THE POLITICS OF SHARIA IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF KADUNA STATE (1999-2013)

THE POLITICS OF SHARIA IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF KADUNA STATE (1999-2013)

Abstract:

Since 1978 the controversy for Sharia implementation had become a serious issue in Nigerian politics. It continued to be a subject of debate and politicking during the Second Republic, in the nineteen eighties (1980‟s).There was also a revisit of Sharia Law implementation controversy in 1999, with the declaration of Sharia by Senator Ahmed Sani Yeriman Bakura in Zamfara State.Some northen States later followed suit and formed various committees and tasked them with the responsibilities of initiating modalities for the implementation of Sharia Law. This study examines the politics of Sharia implementation in Kaduna State..The complex political, religious and ethnic characters had genered intra and inter religious rivalries and eventual struggle for power and dominance among other things. This is manifested in varius crisis that happened in the State:The inter play of so many factors had by no means transformed into what has become the Sharia frictions,where the protagonists and antagonists of the full Sharia Law implementation agitations were set up against each other. Available evidences proved that the disturbances were framed by some notable political elites.The study utilized both the primary and secondary data for the discriptive analysis. Some of the findings of this study are: the crisis is linked to the persistent southern Kaduna religious and political elites incessant struggle for power and recognition, the crisis was pre-planned and orchestrated by religious and polical elites, the government of Kaduna State had resolved the crisis through dialogue and reform measures that saw to the introduction of tripartite legal system, the creation of more chiefdoms and districts in both northern and southern Kaduna and partiall Sharia Law implementation. Similarly, the crisis created mutual mistrust between Muslims and Christians and segmentation of settlements on the basis of religion in Kaduna metroplolis and its environs.moreso, the 2002 Sharia Law is diversionary and counter productive,the politics of the Sharia Law implementation is part of the larger politics of Kaduna State and Nigeria Religious pluralism affected the chances of implementing full Sharia Law in Kaduna State.

THE POLITICS OF SHARIA IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF KADUNA STATE (1999-2013)

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