Nigeria has a number of religions, although clearly, the Muslim and Christian religion comes top.
According to various statistics, it is well established that in Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people, about 50% of that population are Muslims. 48% of the population identify as Christian, while the remaining 2% of the population identify as other traditional religions spread across the country. Among the Yoruba people for instance, there is the Ifa traditional religion; there is sango, Ogun, yemoja, esu, and a lot of them. There are also some other religions and sects, like Eckankar and Ogboni. Also, there is a mix-up in the religious practices of Nigerians; a lot of Christians and Muslims also practice traditional religion in secret.
Religion is a very big deal in Nigeria. I can tell you that for one because I am in Nigeria, it’s normal for people to say that Nigeria pray more than they work hard.
Is Nigeria a Muslim or Christian country?
As I have said before, Nigeria is not a Muslim country, nor is it a Christian country. Nigerian society likes to identify itself as a secular country. But this secular way of life is not spread nationwide.
The northern part of Nigeria consists of mainly Muslims, although there are quite a lot of Christians among them. The majority are made up of Muslims. And the Muslim states, for example, in Borno, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kano, also exercise the Sharia law within their domain.
Such a law doesn’t give way to activities like drinking or indecent dressing, but it exists in that society. When you come towards the south of Nigeria, that is where the majority of the Christians are populated. And here, the laws are quite relaxed.
The Christian religion doesn’t have a special court that is different from the court of the federal government of the country. And decent dressing is expected, but people basically can wear whatever they like down South without any consequences.
So to the question of whether Nigeria is a Muslim or Christian country, the short answer to that is that Nigeria is neither a Christian nor Muslim country. It is just a secular society.
What are the top three religions in Nigeria?
Even though this topic has been treated in the first part of this article, it is important. I am treating it again because people tend to ask this question directly. The simple answer to this is that Nigeria has three religions or the religion in Nigeria can be categorized into three.
We have the Muslims up north, we have the Christians down south, and then we have pockets of traditional religions spread all around the country.
So these are the three religions in Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the most prayerful countries in the world, perhaps second only to Afghanistan, according to statistics. Nigeria has a huge population; Nigeria has the biggest population of Muslims in Africa alongside Egypt, and Nigerian Christians have spread their wings all around the world. They built huge 100,000-capacity churches to accommodate the Christian faithful. So I hope I’ve been able to answer your question. Thank you.
Author
Abbey Johnson has a Masters degree as an engineer and has over 3 years of teaching and research experience. He is happiest when on a bike and is also interested in electric energy and computer Science.