PERSISTING POLITICAL INFLUENCE ON RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

One of the deadly perils that bedevil the contemporary Nigerian state is the phenomenological interface between politics and religion as co-principalities for the insinuation and perpetration of conflicts in the society. Standing on the functionalist view point, this paper argues that being a very popular religious country, Nigerian political system has not utilized such wealth of religious experience of both the politicians and the citizenry to advance a worthy paradigm for fair and peaceful democracy. Positing that the negligence of the use of moral sanity of religion results to poor governance in the country, the study maintains that religious crisis, insurgence, poverty and social crimes are traceable to poor performance in governance from the political office holders in the country. Consequently, religion seems to have been politicized, stripped of the didactic capabilities and converted to weapon of political tension, trauma, extra-judicial killing, oppression and insecurity in Nigeria. The objective relationship between religion and politics must be addressed in order to curb religious crisis which has dwindled the socio- economic boom and thorough governance of the country. Therefore, this study recommends that politicians should begin to respect awe of religion and the positive moral functions it stands for in the society; knowing that religion should be an essential ingredient and positive instrument to achieve good governance in the society and therefore not for mayhem.