Religious intolerance – in one of the most religious countries in Africa if not the world – is one of the issues dominating debate ahead of next year’s elections.
It is rare to find a Nigerian who is not devout in a nation that is roughly divided into a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.
The constitution guarantees religious freedom – the country has no official religion and none of its 36 states is allowed to adopt one. It also prohibits religious discrimination.
Yet many who live in areas where they are in a religious minority do feel discriminated against, and live in fear – and with good reason given the history of religious-based violence.
“We don’t have freedom to worship. If you dress like a Muslim, you are in trouble. We are just hiding our religion in fear of not being attacked,” Ibrahim Bello, a Muslim living in south-eastern Nigeria, told the BBC.
Obinna Nnadi, a Christian who once lived in northern Kaduna state felt similarly fearful: “I felt it was not safe to practise my religion there. I had to pack my family and leave.”
Neither has much confidence in the authorities to clamp down on intolerance – and Mr Bello says attacks do not always make the news, except those involving the Islamist insurgency in the north-east in which both Muslims and Christians are attacked by militants.
This lack of faith in the political class to deal with such discrimination has become more heated as the governing All Progressive Congress (APC) has upset a cross-party tradition – in practice since the return to democracy in 1999 – of having both a Christian and a Muslim on the presidential ticket.
The incumbent president is Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, while his deputy is Yemi Osinbajo, a southern Christian.
But the APC ticket for 2023 has Bola Tinubu, a southern Muslim, with Kashim Shettima, a northern Muslim, as his running mate.
