Religious contestations within and between religions in Nigeria

Abstract

People perform and live religion in multiple and specific contexts, with different sides to their experiences, especially in multi-faith societies. Given the reality of religious contestations in Nigeria, too often, contradictory or complicated religious narratives are given that are connected to the societal dysfunctional realities which in turn radicalise the thinking and approaches of many people towards different religious positions, which empowers many to toe the path of religious chauvinism, thereby resulting in avoidable „fields of blood‟. But on the other hand, positive religious contestations have also produced meaningful development in some sense. This work adopted the historical and comparative research methodologies in order to interrogate the lived experiences of people with respect to religious contestations in Nigeria, and their effects both on an individual and the Nigerian State at large. The study revealed that many religious contestations in Nigeria are often engineered by socio-political and economic realities of the country, while others (religious leaders in most cases) leverage on the quest for dominance which is often tied to resource control. This paper, therefore, proposed that, though contestation is important in the development of any society, such should be done with respect to human dignity, rule of law, and recognition of religious values that promote peaceful co-existence and sanctity of life. The conclusion of this work is that, religious contestation that produces unwholesome rivalry, mutual mistrust, suspicion and distrust, and doctrinal crises is injurious to humanity and anti-development which should not be encouraged.