Preaching Peace and Living Peacefully in Northern Nigeria: Bridging the gap between Theory and Practice
Yake, Mathias Daji

Abstract
Since the 1980’s Northern Nigeria has been engulfed in a cycle of ethno-religious violence. This therefore has trapped the region in different vices and development seems to have been stalled or moving at a very slow pace. Northern Nigeria is said to be predominantly Muslims, but with a large significant population of Christians. Islam and Christianity is known to preach peace worldwide, so also in the region, but this now seems to be doubtful because of the series of ethno-religious and inter-religious violence that has engulfed the region. It is therefore against this background that this paper interrogates the perspectives of Islam and Christianity respectively, in preaching and living peacefully with non adherents of their faith. The paper finally establishes that there is a disconnection between preaching peace (which is theory) and living peacefully (which is practice) in the region and that there is need to balance theory and practice to establish a just and positive peace.

Full Text: PDF