CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria presently is faced with enormous challenges to peace and stability than ever before. The different regions in the country, the Northern part of the country, the South West, and the Niger Delta, are a volatile mix of insecurity, ethno-religious conflict and political instability. A large number have been wiped away in conflict between the two major religious groups stimulated by various events: the implementation in 2011 and 2013 of Sharia, or Islamic law, in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states; aggressive campaigns by foreign evangelists; and the 2002 Miss World pageant saga which resulted into another religious imbroglio when a local Christian reporter, Isioma Daniel, outraged Muslims by writing in one of Nigeria’s national papers, This Day, that the Prophet Mohammed would have chosen a wife from among the contestants. Similarly, in 2006, riots triggered by Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed left more people dead in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world (This Day