The manipulation of religion in Nigeria, 1977-1987, Yusufu Bala Usman (Zaria: Yusufu Bala Usman Institute, 2020), 166 pp. ISBN-978-978-2557-08-7, Price: N1,500 ($3.60)

Abstract

A wit once claimed for Nigeria the distinction of being ‘God’s own’ country. In a similar vein, Nigerians were recently adjudged as the most ‘religious’ people in the world. Ironically however, this puritan ‘image’ contrasts sharply with the popular persona embodied in the Nigerian ‘factor’-a euphemism for the incompetence, arm-twisting, graft and other corrupt practices, as well as the circumvention of due process for which Nigerians have come to be known in the last four decades. The book, The Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria first published in 1987 and re-issued to the public in 2020 is authored by the late radical historian at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Yusufu Bala Usman. The book is an exposé, as well as an indictment of the Nigerian elites’ proclivity to make capital of religion in the achievement of their primordial selfish interests