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States of the Nigerian region in the late 19 th Century. Source: THOMAS HODGKIN, NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVES (2d ed., 1975), p. 73.
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The British took over Northern Nigeria in 1900. Early enactments included statutes establishing two types of courts. “English” courts, of which there were only a few, primarily applied “English” law to “non-natives”; over the course of a century they have developed into today’s state High Courts and Magistrate Courts, plus federal High and appellat...
Citations
As it affected the courts of Nigeria's sharia states, the sharia implementation programmes enacted in 1999-2001 had three main aspects: to replace the old Area Courts with Sharia Courts; to bring back Islamic criminal law, abrogated since 1960, for application in the Sharia Courts to Muslims; and to direct all appeals from Sharia Courts, in both civil and criminal matters, to the Sharia Courts of Appeal. In §2 of this report we review the main features of the enactments of the sharia states by which these changes were legislated, discussing changes in the laws regarding administration and supervision of the courts, appointment and qualifications of the judges, jurisdiction and applicable law, and appeals. In §3 we present our findings, based on fieldwork and other research, as to how the legislated changes have developed over almost two decades. Data are presented and many details discussed regarding Sharia Court administration, the judges, civil caseloads and matters being litigated, the application of Islamic criminal law, and the failure of the attempt to direct all appeals from Sharia Courts to Sharia Courts of Appeal. Section 4 gives our overall conclusions and recommendations: in sum, that the Sharia Court systems put in place in 1999-2001 are reasonably sound and are working to the general satisfaction of the people they serve, but that there are a number of legal anomalies that should be resolved and other problems that should be addressed, which we identify and discuss.
In November 1990, the Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics published an article by Adigun Agbaje entitled “Travails of the Secular State: Religion, Politics and the Outlook on Nigeria’s Third Republic.” The article analyzed the explosive debates on Islamic Sharia law that preceded the promulgation of the 1989 Constitution for the proposed (and eventually aborted) Third Nigerian Republic. Some of Agbaje’s main arguments in the article can be outlined as follows:
The concept of the secular state, which is ambiguous and contentious almost everywhere, is especially problematic and explosive in the Nigerian setting. This is because of the interventionist role of the state in Nigeria and other developing societies as a “differentiator and distributor”; a long-standing history (from precolonial through colonial to the postindependence eras) of state entanglement in religion; the demographic bipolarization of the country into politically competitive, ideologically antagonistic, and often eth- noregionally concentrated, Christian and Muslim communities; and the sharply divergent positions of the two religious communities on the relationship between the state and religion in general, and the constitutional status of Sharia, in particular.
On Friday morning, 29 January 2001, Bariya Ibrahima Mugazu was given 100 lashes. Zamfara state of Nigeria tried and punished this young woman for having had sex unlawfully in the previous year. Until this case between Zamfara state of Nigeria and unmarried Bariya Mugazu, controversies surrounding the full adoption of Islamic law (Shari'ah) in northern Nigeria seemed to have remained only a local issue. Section 10 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria bars any of its federating units from adopting a ‘state religion’. These states are, however, at liberty to adopt any suitable legal regime. So in 1999, when 12 states in the north of the federation opted for theocracy by adopting Shari'ah as state law, the predominantly Muslim public of the region claimed to be acting within the confines of the municipal law in embracing religiously based regimes. As such, the relationship between this religious and legal order and Nigeria's human-rights-friendly constitution remains controversial. Fornication or adultery may well not constitute an offence deserving criminal prosecution in the non-Muslim secular world. As shall be made apparent in this study, however, individuals' sex lives are highly regulated within the world of Islam. Since Islamic regimes strongly condemn fornication and adultery, this paper is concerned with reviewing Zamfara v. Bariya in order to establish whether the case succeeded in reflecting an Islamic concept of justice. If so, to what extent was the administration of justice by Shari'ah court(s) of law in Zamfara consistent with the ideals and teaching of Islam?
IntroductionNigerian Human Rights StrugglesConclusions
The sharia implementation programs of twelve states of northern Nigeria are briefly described. Reasons for concern are noted. But ten reasons are given for thinking that sharia implementation on the whole represents progress for the states concerned and for Nigeria. Three reasons relate to the fact that the political units implementing sharia are states within a larger federation. The steps taken are a victory for democracy as well as for federalism. The Muslim majorities of the implementing states are reclaiming their heritage and their right to develop it themselves. Among other things they are developing Islamic law. The steps taken will help to defuse tendencies to violent Islamic fundamentalism, will help to eliminate political illusions, and may result in better government. In conclusion the early overreactions of Nigeria’s Christians, the Kaduna riots of February 2000, and the Kaduna compromise are briefly described. [This paper was originally published in Swedish Missiological Themes, vol. 90, no. 2 (2002), pp. 163-171]
