Let's talk about hegemonic Islam in Northern Nigeria today.

Hegemonic Islam, as a political ideology, is aimed at POWER and SOCIAL CONTROL through the imposition of value systems.

Hegemonic Islam is different from the practice of Islam as an individual’s PERSONAL religion.

Islam as a hegemonic system in Northern Nigeria started from the conquest of the old kingdoms/communities that now constitute Northern Nigeria by Usman dan Fodio in the early 1800s.

This conquest resulted in the creation of new emirates to replace those kingdoms/communities.

This conquest was nearly a century before the British took political control of the entire region.

However, when the British came, they fought a series of wars against the emirates from about 1900 to 1903. Eventually, the British won and the emirates bowed to colonial powers.

Although the British took charge politically and economically, the Islamic political hegemony continued to exercise significant local influence, enough for them to persuade the British to consider a separate criminal law "reflecting Muslim values" for the Northern Protectorate.

These agitations led to the enactment of a Penal Code for Northern Nigeria in 1958 with SOME Islamic criminal law included.

As for non-criminal parts of Islamic law, these could be used in relation to "family and personal law", same way customary law was used in the South.

Since 1960, Nigerian Constitutions were clear that Nigeria was a secular state, and any criminal law had to be written and enacted by the legislature.

In theory, this forbids religious law nationally. In practice, this has only worked in federal jurisdictions, not in states.

(Note: "Nationally" means the whole country. For example, we have a national flag.

"Federal" means areas where only the NASS can make law, eg we have a federal civil service.

"States" means areas where only state HOAs can make law, eg we have a state civil service.)

Both federal and state govts have always had power to enact criminal laws nationally (FG only), federally (FG only), and state-wise (states only).

However, regardless of who enacted the law, the Nigerian police was primarily tasked with enforcing the law at all levels.

Back to Islam.

So, up until 1999, Islamic law was allowed in court only as personal law and not as criminal law.

The idea was clear that religious law should not EXPLICITLY govern our criminal law. However, they can be incorporated as secular law, eg laws on homosexuality.

But in 1999, soon as Nigeria returned to democracy, the governor of Zamfara - Ahmad Sani Yerima - announced his intention to explicitly enacti Sharia criminal law as the state's criminal law.

There was national uproar.

And yet, by 2001, 7 Northern states had adopted the idea.

In this way, Islamic hegemony tightened its grip on the political system of Northern Nigeria.

Sharia had 3 political benefits for govts and emirates in the North.

1. The appeal to religious sentiment guaranteed popular support that could be converted into political capital.

For instance, Shekarau won the governorship of Kano State in 2003, by promising - amongst other things - to extend Sharia to areas where the Christian minorities in the state lived.

As @hrw notes, “In most cases, the Sharia legislation was rushed through in a hurried and incomplete way ... Advocates of Sharia wrote the laws in a few weeks. The authors knew they were imperfect but rushed them through for political reasons.”

It was all for political gain.

2. Focusing on religious laws distracted people in the North from the actual issues plaguing their states. Their govts disguised social and economic problems as moral problems.

Result: From 1999 to date, Northern Nigeria indices continue to trail behind its southern counterpart.

Listen to Sanusi here at the 1:17:53 mark:



"Zamfara state started Sharia in Nigeria, it has the highest rate of poverty in the country today. And it’s a matter of time for people to realise that this is all deception, this is all politics."

3. Because the north is culturally governed by a Muslim aristocracy that traces its legitimacy to conquest by Dan Fodio, the re-introduction of Shari’a laws – as was practiced prior to the British – reinforces the political legitimacy of the existing emirates and aristocracy.

Sanusi himself is generally considered as a departure from this aristocratic selfishness in the North.

Now you can understand why he was deposed in March 2020, "to safeguard the sanctity, culture, tradition, religion and prestige of the Kano emirate". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51804764

In short, Sharia laws have no legal purpose not already covered by the existing Penal Code. Instead, the enactment of Sharia has only provided political and social capital to its promoters, cementing them as "moral guides" and earning them political - and economic - advantage.

This, my friends, is the goal of Islamic hegemony in Northern Nigeria - the manipulation of society for the benefit of a few elite and the oppression, repression, and subjugation of everyday people in Northern Nigeria.

And right now, the people seem not to understand this yet.

https://twitter.com/ayosogunro/status/1325346778254888960?s=20