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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Spirits in the Shari'a State
| Panel |
63. Nigeria under Obasanjo
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| Paper ID | 588 |
| Author(s) |
O'brien, Susan Marie
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In the aftermath of the 1999 Nigerian transition to democracy that brought former General Olusegun Obasanjo to power, the status of Shari’a law within the federal republic quickly, and perhaps predictably, became a lightning rod for controversy and debate. The rapid (re-)implementation of the penal code of the Shari’a in twelve northern Nigerian states has precipitated unprecedented judicial proceedings and outcomes, and new forms of conflict between state and federal governments.
Discord between the federal government and Kano state officials has been particularly severe, especially after Ibrahim Shekarau was elected governor in the 2003 elections. Central to Shekarau’s ANPP campaign platform was an attack on PDP governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s failure to fully implement Shari’a. Shekarau promised to extend the scope and reach of Shari’a law in Kano state, and since his election, he has earned himself the reputation as the ‘governor of the ulama’ for his close collaboration with his newly appointed state Shari’a and Hisbah commissions. In fall 2003 the Kano state government refused to allow the World Health Organization to administer oral polio vaccines in the state, alleging that the vaccine was contaminated with HIV and anti-fertility agents. State government spokesmen condemned the WHO campaign as part of a western-led plot to reduce the Muslim population of Nigeria and denounced the (evangelical Christian) President Obasanjo as an agent of foreign powers for his advocacy of the vaccine. More recently, in early 2006 the Commander-General of the Kano State Hisbah and his deputy Ustaz Abubakar Rabo were arrested and imprisoned for five months on charges of unlawful gathering as the federal government challenged the constitutionality of Hisbah activities in Kano state. The two were given a hero’s welcome at the Kano State Government House when they were released on bail in May, and they currently await trial.
This paper will explore these new tensions between the Kano state and Nigerian federal governments through a focus on the ulama who have gained new power and influence in the Kano state administration. Interestingly, and paradoxically, these clerics are not drawn from the more radical reformist groups that have emerged, since the 1970s, as critics of the traditional ulama calling for an Islamic state: the anti-Sufi, Wahhabi-oriented Izala and the Iranian-inspired Shi’a groups initially organized around Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in Zaria. Rather, Sufi clerics like Malam Faruq Chedi and Malam Sani Fagge (head of the Shari’a commission) actively distance themselves from both Izala and Shi’a events. Moreover, under the leadership of Malam Chedi the Hisbah has identified the work of possessing spirits in the undisciplined behavior of late-night revelers, and he maintains a team of Muslim spirit exorcists for dealing with such transgressions. The paper thus explores how a particular version of Islam, at odds with the modernizing orientation of both Izala and Shi’a groups, has found a place in the nonetheless aggressively Islamic Kano state administration under Governor Shekarau. The paper is based on research conducted in Kano during the summer of 2006 and the early months of 2007.
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