Politics and Religion in Violence

Abstract

The overt manifestation of violence and the idea of promoting conflict to exploit the contradictions in a system, with the belief that a better system will emerge as a result, has been with man from time immemorial and part of Nigeria’s chequered history. This work studies violence rooted in politics and religion in Nigeria. The study seeks to interrogate how the actions and inactions of state and non- state actors is a critical factor in the rise and expansion of violence; whether or not the rationalization of the specific factors of politics and religion in Nigeria is implicated in the preponderance of violent behaviour in Nigeria as well as its peculiar implications for the corporate existence of Nigeria as a sovereign state. The study draws its foundation from the Dialectical strand of Marx’s Political Economy theory. Ex-post-facto research design, secondary sources of data collection and qualitative descriptive analysis were used. The study employs context techniques and logical evidence to argue that: the goal-directed actions of individuals to bring about desirable changes in an existing structure or to prevent undesirable ones are directly implicated in the rise and expansion of violent behaviour; the rationalization of specific factors of politics and religion helped to ensure the preponderance of violent behaviour in Nigeria and this have had serious implications for the corporate existence and development of Nigeria as a sovereign state.