*Photo: Professor Kehinde Yusuf*
In a March 2004 Law Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) publication on Islamic Law, Legal Specialist Issam M. Saliba wrote: “The dictates of the Koran [Qur’an] constitute in the eye of the believers the way and the path that God has described to all [humankind] for reaching eternal salvation. Muslims also believe that in the dictates of the Koran there are answers to any question and solutions to any problem that the believers may face in their lives. The totality of these dictates, commands and injunctions contained in the Koran are called Shari’a meaning literally the path to be followed.”
Saliba also noted: “The Prophet [Muhammad] acted not only as the spiritual and temporal leader of the newly established [Islamic State of Medina], but also as its supreme judge and arbitrator. In his capacity as judge and arbitrator amongst the inhabitants of Medina and amongst its various tribes, the Prophet was called upon to decide legal matters and resolve conflicts on a variety of issues. Some of the revelations of the Koran were the result of issues that were brought before the Prophet and for which he did not have a ready answer.”
As noted in the 7 June, 2026 article titled “Sharia, Trump and the US Congress” in this column, in addition to the Qur’an and the sayings, actions and decisions of Prophet Muhammad, the consensus among Muslim scholars or the Muslim community as a whole as well as analogical reasoning are sources of Sharia. Besides legal rules, Sharia also contains moral, ethical and rituals rules which are aimed at maintaining a stable and harmonious society with the overriding purpose of pleasing Allah.
There are different aspects or versions of Sharia. These include personal law, civil law and criminal law. Personal law deals with prescriptions for living a spiritually, mentally, psychologically and emotionally healthy and fulfilled life as an individual. Civil law deals with prescriptions for living with and interacting with other members of the society harmoniously and peacefully. The aspect of Sharia which deals with criminal matters covers such issues as theft, murder and treason.
As Muhammad Mamun notes in an 8 May, 2025 article on Islamic law, “contemporary geopolitical and economic factors have influenced the ongoing development of Muslim laws, prompting adaptations that reconcile traditional principles with the demands of global trade and legal harmonization within Muslim-majority countries. The evolution of Islamic law thus reflects a dynamic interplay between enduring religious principles and the changing realities of modern society.”
In spite of its adaptability to different environments, Sharia has been demonised, while proposals for it to be resisted or cancelled, where it is already in place, has been made by its opponents. For example, on 2 December, 2025 at a US congressional roundtable in the context of the allegation of Christian genocide in Nigeria, US-based Nigerian scholar Ebenezer Babatope recommended as follows: “[T]he United States should put pressure on President Tinubu to … make Sharia law unconstitutional in the 12 northern states where they have been adopted since 2000.”
To calls such as this, Vanguard newspaper, on 27 February, 2026, reported in a story titled “You can’t stop Sharia practice in Nigeria, Islamic Council tells US lawmakers”: “In a statement issued Wednesday, SCSN [The Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria] Secretary General Nafiu Ahmad said Sharia is a comprehensive way of life for Muslims and cannot be relinquished due to ‘external pressure, misinformation, or political intimidation.’”
Sharia has also been weaponised in regional politics in Nigeria. For example, in May 2026, fake news was circulated about a plan by President Bola Tinubu to cancel the application of Sharia in Northern Nigeria. On 21 May, 2026, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President
(Information & Strategy), debunked the allegation as follows: “The Presidency wishes to inform Nigerians and state clearly that there is no truth to the viral fake story claiming that President Bola Tinubu seeks to carry out constitutional amendments that will … abolish Sharia Law in the Northern region, among other claims.”
Onanuga also noted: “The story, which cited anonymous sources, is part of the dubious plot by some desperate politicians to create disaffection in our country, stir up a political crisis, and heat the polity ahead of the general elections. Nigerians should ignore the viral story in its entirety because the purveyors of the fake news are agents of destabilisation and merchants of disorder. President Tinubu has no plan whatsoever to send any bill code-named Project True Federation to the National Assembly by December 15, a few weeks before the general election.”
To reassure the public, Onanuga stated: “Under our laws, constitutional changes and amendments are serious business that require legislative scrutiny, oversight and serious debate. The process of amending the constitution is not at the President’s or the National Assembly’s whim. It is a task that requires a 2/3 majority in both chambers of the National Assembly and the concurrence of 24 State Houses of Assembly.”
Moreover, in connection with the abduction of students and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area on 15 May, 2026, it was claimed that in the negotiations to secure the victims’ freedom, the abductors demanded the introduction of Sharia Law. Various media outfits, including otherwise reputable national newspapers and television stations latched onto this fake news and their invited analysts advertently or inadvertently helped to spread the disinformation.
US-based communication scholar Professor Farooq Kperogi, in a 6 June, 2026 article titled “Don’t add lies to the terrorist horror in Oyo,” in Nigerian Tribune, undertook a critical analysis of the rumour to show why it could not have been true. Specifically, he noted: “The Sharia claim is the most suspicious part of the whole thing. Where will the Sharia be implemented? In the classrooms from which the children were abducted? In the Old Oyo National Park where the homicidal, blood-stained criminals are believed to be hiding? In the kidnappers’ forest camps? Or across Oyo State through a ransom note from bandits? The absurdity should detain us before outrage overtakes our capacity for critical thought.”
Kperogi continued: “The demand is also historically and empirically incoherent. Bandits and terrorists (who, in my dictionary, are indistinct) have murdered Muslims in states where Sharia already exists. They have attacked mosques. They have killed imams while they are leading prayers in mosques during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month. They have kidnapped Muslim women, Muslim children, Muslim clerics and Muslim farmers. … To suddenly believe that the same species of criminals have discovered the virtues of Sharia and are championing its enshrinement in Oyo State’s laws is to suspend judgment in the service of prejudice.”
He further observed: “It [the rumour] is also being used to imply that the abduction of Yoruba schoolchildren is part of an Islamic plot that local Muslims either endorse or secretly facilitate. This is how societies descend into self-sabotaging moral idiocy. Criminals commit crimes and innocent people who share a religion, ethnicity or language with the imagined identity of the criminals are made to bear the brunt of unjustified transferred aggression.”
In addition, Kperogi admonished: “The fight against terrorism is weakened when we isolate innocent groups for demonization. It dissipates much-needed moral energy and produces enemies where allies are needed. It also encourages communities to hide behind siege mentalities instead of cooperating across religious and ethnic lines to expose criminals. The people who should be angry together are made to be angry at one another.”
The Government of Oyo State has also been at the receiving end of the controversies surrounding the fake news that the abductors were making demands for Sharia. One headline in Pulse.ng reads, in an article by Rukayat Badmus, on 11 June, 2026: “Oyo school kidnapping: Government faces backlash for fabricating bandits’ demands.” Another sub-text in the story is “Seyi Makinde’s government faces backlash for fabricating bandits’ demand.” Such headlines are connected to the school principal who is being held by the abductors and who was recorded on video debunking claims that the abductors demanded Sharia, and also making a plea for the government of Oyo State not to compound their fate in captivity by propagating the claim.
In fact, in a press release on 8 June, 2026, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) stated: “We reiterate that the so-called demand is traceable to enemies of Islam, hot gospellers and Christian leaders who are frustrated by the continued growth of Islam in Yorubaland in spite of their evil machinations against the Muslims. It is an attempt to blackmail Yoruba Muslims who have been demanding Shari’ah for decades. Their desire is to silence the agitation for Shari’ah.”
The castigation of the Oyo State Government is connected to existing controversies regarding the establishment of Sharia Panels in Oyo State. On 28 March, 2025, the report by Muslimnews.com.ng on the issue was: “Gov Makinde makes u-turn, says Shari’ah panel free to operate in Oyo.” The governor was also quoted to have said: “I read in the newspaper that I would go to court for interpretation on the Sharia panel, which is ongoing in Oyo. That is not my position. My position is that we will support anything that is in our Constitution. I made a statement when Muslims in southwestern Nigeria came to my office that we should not encourage discord among ourselves no matter how little.”
It is noteworthy in this regard that the former Honourable Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, granted an interview, as an aspirant for the governorship candidacy of Oyo State. On 27 January, 2026, The Cable reported the interview as follows: “Asked if he will introduce Sharia law if elected governor of Oyo in 2027, he said: ‘If the people ask for it. Even the constitution says it should be established whenever it is demanded. It is open because the constitution allows it.’” For this, he was intensely condemned by opponents of Sharia.
Given Nigeria’s religious diversity, the Christian or biblical foundations of Common Law, the recognition and administrative provision for Customary Law, and the Islamic or qur’anic foundations of Sharia, there is the tendency to see the denial of Sharia Law in some states of the federation as the attempt to abridge or abrogate the practice of Islam.
As shown above, Sharia is weaponised in two ways in Nigeria. Supporters or advocates of Sharia use allegations of plans to outlaw the Islamic legal system as a means of undermining political opponents, while opponents use the attribution of vicarious responsibility to those who share religion with criminals as a means of demonising the faith and its untainted adherents. In-between these two conflicting tendencies is the widening gulf that can only further undermine Nigeria’s development efforts.
It is therefore essential for the nation’s leadership to institute and implement assiduously a national programme of religious literacy to promote peace and harmony and accelerate development.