THE ROLE OF ISLAM ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

It is essential for both Islamic and political science scholars to be examining the ideas and institutions in relation to their environmental background, social realities, political and religious situation. It is therefore necessary to relate these concerns to the contemporary system of ideas and institutions prevailing in our societies. It is against this backdrop that this paper attempts to examine Islam and democratic governance in Nigeria. To properly contextualize the paper, the paper takes off by presenting three notable objectives: to examine the relationship between Islam and democratic governance; to evaluate the role played by Islamic scholars in democratic governance in Nigeria and to identify the challenges confronting Muslim political leaders in advancing Islamic interest in democratic governance. The study adopts secondary source of data collection as method of obtaining relevance information. The study adopted democratic theory as the foundation upon which the study’s discussions were based. The study revealed that there exist strong relationship between Islam democratic governance. The paper also revealed several role played by Islamic scholars in democratic governance in Nigeria over the years. The paper identified the contemporary challenges confronted by Muslim political leaders in advancing the course of Islam in politics and governance in Nigeria. The paper concludes by providing possible solutions to the challenges confronting the Muslim political leaders in advancing Islamic interest in democratic governance.