Paradox of Contemporary Religious Practices and Politics of Peace in South West Nigeria (1999-2024)
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Date
2025-12
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Lead City University, Ibadan
Abstract
Religion, like politics is one of the most pervasive and powerful forces on earth and very core in human relationship. Religious ideas have infiltrated families, societies, politics and cultures. Both religion and politics are intertwined, aggressive and compromising. Religion is no longer a matter of self-interest in pursuit of higher truths and worship of the Supreme Being, rather, religion has been deeply rooted in socio-political worldviews. It is true that religion contributes to human value, at the same time, history clearly shows that religion has often been linked directly to the worst examples of human attitude and behaviour in relation to other people whether at individual or corporate levels. This study examines the paradox of religious practices and politics of peace employed to resolve religious conflicts. Religious practices are fraught with intricate and complex contradictions. While religion promises peace, it is equally used as an instrument of violent conflicts. Politics of peace involves socio-cultural, political and relational mechanisms engaged to resolve conflicts by governmental and non-governmental actors. A mixed-method comprising the instrument of questionnaire and key informant interview with purposive sampling of 513 participants for survey and 60 key informants across south western Nigeria was conducted. Findings show that several contradictions in religious practices engender conflicts which politics of peace has not yet been able to adequately resolve owing to epistemic injustice, primordial hostilities, and inadequate interfaith dialogue among religious actors. Findings also emphasise socio-economic factors as undergirding reasons for engaging in religious malpractices. as depicted in the report in which both standardised coefficient beta (β) and unstandardized coefficient beta (β) reveal that economic elements have the most impact on both religious paradox and politics of peace. The t-value of 15.165 and the p-value of 0.000 show that sustainable peacebuilding which is predicated on religious practices and concomitant politics of peace is strongly influenced by economic elements. The study therefore, concludes that religion is a complex phenomenon and undeniably intertwined with politics, culture, ethnicity, and economic conditions and patrons of religious conflicts as well as politicians who pervert justice are primarily preoccupied with economic survival rather than pure allegiance to God or humanity. In the light of the findings and conclusion, the study recommends a more nuanced understanding of respective religious faiths and also to consider peace as an inalienable birth-right of human beings just as politics should be reconstructed as “good governance” to transform South West Nigeria.
Keywords: Peace-building, Politics of peace, Religious paradox, Contemporary religious practices, Sustainable development, South West Nigeria
Word count:398
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Keywords
Peace-building, Politics of peace, Religious paradox, Contemporary religious practices, Sustainable development, South West Nigeria
Citation
kate Turabian