Religion in Nigeria

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

National Church of Nigeria
The Church and the Mosque face each other across Independence Avenue and Constitution Avenue in the national capital, Abuja[1]

Religion in

Muslim population in the country.[5]

Most Nigerian Christians are

Shia in Nigeria). There are also Ahmadiyya
and Mahdiyya minorities.
Igbos of the east and the Ijaw in the south are almost entirely Christians with a few practitioners of traditional religions.[10] The Middle Belt of Nigeria contains the most of the minority ethnic groups in Nigeria and they are mostly Christians and Christian converts, as well as members of traditional religions with few Muslim converts.[11][12]

Nigeria is officially a secular state with no official state religion. Article 10 of the Constitution states that “The Government of the Federation or a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.” [13] However, twelve Muslim-majority northern states have incorporated Sharia courts into their legal systems with the power and jurisdiction of these courts waxing and waning over the past two decades.[14] In some of these states, sharia courts are optional arbitration courts for personal status issues whereas, in others, Sharia has effectively replaced the formerly secular state level legal system in both civil and criminal contexts. This has brought controversy due to its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities.[15][16][17] Northern Nigeria has also been the site of ongoing Islamist insurgency which has led to the death and displacement of tens of thousands of people.[18]

Religious demographics

The 1963 Nigerian census, the last that asked about religion, found that about 47.2% of the population was Muslim, 34.3% Christian, and 18.5% other.[19]

Nigerian states that implement some form of sharia law (in green)

Figures in the most recent edition of The World Christian Encyclopedia (Johnson and Zurlo 2020) draw on figures assembled and updated as part of the World Christian Database (WCD); these put those who identify as Christians at 46.3%, and Muslims at 46.2 and ‘ethnic religions’ at 7.2%. WCD figures predict that both Muslims and Christians will continue to grow as a proportion of the population through to 2050. Their projections predict Christians at that point will make up on 48% of the population and Muslims at 48.7%, both growing at the expense of ethnic religions, down to 2.9% of the population. Hsu et al. (2008) found that the WCD appears to overestimate Christian identification and cautioned against what seems to be uncritical acceptance of figures given by religious groups of their membership. The criticisms offered by Hsu et Al (2008) have been supported by evidence found by Nigeria Mckinnon (2020), which demonstrated that the WCD had substantially overestimated the Anglican proportion of the population.[20]

According to a 2018 estimate in

CIA, the population is estimated to be 53.5% Muslim, 45.9% Christian (10.6% Roman Catholic and 35.3% Protestant and other Christian), and 0.6% as other.[21] In a 2019 report released by Pew Research Center in 2015, the Muslim population was estimated to be 50% while the Christian population was estimated to be 48.1%.[22]
The Pew Forum in a 2010 report compared reports from several sources.[23] In a 2020 estimate released by Pew Research Center, the Muslim population was estimated to be 51.1% while the Christian population was estimated to be 46.9% while the remaining 2% was other.[24][25] The 2008 MEASURE Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found 53% Muslim, 45% Christian, and 2% other; the 2008 Afrobarometer poll found 49% Christian, 50% Muslim, and 1% other; Pew's own survey found 52% Muslim, 46% Christian, and 1% other.[23][6][26]

Islam

The mosque during Harmattan

Nigeria has one of the largest

Muslim populations in Africa.[27] In Nigeria, about 52 percent of the population is Muslim, The Muslim population in Nigeria continues to grow. Estimates suggest 80-85 million Nigerians identify as Muslim (roughly 50% of the total population), of which the majority are probably Sunni (60 million), though this is not a unified identity and includes a wide variety of different viewpoints.[28] For example, members of Sufi orders, members of the Jama‘atul Izalatul Bid’ah Wa’ikhamatul Sunnah (or Izala) movement, and members of Boko Haram might all identify as Sunni, but the Izala and Boko Haram movements have had strong anti-Sufi components.[29][30] Estimates also propose that about 4-10 million Nigerians are Shi’a, mostly based in Sokoto, and there is also a significant Lebanese Shi’a diaspora.[31][32] In Nigeria, the most prominent existing Sufi orders are the Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya,[33] and a 2012 Pew Research Center survey showed 37% of Nigerians identify with Sufi orders (19% identified specifically as Tijaniyya and 9% as Qadiriyya).[34] The majority of the Muslim population in Nigeria live in the Northern, South western and Central states.[28] Islam was introduced to northern and central Nigeria in the Middle Ages 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.[35][36] Shehu Usman dan Fodio established a government in Northern Nigeria based on Islam before the advent of European colonialism.[37] 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.[38]

The vast majority of

Shia movement
, and many local Islamic sects that have limited expansion.

Shia

The Shia Muslims of Nigeria are primarily located in Sokoto State.[42][43] Shia Muslims make up between two and four million of Nigeria's population.[44][45] Ibrahim Zakzaky introduced many Nigerians to Shia Islam. The headquarter of Shia is Zaria where the leader lives with his family.[46] The Shia Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) was banned in Nigeria in 2019.[47]

Sufi

Some Nigerian Muslims emphasize asceticism and mysticism and form Sufi groups called tariqas, orders, or brotherhoods. They commonly preach peaceful co-existence and do not sympathize with Islamic extremism.[48] Most Nigerian Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah or Mouride movement.[49][50]

Ahmadiyya

The Ahmadiyya movement established itself in Nigeria in 1916,[51][52] and make up approximately 3% of the Muslim population.[53] There are numerous Ahmadiyya centres in Nigeria including the Baitur-Raheem Mosque in Ibadan inaugurated in 2008,[54] the Mubarak Mosque in Abuja, which is the last Ahmadiyya mosque, built in the first century of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate.[55] Ahmadiyyas have also established a weekly newspaper called "The Truth" which is the first Muslim newspaper in the country.[56]

Quraniyoon

The Kala Kato are a Nigerian group of Quranists. Their name means "a mere man said it" referring to the narrators of the sayings of Muhammad. The Kalo Kato rely entirely on the Quran and they are found among mostly lower-class communities across northern Nigeria.[8]

Boko Haram and Darul Islam

Islam in Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the numbers of Islamic extremism notably among them, the

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.[59][60]

The rise of these radical movements has been attributed partly to the poor socio economic infrastructures and poor governance in Nigeria.[61] Poverty has been seen as the major catalyst leading to the rapid increase in the membership of these religious extremist groups.[62] The rise of these sects has also been linked to the increase and aiding of religious extremist by politicians for their selfish ambitions. In recent times, there has been break out of religious crises in the ancient city of Kano with scores of Christians dead and their properties destroyed.[63]

During the 1980s, religious riots occurred in and around the five cities of

Sharia law across the whole of Nigeria.[65]

Christianity