Religious Bias and Governance in Nigeria: A Flash Back

Abstract

Governance refers to the ability to organize a particular society in an orderly manner so as to maintain peace, progress, and development. It is mainly associated with ensuring the welfare of the citizenry in an atmosphere of democracy. Thus, when one talks about governance, it is usually associated with law and order. The degree of the success achieved in maintaining law and order in a particular society brings out the vivid distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ governance. Thus, religious or cultural bias can make a whole lot of difference between good and bad governance. This paper concentrates on the influence of religious bias on the political arena of Nigeria – on its ability to govern itself. A brief survey of some of the incidents involving religion and politics from 1979 till date would clearly show that Nigeria is still very far from declaring herself a country free from various kinds of militating obstacles against good governance - the Sharia and currently the menace of Boko Haram, which has registered Nigeria in the notorious book of global terrorism.