Religion and the heart of Nigeria’s crisis

By TOOCHUKWU OBIOTIKAIn the 1960s and ‘70s, during Nigeria’s earliest attempts at nation-building, many Christian leaders discouraged their members from taking active roles in politics. To the fathers of faith in that era, African politics was too dirty, too manipulative, too immersed in struggle and moral compromise. Political engagement, they believed, would stain the garments of their spiritual mission. In their absence, the political space became dominated by others who emb