POLITICS AND RELIGION IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Nigeria is confronted today with the challenges of political and religious crises in a manner as never before. Since independence in 1960, the country still faces frequent sectarian turmoil that raises some very fundamental questions about the nature of citizen’s identity and its implications for integrity. Despite the remedial policies meant to assuage tensions, ethnic and religious conflicts still persist. One of the problems is that these policies were applied in negative ways. Unrelatedly, some basic policies embedded in the political restructuring by the successive governments were not directed to the root causes of the crises. Impact, the politicization of government policies have led to ethnic, regional and religious tensions that featured frequently in the minds of the people. This has affected the growth of a national identity in spite of the ideology of nationalism. The question is can this issue be stopped under the entity called Nigeria? The thrust of this paper is the recognition of the reality that Nigeria exhibits diverse identities difficult to co-exist. The paper therefore concludes that the unity of Nigerian nationhood depends on powerful institutions capable of democratizing the relationship between the distinct nationalities and the nation- state which help to bring sustainable development.