aspects of colonial development. Her letters so impressed the management of The Times that they hired her to be the newspaper's colonial editor. She coined the name "Nigeria" to refer to the British protectorate along the Niger River that, until then, was referred to as the Royal Niger Company Territories.

Like the name she invented, Nigeria itself was an entirely artificial construct. It was just five years earlier, in 1892, that Lord Salisbury, the British Prime Minister, observed that "we have been engaged in drawing lines upon maps where no white man's foot has ever trod. We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never knew exactly where the mountains and rivers and lakes were."

The almost random method by which Nigeria's borders were fixed underlay many of its subsequent problems. As far as the British were concerned, Nigeria was, like Julius Caesar's Gaul, divisible into three parts. There was a northern region that was predominantly Muslim, a western region that was dominated by the Yoruba tribe, and an eastern region where the Igbo were the predominant ethnic group. This was an oversimplified view, but it reflected British attitudes about Nigeria. It was not until 1914 that Fredrick (later Lord) Lugard combined the northern and southern parts into the unified Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.

Lugard was an individualistic military man and possessed a driving sense of purpose. In 1902, Lugard and Flora Shaw married. They were a classic power couple of the British Empire. Since they married rather late in life (he was in his mid-40s and she was 50), their marriage was childless, and the couple devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the Imperial cause. According to his biographer, Lord Lugard was a small man, and his physique "allowed him to do two men's work in a climate and in conditions which halved the capacities of most men."

Nigeria's colonial legacy

The north was an Islamic feudal society dominated by dignitaries such as the Emir of Kano. In the south, Christianity spread among the Igbo and Yoruba peoples. There was a suspicion that the British were more instinctively inclined towards the north. (Lord Lugard was felt to harbor contempt for the educated and Europeanized Africans of the south, and had once recommended moving the capital from Lagos to the northern city of Kaduna.)

Even if this bias was not based in fact, it was widely believed to be true by the Africans. As one civil servant in the Foreign Office observed in 1970, "It was an article of faith in Eastern Nigeria, and had been for decades, that the British were hopelessly biased in favor of the feudal Emirs of the North; there was some basis for this, since the North retained the highest proportion of British officials, many of them coming from the Sudan with a romantic passion for Islam and for polo-playing aristocrats."

The Nigerian Civil War (also called the Biafra War), which began in 1967, was a direct result of these tensions. As early as 1912, the British socialist E.D. Morel had observed that the "Southern Nigerian system is turning out every year hundreds of Europeanized Africans," but the "Northern Nigerian system aims at the establishment of an educational system based upon a totally different ideal." Nigeria has remained a seething pool of diverse - and often conflicting - peoples. Not everything can be blamed on colonialism, but it is undoubtedly the case that the nature of Nigeria's problems have some connection with its colonial experience.

Ethnic and religious conflict has been a consistent feature of modern Nigerian politics. Another is the extent of corruption that has pervaded the country. Nigeria's corruption has obviously stemmed from the very weak sense of national identity of the country's official and political class. In countries with a strong sense of nationhood, officials are powerfully motivated to act in the best interests of the state. Their self-esteem and self-worth are bound up in it.

While a cadre of utterly selfless public officials has probably never existed anywhere, those of 18th-century Prussia and Imperial Britain - some might even point to those of modern-day Britain and the United States - have come pretty close. But modern Nigeria lacks that strong sense of nationhood, and thus lacks any semblance of a selfless bureaucracy. That is not entirely the fault of its colonial past, but the haphazard and arbitrary manner in which the country was created is surely a contributory cause.

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Nigeria's Current Troubles and Its British Colonial Roots - The Globalist

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The name Nigeria first appeared in print in an editorial written for The Times newspaper in London in 1897. The author was - surprisingly for Victorian England - a female journalist named Flora Shaw who, in her own way, epitomized the drive and individualism of the high Victorian Era.

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What role has religion played in Nigeria since the era of British colonialism?

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Nigeria and Shari'a: Religion and Politics in a West African Nation

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The Nigerian state, or province, of Zamfara declared in 1999 that it was repudiating Nigeria's constitution and adopting Islamic law, shari'a. Observers feared that Nigeria would dissolve into civil war. Violence broke out and many people fled their homes.

The Muslim population of Zamfara was enthusiastic about adopting shari'a to deal with crime that the state seemed unable to stop.

The central government rejected Zamfara's right to establish a separate legal system and civil rights groups challenged the constitutionality of the system.

Nigeria is comprised of roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.

Christians object to being forced to abide by Islamic law.

In the 1980s the price of oil plummeted, causing economic dislocation, violence, and land disputes.

Beginning in the fall of 1999 American newspapers such as the New York Times and wire services such as the Associated Press and Reuters began to publish stories regarding the announcement by Nigeria's northern Zamfara State that it would implement shari'a. Shari'a is the Islamic code of law that for centuries has provided a complete guide to life for Muslims. Because Nigeria's population is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians, many sources feared that the move to establish shari'a would further divide the country or lead to violence and possibly civil war. For several months both sides argued the constitutionality of the issue. During this period, several other northern states declared that they, too, would seek to implement shari'a. In February 2000 wide-scale rioting between Muslims and Christians in the northern city of Kaduna led to hundreds of deaths, particularly of Christians. In the Christian-majority regions of the south Christian mobs took vengeance on the region's Muslim minority. Relatively silent up to that time, the Nigerian Federal Government, under the leadership of Olusegun Obasanjo, suspended shari'a in the northern states and convened conferences of governors and religious leaders to reach a compromise. On May 1, 2000, leaders from around Nigeria, including the northern states, agreed to "shelve" shari'a and return to the use of the Nigerian penal code. For the time being, at least, peace and tolerance won over religious conflict and bigotry in Nigeria.

Located on the coast of West Africa, Nigeria is a very large country-it is roughly the size of the states of California, Nevada, and Utah combined, or almost twice the size of Spain. With a population of more than one hundred million, it is the most populous country in all of Africa. More than 250 languages are spoken in Nigeria, a fact that highlights the country's incredible cultural diversity. Often referred to as "tribes" in the press-a term disliked by many scholars of Africa because it encourages images of Africans which are more based in myth than reality, these ethnic groups draw upon a variety of cultural and linguistic traditions. The largest groups include the Hausa in the north, the Ibo in the southeast, and the Yoruba in the southwest. Furthermore, Nigeria's north is predominantly Muslim, while other parts of the country, particularly the southeast, are predominantly Christian. In the southwest and the Middle Belt, as the central states are known, the population is almost evenly distributed between Muslims and Christians. Prior to the invasion and conquest of the region by the British in the early 1900s there was no political unit known as "Nigeria." In 1914 Britain combined its protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria into a single colony, which it ruled until 1960, forcing the various Nigeria ethnic groups to come together as a single political and economic unit. When the British left Nigeria they handed power over to a hastily organized, yet democratically elected government. The British had organized the new country into three semi-independent regions-the north, the west, and the east. The northern region, home to more than fifty percent of the new country's population, handily dominated the first elections in 1960 and gained control of the federal government.

In 1966, following a military coup d'état, or violent overthrow, that left many national leaders dead, the predominantly Ibo eastern region attempted to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and establish its own country, known as Biafra. The Biafrans were motivated to create their own country both because of ethnic violence against Ibos in the north and because recent discoveries of oil in the southeast promised great wealth-so long as it did not have to be shared with the rest of the country. After three years of brutal civil war the Biafrans were defeated and the eastern region was forcibly reunited with the rest of Nigeria. In 1973 the Arab oil embargo of the United States led to a massive increase in the value of crude oil, and the economy of Nigeria underwent an oil boom. A huge influx of earnings and lavish government spending on public works such as schools, hospitals, and education helped to ease ethnic and religious tensions in the country.

In the 1980s, however, the price of oil dropped rapidly. As the oil boom turned to an oil bust, the Nigerian economy collapsed. Nigeria went from being one of the world's twenty-five richest countries to one of the twenty-five poorest. The value of the naira, the Nigerian currency, went from two dollars to the naira to eighty naira to the dollar in just a few years. People's life savings were wiped out and those in the middle class could no longer afford imported goods. As competition for increasingly scarce state funds became more desperate, rivalries between different ethnic and religious groups became fiercer. Violence between religious groups, particularly in the north between southern Nigerians living in the sabon gari's, new towns, and the region's mostly Hausa indigenous population became increasingly common. Such conflicts were often sparked by disputes over land, trade, or national political struggles-but the lines of division were often along the lines of religioun and ethnicity.

Military rule has also been an important factor in Nigeria since 1966. Excepting a three-year period from 1980 to 1983, Nigeria has been primarily ruled by the country's military. Coups were common. As Africa's largest country, many hoped that a transition to democratic rule would help Nigeria lead by example and help reestablish democracy on the continent. In 1999, after the death of the military dictator Sani Abacha, Nigerians held elections and returned to democratic rule. Olesegun Obasanjo, a retired general and former head of state, was elected president. Interestingly, Obasanjo was the only Nigerian military ruler to have previously turned power over to a civilian government-which he did in 1980.

The shari'a controversy added yet another potential source of conflict into the complex ethnic, religious, and political environment of Nigeria. The newly elected governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, signed the shari'a bill on October 27, 1999, thus fulfilling a central promise of his campaign. The bill stated that shari'a would become the official law of Zamfara State on January 27, 2000, replacing the Nigerian penal code. As a result, the new civilian government of Nigeria was faced with a major challenge almost immediately after taking power.

What exactly is shari'a, and why would the Muslim population of Zamfara State desire such a religious system of law? Shari'a uses the holy Qur'an, also known as the Koran, and the Sunna-the example of the life of the Prophet Muhammad-to determine what is right and what is wrong. Shari'a thus involves all aspects of a Muslim's life, not just matters of criminal law, but also issues of how one should pray, the nature of family relations, and proper forms of personal conduct. Further, support of shari'a is a key factor by which Muslims judge the legitimacy of their governments. Some Muslims living in Nigeria's south declared that they would immigrate to northern states once Islamic law was established. In Islam, unlike in the American tradition of government, there is no desire for a division of church and state. Rather, it is the duty of the state to support the practice of Islam. This situation is similar to the call by many Christian fundamentalists in the United States for prayer in schools and the posting of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms.

The Muslim population of Zamfara State responded enthusiastically to the establishing of shari'a. In addition, Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and Libya sent word of their support for the move. Reports in the press stated that taxis in Zamfara State had segregated themselves to carry only men or women, since Islamic law stresses that men and women who are not related should not mingle in public. The consumption of alcohol was outlawed and physical punishments ranging from caning to amputation to death were instituted for theft and violent crimes. Many Muslim Nigerians and even a few non-Muslims believed that the implementation of shari'a would guarantee peace and safety for everyone. In the climate of poverty created by the oil bust, Nigerians have become increasingly concerned with crime and security. Just as many politicians in the United States have called for "get tough" policies on crime, Nigerian Muslims see shari'a as a way to protect their lives and property. Indeed, Governor Sani of Zamfara claimed that the implementation of shari'a would be a cure all not only for violent crime, but also for domestic disputes and civil crimes such as tax dodging. As he stated in an interview with the Abuja Mirror newspaper in February 2000, "the most important thing is the fear of God. With that, we don't even need the police."

Obviously not everyone agreed that shari'a would improve conditions in Nigeria. Christian minorities in the north and organizations in the south, such as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), spoke out against the proposed move to implement shari'a in Zamfara. They feared that their rights would be violated, a charge denied by supporters of shari'a, and argued that Nigeria's 1999 constitution made such a move illegal. The Muslim leaders of Zamfara stated that since the constitution guaranteed freedom of religion to all Nigerians, and because their state was over ninety percent Muslim, they were within their rights to implement shari'a. Notably, not all Muslims in the north agreed that Zamfara State's move was constitutional. The Guardian reported on October 21, 1999, that Sadiq Abdullahi Mahuta, the chief justice of Katsina State, declared the move unconstitutional. Perhaps more surprising was the comment by Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky to Compass Direct on September 21, 1999. Zakzaky, who is often labeled as an extreme Muslim fundamentalist, declared that establishing shari'a at the current time "might end up creating an instrument of oppression and exploitation in the hands of the leadership, particularly when they lack commitment and discipline."

Despite such opposition and the danger of conflict, the state governments of Sokoto, Kano, Niger, and Kaduna states soon announced their plans to implement shari'a. While each of these states is in the predominantly Muslim north, some, particularly Kaduna, have very large Christian populations. Various Christian and civil rights organizations in Nigeria filed suits challenging the constitutionality of establishing a religious-based code of law. Just as in the United States and other Western countries, however, such lawsuits take months or even years to work their way through the court system before reaching the Nigerian Supreme Court, which would then judge the constitutionality of the issue. Further, some states in the southeast, including the predominantly Christian state of Cross-River, threatened to establish "Christian Law" in response. Many press reports suggested that Nigeria might go the way of Sudan in the 1970s-a north/south civil war along Muslim and Christian lines.

On February 21, 2000, the situation became violent. In the northern city of Kaduna, the CAN organized a protest march against the state's proposal to implement shari'a. At some point during the march, violence broke out. Each side blamed the other for the outbreak. Hundreds were killed as fighting spread throughout the city. A great deal of property, in the form of automobiles, homes, and businesses, was destroyed. Many southern immigrants to the north prepared to flee their homes for safety in the south. Condemning the riot, President Obasanjo declared it to be the worst outbreak of violence in Nigeria since the civil war of the 1960s. As mentioned earlier, such outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence are not unheard of in the north. What followed, however, was unusual. In southern cities such as Aba, Owerri, and Uyo, there were large reprisals against Muslim minorities-something that had never occurred before. Dozens more were killed and homes and businesses were destroyed. Sources outside of Nigeria feared the country was moving toward civil war. Inside Nigeria, some suggested that the conflict was an example of the inability of a civilian government to keep the peace. Still others suggested that the violence was being incited by supporters of military rule simply to discredit the new civilian government.

Either way, it is true that Obasanjo's government had not taken many concrete steps toward resolving the issue. Up to the riots in Kaduna and the southern cities, Obasanjo and other federal government leaders had attempted to deal with the shari'a controversy through existing channels, such as the courts and personal contacts with state governors. Faced with the possibility of even wider outbreaks of violence, Obasanjo announced on March 1 that shari'a would be suspended in any state that had implemented the Islamic code of law. These states, particularly Zamfara, did not immediately accept Obasanjo's presidential order, arguing that he did not have the constitutional right to prevent them from implementing shari'a. On March 22, 2000, the Zamfara state government upset Nigerian human rights advocates by publicly amputating the right hand of a man named Bello Garki Jangebe for stealing a cow.

The debate over the constitutionality of the shari'a and over the relative balance between federal and state authority gave new life to another political debate. For years, many groups in Nigeria, particularly those sponsored by smaller ethnic groups in the Middle Belt and the south, have been calling for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), which would bring together representatives from as many interest groups in Nigeria as possible to debate the very nature and organization of the Nigerian nation. As a sovereign body the conference would have the right not only to write a new constitution-the 1999 constitution being seen as faulty-but also to determine the very future of the Nigerian state. Many in Nigeria feared that such a conference might lead to a radical redistribution of state power and wealth or even a break-up of the country. Using the conflict over shari'a as an example of the failings of the current political structure of Nigeria, advocates of the conference bombarded national and regional newspapers and news programs with calls for the SNC.

Recent History and the Future

On April 3, 2000, under pressure from the federal government and numerous Nigerian organizations, the governors of all nineteen northern states met at Arewa House, the former home of the first premier of the northern region after independence, in order to discuss the issue of shari'a. The meeting was opened by the Sultan of Sokoto, who is the traditional leader of northern Nigerian Muslims. The meeting called upon the states of Zamfara, Niger, Kano, and Kaduna to put their move to shari'a on hold until a panel composed of Muslim and Christian leaders could be formed to investigate a compromise on the issue. In particular, the groups would be charged with finding a way to harmonize the penal code with the needs of Muslims. Named the National Council of State, such a panel did meet in early May 2000. The council was comprised of all northern and many southern governors, former heads of state General Yakabu Gowan, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Muhammadu Buhari, Earnest Shoinikan, President Obasanjo, and numerous Christian leaders. After extensive meetings, the council reached a consensus that the calls for shari'a should be set aside and the penal code once again put into force. Minor modifications to the penal code would be allowed, however, to make it more appealing to the Muslim population.

The debate over the place of shari'a in Nigeria is not a new one. In 1958 the northern region of Nigeria moved to replace the existing system of shari'a-which had long been supported by the British colonial rulers-with a national penal code, thus establishing the roots of the modern system of the contemporary legal system in Nigeria. Even in the 1950s this was considered a very substantial move and was extensively debated by the Muslim population. Local shari'a courts continued to operate, but they only had jurisdiction over matters of civil and family law, not over criminal proceedings. The issue once again came to national attention during the constitutional convention of 1978, when, under Obasanjo's military leadership, the country was making the transition to civilian rule. There was a call for the establishment of a national shari'a court of appeals. Extensive and often divisive debates continued until the motion was withdrawn. A similar issue was raised during constitutional proceedings in 1988. When the angry nature of the debates threatened to derail the constitutional process General Babangida, the current military ruler, declared the issue of shari'a to be a "no go" area, with that section of the new constitution to be authored by representatives of the military government.

Babangida's government was also sensitive to religious conflict in that it had sparked national controversy in March 1986, when Babangida declared that Nigeria had joined the Organization of Islamic Conference, an international organization of Islamic nations. Protests by Christian groups and conflicts between Muslims and Christians led to Babangida's public withdrawal of Nigeria from the organization.

The nature of the Western press coverage of the shari'a controversy is worth examination. While quick to point out what is seen in the United States as Muslim fundamentalism, the media dedicated very little time to the discussion of why so many Nigerian's find shari'a appealing. Further, press coverage peaked when the conflict turned violent. Even news organizations that had largely ignored the issue suddenly ran stories, complete with color photos of burned cars, armed police, and angry crowds, that focused only on the loss of life and property and which described the conflict only in simple terms of Christian-Muslim violence. Africans frequently complain that the Western press pays no attention to their news unless it is bad. Such would seem to be the case in the issue of shari'a in Nigeria. There has been almost no coverage of the efforts by the Nigerian government to find a peaceful resolution to the issue, a resolution that was based on consensus rather than being forced by the federal government. Those who read about the violence from the Western press were missing important points of the issue and learned little about the Nigerian government's attempts to resolve the matter.

For the time being the immediate problem-the call for shari'a by northern states-has been addressed. The underlying challenges facing Nigeria, however, remain. Nigeria, like most African nations, is still faced with the huge task of forming a common consciousness between hundreds of ethnic groups who are divided by history, language, and religion. As citizens of a country forcibly created by outsiders and burdened by debt and poverty, Nigerians must also find a way to create a national identity and live together despite their differences.

1900 The British Protectorate of Northern Nigeria is established.

1914 The protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria combine to form Nigeria, still a British colony.

1960 Nigeria achieves independence from the United Kingdom.

1967-70 Eastern Nigeria secedes to form the new country of Biafra along ethnic lines. Nigeria fights a bloody civil war and the secessionists are defeated.

1973 The Arab oil embargo drives up oil prices, making Nigeria a relatively wealthy nation.

1980s The drop in the price of oil has a devastating effect on the Nigerian economy, leading to increased crime and violent.

1995 Political parties are permitted.

1999 Nigerians return to democratic rule. The Zamfara state announces it will set aside the Nigerian Penal Code in favor of shari"a, Islamic law. Other states follow suit.

2000 Riots-resulting in many deaths-break out all over Nigeria. After suspending the shari"a, the government convenes the National Council of State that recommends that Zamfara return to the Nigerian Penal Code, with some changes made to accommodate shari"a.

Source Citation

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Nigeria and Shari'a: Religion and Politics in a West African Nation

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The Nigerian state, or province, of Zamfara declared in 1999 that it was repudiating Nigeria's constitution and adopting Islamic law, shari'a. Observers feared that Nigeria would dissolve into civil war. Violence broke out and many people fled their homes. The Muslim population of Zamfara was enthusiastic about adopting shari'a to deal with crime that the state seemed unable to stop.

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Nigeria's Religion and how it was affected after Colonialism

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How Colonialism affected the Igbo tribe's religion.

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About Gale In Context: High School Explore thousands of topics across subjects including literature, science, history, and social issues using different sources. Don't know how to login? Depending on this location's preferences, the log-in process could include your library card number, a student or user ID, or another provided password.