Religion and institutions: Federalism and the management of conflicts over Sharia in Nigeria

Rotimi T. Suberu
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Rotimi T. Suberu: Bennington College, Bennington, USA, Postal: Bennington College, Bennington, USA

Journal of International Development, 2009, vol. 21, issue 4, 547-560

Abstract: Conflicts over the status of Sharia Islamic law have dominated constitutional politics and ethno-religious relations in the Nigerian federation for decades. The adoption of stringent Sharia codes by 12 Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria, beginning with Zamfara in 1999, was particularly contentious, provoking broad concerns about the viability and survival of Nigeria's innovatively structured multi-ethnic federal system. But Sharia implementation and extension in Nigeria have followed a largely benign trajectory. The Nigerian federation's judicious combination of centrist and autonomy mechanisms has been remarkably effective in managing religious conflict and cauterising potentially disintegrative centrifugal challenges to national stability. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:21:y:2009:i:4:p:547-560

DOI: 10.1002/jid.1572

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