Christians and Christianity in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Christians constitute a significant minority in northern Nigeria. This reportintroduces some of the main dynamics that characterize the contemporary Christianpopulation of Nigeria, with a focus on Christianity in northern Nigeria. It sketches theorigins of the divide between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Christian movements and presents dataon the demographics and diversity of Nigerian Christianity, suggesting that there arefive main Christian movements in Nigeria: the Roman Catholics, the ‘orthodox’Protestants, the African Protestants, the Aladura churches, and finally thePentecostals. Furthermore, the paper discusses some of the ways in which NigerianChristians are positioning themselves and their religion in Nigeria’s public sphere. Inparticular, it focuses on the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ democratic challenges facingChristianity in Nigeria. As such, this paper outlines several themes that are importantin the development of contemporary Nigerian Christianity, with special reference tothe north.