Religious Pluralism, Cultural Differences, and Social Stability in Nigeria

Religion, despite its concern with the spiritual, affects us socially, and religious rights thus remain an important topic in contemporary society. An African scholar, Simeon Onyewueke Eboh, asserts that religion "has always manifested itself as a social fact, an associative reality with a communitarian character."1 Eboh argues that religion, as a social phenomenon, "touches on, and influences decisively, other spheres of human life-cultural, economic, political, etc."2 He further argues that "although religion concerns the spiritual and other-worldly dimensions of man," it also "affects deeply the temporal dimension of man."3

Some commentators assert that manipulation of religion …