What is it about?
The paper infers that Nigeria’s nascent democracy must promote a secular state, particularly in the face of the deep ethnic and religious differences that are capable of bringing about a democratic reversal to autocracy and absolutism if not well managed.
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Why is it important?
The thrust of this paper is an examination of the social bases of political behaviour . Yet numerous comparative analyses suggest that, in many polities, religious-based cleavages may have been a more important factor for understanding the social bases of voter alignment than the class or ethnic cleavages in a plural and deeply divided country like Nigeria. In view of the aforementioned this article analyses the 2019 presidential election vis-à-vis the role of religion. Previous studies of elections in Nigeria and indeed Africa have paid little attention to the possibly debilitating role of religion in voter education and voter preferences inside the polling units.
Perspectives
The article is in six parts. Following the introduction, the second part discusses the concept of secularism. Part three is an exposition of politics and religion relating to the dilemma in Nigerian politics.
Professor Ojo Olugbade Emmanuel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The religious factor in Nigeria’s 2019 Presidential election, Journal of African Elections, June 2020, Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA),
DOI: 10.20940/jae/2020/v19i1a7.
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