An Islamic Cleric has cautioned that Nigerian Christians advocating for the removal of Sharia law may be inviting serious social and political problems that could divide the country.
Sharia law in Nigeria is a religious legal system applied mainly in Muslim-majority states in the northern region of the country. It operates alongside the secular legal system, creating a dual legal framework. Twelve northern states, including Bauchi, Borno, Kano, Kaduna, and Zamfara, formally adopted Sharia in the late 1990s.
Its reintroduction was intended to address moral and social concerns and to regulate personal matters for Muslims, but it also introduced elements of criminal law based on Islamic principles, which has been a source of tension between Muslim and Christian communities.
Many Nigerians viewed the extension of Sharia to criminal law as a violation of the country’s secular constitution and a threat to religious freedom. Protests, petitions, and public campaigns were organized in several states, calling for the government to limit Sharia’s scope and ensure that non-Muslims were not subjected to Islamic criminal codes.
Speaking in a video on X, the cleric warned that calls advocating removal of Sharia could be doing so at the country’s peril.
“America asking for the removal of Shariah in Nigeria and Nigerian Christians supporting this must know that the are inviting a problem that could divide this country”
