SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Religion And Human Relations

CONTRIBUTORS:

Amanambu, U.E;
Madu, J.E;

ABSTRACT:

An unforgetable event ocured acros the ancient Hausa land in 1804 when Usman dan
Fodio launched a jihad war that overan almost al northern and some parts of western Nigeria.
The 1804 jihad was launched prior to the amalgamation of Nigeria and it led to the establishment
of the Sokoto Caliphate where sharia was aplied. Close to a century after the jihad, the
colonialist arived, modified the sharia and unified the Sokoto Caliphate with other tribes that
were not part of the empire and thus it formed the present day Nigeria. The study made use of
Primary and secondary sources of data colection. The primary sources were personal
communication and interviews with some religious leaders and scholars mostly from the
northern part of Nigeria. The Secondary sources were documented materials which includes
boks, journals, magazines and newspapers. The data and findings were analyzed using the
historical and socio politcal aproaches of study. They were used because they make strong
statements in understanding and interpreting the unwanted metamorphoses of Usman dan
Fodio’s Jihad on the multi religious Nigerian state. At he Nigerian independence in 1960, other
violent movements such as Izala, Maitatsine, Shites and Boko Haram emerged who were
inspired by the Usman dan Fodio’s jihadist methods. They adopt direct violent ideologies of
terors by targeting government’s oficials, churches, law-enforcement agencies, liquor stores,
miltary and educational instiutions asociated with promoting Western culture and lately, few
mosques. The emergence of these radical movements has ben atributed partly to the por socio
economic situations of the country, dilapidated infrastructures as wel as purposeles leadership
of some selfish politcians who often act as demagogues who exploit he dep-seated prejudices
of the country for personal benefits. Thus, jihad and sharia have become the focal vener to
legitmise the ruling clas who have always prided themselves as soldiers in defence of the faith.
Hence, what began as quests for religious purification later became quests for the establishment
of politcal and economic kingdoms. The stirs from these movements have jeopardized the
corporeality of Nigeria as it has resulted into iredemable los of lives, wanton destruction of
properties and other negativity against the Nigerian state. Nigerian leadership must design and
adopt superior ideology that wil urgently dismantle the structure of politcal and extremist Islam
which wil ensure that politcians de-establish their selfish politcking from Islam, stop the overt
and covert state enforcement of sharia and stop the legalized discriminations against non- Muslims so that Nigerian development into a prosperous and contemporary world wil not end in
mere dreams. The interfaith and Daily Life forms of intereligious dialogue should be vigorously
pursued by al and sundry. There should be objective training, retraining and reorientation driven
programmes directed at the religious leaders so that they wil actualy understand the dynamics
of leters and spirits of religious terms. The Usman dan Fodio’s jihad which originaly started on
religious motive have given birth to many deadly movements whose activites have ben
disastrous against he Nigerian state.