Christianity, Islam, and Social Revolution in Nigeria

Abstract

This article advocates a revolutionary approach to the problem of mass impoverishment in Nigeria. Since such a possibility is remote and forlorn without the unity of ordinary Christians and Muslims who constitute the majority in the country, both Christianity and Islam are traced to their revolutionary conclusions. In other words, the question of compatibility of each of the two religions with revolutionary wisdom is addressed, towards sensitising ordinary Nigerian Christians and Muslims on the sanctity of redemptive revolution. Poverty, hunger, and misery don’t distinguish between Christians and Muslims, and those who are colluding in the mass exploitation of ordinary Nigerians are some Christians and Muslims. Unless the mass of ordinary Christians and Muslims unite against their exploiters who use religion as a means of divide and rule, paradigm may never shift in favour of the impoverished majority. The conceptual framework derives from a form of liberation theology that coincides with some (not all of) Marxist revolutionary orientation. It found seeds of revolution in the teaching and practice of both Jesus and Muhammad. It, therefore, calls on ordinary Christians and Muslims in Nigeria to unite and oppose, revolutionarily, mass impoverishment that is based on inhumanity of human beings to human beings.