God and governance: religious identity and support for faith-based rule in Nigeria

Abstract

Despite ongoing debates over religious governance in Nigeria, empirical research on citizens’ attitudes toward its adoption remains scarce. This study addresses that gap by using data from the World Values Survey to examine the relationship between religious affiliation and preferences around religious governance. Our measure is derived from a survey question gauging respondents’ amenability to a political system governed by religious law without political parties or elections. Descriptive analysis reveals that 61% of Nigerians support religious governance. Ordered logit regression analysis indicates that Muslims are more likely than Christians to support such a system. However, disaggregating the data by region reveals a distinct pattern: in the north, Muslims express significantly higher support for religious governance than Christians; in the south, Muslim and Christian attitudes do not differ statistically. The analysis also reveals that northern Muslims show greater support for religious governance than their southern counterparts, while no regional differences are observed among Christians. Taken together, these findings challenge portrayals of Nigerian Muslims as a homogeneous bloc and underscore the importance of regional context in shaping attitudes toward theocracy.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Social Identities, 2026 · DOI ↗