Religion in Nigeria

Several religions in Nigeria exist, helping to accentuate regional and ethnic distinctions. All religions represented in Nigeria were practiced in every major city in 1990. However, Islam dominated the north and had a number of supporters in the South Western, Yoruba part of the country. Protestantism and local syncretic Christianity are also in evidence in Yoruba areas, while Catholicism dominates the Igbo and closely related areas. Both Protestantism and Catholicism dominated in the Ibibio, Annang, and the Efik kiosa lands. The 1963 census indicated that 47 percent of Nigerians were Muslim, 35 percent Christian, and 18 percent members of local indigenous congregations. If accurate, this indicated a sharp increase since 1953 in the number of Christians (up 13 percent); a slight decline among those professing indigenous beliefs, compared with 20 percent; and only a modest (4 percent) rise of Muslims. There has been growth in the Christ Apostolic Church (the first Aladura Movement in Nigeria) and the Aladura Church, an indigenous Christian sect that was especially strong in the Yoruba areas, and of evangelical churches in general, spilling over into adjacent and southern areas of the middle belt.

In general, however, the country should be seen as having a dominant Muslim north, a mixed Christian and Muslim Southwest and Middle belt, a non-Muslim, primarily Christian South East and South-South, with each as a minority faith in the other's region.

In terms of Nigeria's major ethnic groups religious affiliations, the Hausa ethnic group in the North is 95% Muslims and 5% Christians, the West which is the Yoruba tribe is 60% Christians and 30% Muslim with 10% going to adherents of other African religions while the Igbos in the East and the Ijaw in the South are 98% Christians (Catholics) and 2% practice traditional religions. The middle belt of Nigeria contains the largest number of minority ethnic groups in Nigeria and they are mostly Christians and members of traditional religions with few Muslim converts.

Religion	Year reported	Number of adherents (based on a 2009 survey)	Percentage of total population
Islam	2009	78 056 000	50.4%
Christianity	2009	76 281 000	48.2%
Other	2009	(Not Given)	1.4%

Islam

Main article: Islam in Nigeria

Abuja National Mosque

The mosque during Harmattan

Islam is one of the religions practiced in West Africa. Nigeria has one of the largest Muslim populations in West Africa, 50.4% of Nigeria's population. Islam was introduced to northern Nigeria as early as the 11th century and was well established in the major capitals of the region by the 16th century, spreading into the countryside and toward the Middle Belt uplands. Shehu Usman dan Fodio established a government in Northern Nigeria based on Islam before the advent of Colonialism. The British Colonial Government therefore established indirect rule in Northern Nigeria based on the structure of this government. Islam also came to South Western Yoruba-speaking areas during the time of Mansa Musa's Mali Empire. The Yoruba colloquially referred to Islam as "Esin-Mali" or some will say "Esin-Mole", which means religion from Mali. Muslims in Nigerian practice the Maliki school of jurisprudence and are mostly Sunni Muslims, The Shia Muslims of Nigeria are primarily located in the Sokoto State.

Nigerian Islam has become heterogenous with the springing up of many islamic sects.The notable examples are the Izala movement , the Shiite movement, and many local Islamic sects that have limited expansion.This new sects are opposed to the traditional Nigerian Islamic teachings of the Sufi brotherhood and are gradually alienating themselves from the main Islamic body.

New radical Islamic movements in Nigeria

Islam in Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the numbers of radical Islamic sects notably among them, the Boko Haram, Maitatsine, Darul Islam among others.

These sects have sometimes resorted to the use of violence in a bid to realizing their ambitions on the wider Islamic and Nigerian populations as a whole.

The rise of this radical movements has been attributed partly to the poor socio economic infrastructures and poor governance in Nigeria. Poverty has been seen as the major catalyst leading to the rapid increase in the membership of these religious extremist groups. The rise of these sects has also been linked to the increase and aiding of religious extremist by politicians for their selfish ambitions.

During the 1980s religious riots occurred in and around the five cities of Kano in 1980, Kaduna in 1982, Bulum-Ketu in 1982, Jimeta in 1984 and Gombe in 1985. These riots were caused by the migration of the rural poor into urban towns during the dry seasons. An offshoot of Islam called the ‘Yan Tatsine’ violently rebelled against the authorities and non-members. These radical Muslims were inspired by Alhaji Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine. He was a Cameroon preacher who slated the government, something which lead to his arrest in Nigeria in 1975, yet by 1972 many people followed him across society, ranging from the elite to Koranic students called almajiral or gardawa and unemployed migrants. Maitatsine and his followers became separate from orthodox Islam, condemning the corruption of the religious and secular elites and the wealthy upper classes’ consumption of Western goods during the petrol boom in 1974-81. The Boko Haram movement has been connected to the Maitatsine movement. They want to implement sharia law across the whole of Nigeria. Radical Islam was propagated by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated group of individuals who were feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group. The leaders were able to polarize their followers through speeches and public demonstrations.

The activities of some of these sects has in recent times led to the loss of lives and properties as they move about destroying government facilities which they see as legacies or replica of western cultures in their various communities. These religious campaigns has seen an increase in gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives witnessed on both sides. Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, tensions did flare between the two groups as each group radicalised. There were clashes in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base as they saw it as a threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque. Additionally, there were two student groups in Nigeria who came into contestation, the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Muslim Student Society. In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kafanchan college of education. This quarrel accelerated to the point where the Muslim students organised protests around the city and culminated in the burning of a Mosque at the college. The Christian majority at the college retaliated on March 9th when twelve people died and several Mosques were brunt and a climate of fear brews. The retaliation was pre-planned.

Exploitation of the media used to propagate the ideas of the conflict, thereby radicalising each force even more. Media was biased on each side so while places like the federal radio corporation discussed the idea of defending Islam during this brief moment of terror but does not report the deaths and damaged caused by Muslims, galvanising the Muslim population. Similarly, the Christian papers did not report the damaged caused by Christians but focused on the Islamic terror. Other individuals leading these religious movements use the media to spread messages which gradually became more intolerant of other religions and because of these religious divisions radical Islam continues to be a problem in Nigeria today.

States affiliated with the activities of these militant Islamic sects.

• Bauchi State
• Borno State
• Yobe State
• Kano State
• Katsina State.

Christianity

See also: Christianity in Nigeria

National Church of Nigeria, Abuja

The National Church of Nigeria

Christianity is one of the two main religions in Nigeria, according to a recent Pew study conducted in 2011, Christians now form the majority of the nation, comprising 50.8% of the population. The ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria are: Lagos, Ibadan, Ondo, Bendel, The Niger, Niger Delta, Owerri, Abuja, Kaduna and Jos. Its primate is Nicholas Okoh. The Church of Nigeria has about 17 million members.

The Nigerian Baptist Convention has about three million baptized members.

The Archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church are: Abuja, Onitsha, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, and Owerri. It has about 39 million members in Nigeria. Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Roman Catholic Cardinal from Nigeria.

There are about 380,000 New Apostolic Christians in entire Nigeria.

Roman Catholicism

Main article: Roman Catholicism in Nigeria

Church of Nigeria

See also: Church of Nigeria

Christians constitute 50.8% of the Nigerian population. Based on 2009 National Religious survey, Protestants make up 15% of the Nigerian population, Catholics 13.7%,and other Christians 19.6%.

Location

The majority of Christians are found in the South East and South-South and Middle-belt region. An increasing number of mission stations and mission bookstores, along with churches serving southern enclaves and northern Christians in the northern cities and larger towns, are found in the Muslim north. Christianity in Yoruba area traditionally has been Protestant and Anglican, whereas Igboland has always been the area of greatest activity by the Roman Catholic Church. Other denominations abounded as well. Presbyterians arrived in the late 17th century in the Ibibio, Annang and Efik land and the Niger Delta area and had missions in the middle belt as well. The works of the Presbyterian Church in Calabar from Scotland by missionaries like Rev Hope M. Waddell, who arrived in Calabar 10 April 1846, in the 19th century and that of Mary Slessor of Calabar being examples. Small missionary movements were allowed to start up, generally in the 1920s, after the middle belt was considered pacified. Each denomination set up rural networks by providing schooling and health facilities. Most such facilities remained in 1990, although in many cases schools had been taken over by the local state government in order to standardize curricula and indigenize the teaching staff. Pentecostals arrived mostly as indigenous workers in the postindependence period and in 1990 Pentecostalism was spreading rapidly throughout the middle belt, having some success in Roman Catholic and Protestant towns of the south as well. There were also breakaway, or Africanized churches that blended traditional Christian symbols with indigenous symbols. Among these was the Aladura movement that was spreading rapidly throughout Yorubaland and into the non-Muslim middle belt areas.

Missionary work and Christianity

Apart from Benin and Warri, which had come in contact with Christianity through the Portuguese as early as the 15th century, most missionaries arrived by sea in the 19th century. As with other areas in Africa, Roman Catholics and Anglicans each tended to establish areas of hegemony in southern Nigeria. After World War I, smaller denominations such as the Church of the Brethren (as Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria), Seventh-day Adventists and others worked in interstitial areas, trying not to compete. Although less well-known, African-American churches entered the missionary field in the 19th century and created contacts with Nigeria that lasted well into the colonial period.

Offshoots of European denominations

African churches were founded by small groups breaking off from the European denominations, especially in Yorubaland, where such independence movements started as early as the late 19th century. They were for the most part ritually and doctrinally identical to the parent church, although more African music, and later dance, entered and mixed with the imported church services. A number also used biblical references to support polygyny. With political independence came African priests in both Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations, although ritual and forms of worship were strictly those of the home country of the original missionaries. By the 1980s, however, African music and even dancing were being introduced quietly into church services, albeit altered to fit into rituals of European origin. Southern Christians living in the north, especially in larger cities, had congregations and churches founded as early as the 1920s. Even medium-sized towns (20,000 persons or more) with an established southern enclave had local churches, especially in the middle belt, where both major religions had a strong foothold. The exodus of Igbo from the north in the late 1960s left Roman Catholic churches poorly attended, but by the 1980s adherents were back in even greater numbers, and a number of new churches had been built.

Combination with traditional practices

The Aladura, like several other breakaway churches, stress healing and fulfillment of life goals for oneself and one's family. African beliefs that sorcery and witchcraft are malevolent forces against which protection is required are accepted; rituals are warm and emotional, stressing personal involvement and acceptance of spirit possession. Theology is biblical, but some sects add costumed processions and some accept polygyny.

Social class and religion

Major congregations of the larger Anglican and Roman Catholic missions represented elite families of their respective areas, although each of these churches had members from all levels and many quite humble church buildings. Nevertheless, a wedding in the Anglican cathedral in Lagos was usually a gathering of the elite of the entire country, and of Lagos and Yorubaland in particular. Such families had connections to their churches going back to the 19th century and were generally not attracted to the breakaway churches. All major urban centers, all universities, and the new capital of Abuja had areas set aside for the major religions to build churches and mosques and for burial grounds.

Inter-ethnic conflict

Inter-ethnic conflict in Nigeria has generally had a religious element. Riots against Igbo in 1953 and in the 1960s in the north were said to be fired by religious conflict. The riots against Igbo in the north in 1966 were said to have been inspired by radio reports of mistreatment of Muslims in the south. In the 1980s, serious outbreaks between Christians and Muslims occurred in Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area between the two religions.

Recently, there has been an upsurge in attacts targetting Christians in northern Nigeria, culminating in the Christmas Day massacre of Christians at a catholic church near the Federal Capital Territory. The radical islamist sect, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.

Traditional Beliefs

Alongside the main religious sect is the traditional belief system that without contradicting civil law, manages to also govern ethics and morality amongst much of the population.

Traditional Religion among the Yorubas

Temple of Ọṣun in Oṣogbo, Nigeria.

Main article: Yoruba religion

In the city-states of Yorubaland and its neighbors, a more reserved way of life remains, one that expresses a theology that links local beliefs to a central citadel government and its sovereignty over a hinterland of communities through the monarch. The seat of the king (oba) is responsible for the welfare of its juriisdiction, in return for confirmation of the legitimacy of the oba's rule over his subjects.

Practices

In addition to ensuring access to, and the continual fertility of, both land and people, seasonal carnivals act as a spectacle for "tourism" contributing to regional productivity.

"Society in general has more gradually and selectively expanded to accommodate new influences, it is fairly certain that they will continue to assert their distinctive cultural identity in creative and often ingenious ways".

Other religions

Judaism

Main article: Jews of Nigeria

Judaism is practiced by about 40,000 people (about 0.02% of the Nigerian population), mainly members of the Igbo tribe in eastern and the Ibibio, Annang, and Efik southern Nigeria. Judaism is believed to have an ancient presence in the country, and in the region as a whole (see Jews of Nigeria).

Hinduism

Main article: Hinduism in Nigeria

Hinduism spread to Nigeria mainly by immigration of Hindus from India and of Hare Krishna Missionaries. Many Nigerians have converted to Hinduism mainly due to efforts of ISKCON Missionaries. ISKCON has inaugurated the Vedic Welfare Complex in Apapa.

Altogether including Nigerians of Indian origin and NRIs there are 25,000 Hindus in Nigeria. Most of them live in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria

Bahá'í Faith

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria

After an isolated presence in the late 1920s, the Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria begins with pioneering Bahá'ís coming to Sub-Saharan West Africa in the 1950s especially following the efforts of Enoch Olinga who directly and indirectly affected the growth of the religion in Nigeria. Following growth across West Africa a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1956. As the community multiplied across cities and became diverse in its engagements it elected its own National Spiritual Assembly by 1979 and Operation World estimated 1000 Bahá'ís in 2001 though the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying mostly on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 34,000 Bahá'ís in 2005.

Chrislam

Main article: Chrislam

Chrislam is a blend of Christianity and Islam that takes practises from both the Bible and the Quran. It hopes to quell religious feuds among Nigerians.

The Grail Movement

Main article: Grail Movement

Nigeria has become an African hub for Grail Movement, inspired by the work of Abd-ru-shin, principally In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message.

The Reformed Ogboni Fraternity

A fraternity incorporating references and insignia from the original Ogboni, is based on ancient rites, usages and customs. Established in 1914 by the Ven. Archdeacon T. A. J. Ogunbiyi. Membership is open to all adults who embrace a non-idolaterous faith in God. The fraternity is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. In 1996 it had about 710 conclaves/Lodges or Iledi in Nigeria and overseas.

See also

• Islam in Nigeria
• Church of Nigeria
• Catholic Church in Nigeria
• Jews of Nigeria
• Aba Nigeria Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Links

• Christianity in Nigeria

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.