Beyond Legal Pluralism: Advocacy for the Excision of Religious Provisions to Fortify National Cohesion

At Constitution Watchdog, our jurisprudential radar is currently fixed on a significant challenge to Nigeria’s constitutional framework articulated by Benson Sunday, a prominent human rights advocate and President of the advocacy group One Nation One Law. In a forceful intervention that strikes at the heart of Nigeria’s legal dualism, Mr. Sunday has called for the immediate excision of Sharia provisions from the Constitution. His argument posits that the existence of parallel legal systems—specifically the bifurcation between secular and religious law—creates a structural fissure that severely undermines the nation’s capacity to combat terrorism and insecurity. From a constitutional theory perspective, this critique suggests that the lack of a unified legal doctrine is not merely an administrative inefficiency but a fundamental threat to sovereign integrity and national cohesion.

The advocate’s central thesis rests on the premise that “mixed messages” and political compromises inherent in a divided legal architecture erode the national resolve necessary to confront violent non-state actors. Mr. Sunday explicitly argues that religion properly resides within the private sphere of the soul, whereas the law must remain the exclusive, unified instrument of the nation-state. He contends that the current constitutional arrangement fosters ambiguity which prevents leaders—both traditional and religious—from exercising necessary moral clarity during crises. This position challenges the federal government to abolish these parallel frameworks in favor of a modern, unified security doctrine, effectively arguing that a nation divided by its fundamental laws cannot successfully unite against the existential threat of terror.

Furthermore, this constitutional critique extends into the realm of international relations and security policy. Mr. Sunday has drawn a direct causal link between religious politics and the stagnation of critical security modernization efforts. Specifically, he criticized the resistance from certain religious quarters against proposed security cooperation with Israel—an initiative championed by Deputy Foreign Minister Bianca Ojukwu. He argues that this opposition, grounded in sectarian sentiment rather than strategic necessity, has deprived Nigeria of access to advanced counter-terrorism intelligence and technology. By characterizing this resistance as a lack of “political courage,” he underscores a critical tension between constitutional secularism and the influence of religious lobbying on foreign policy and national defense architecture.

In his concluding mandate to the executive branch, Mr. Sunday urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prioritize transparency and decisive action over political expediency. This includes a demand for the public disclosure of terror financiers and their enablers, effectively stripping the veil of secrecy that often protects complicit actors. He advocates for the robust empowerment of the security leadership, specifically citing the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and Deputy Minister Ojukwu, to construct a formidable anti-terror network involving alliances with the United States and other strategic partners. This development represents a critical inflection point in Nigerian constitutional discourse, moving the debate from abstract legal pluralism to the tangible exigencies of national survival and the modernization of the state’s security apparatus.