In search of a public sphere: the fundamentalist challenge to civil society in Nigeria

Abstract

Many polities in transition are undermined by what is commonly called a ‘deliberation deficit’, which means the absence from a given social formation of a common ethos that frames the debate on issues of general concern. In a sense, this scenario can be revealing, for it often highlights some of the nagging issues haunting the process of nation-building itself. This arguably is the case in Nigeria where, in November 2002, violence in the northern part of the country over the Miss World 2002 beauty pageant once again exposed the shallowness of the country’s political foundation, and the lack of a mutually defined ‘civil religion’. The argument has been advanced that the secularization of power is a precondition for the establishment of civil society and the nation-state. One implication of this theoretical postulate is that we cannot begin to imagine a secularized civil society or state in Nigeria in the face of the challenge by forces sworn to religious fundamentalism. In fact, if anything at all, the fundamentalist violence over the Miss World beauty pageant has only illustrated some of the basic contradictions in the Nigerian polity that many recent analyses have failed to apprehend. These include: the sharp dissonance in perceptions of public morality, the loss of confidence in the state as the bearer of a moral project, and the disputed nature of the secular framework itself. Using the Miss World affair as a contextual backdrop, Obadare puts these deeply interwoven themes in perspective, arguing that Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria endangers a truly independent public sphere of critical deliberation constituted by equal citizens. He concludes by evaluating the prospects for democratic stability in Nigeria in the face of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.