Democracy, Islam, and Sharia Politics in Northwestern Nigeria: An Original Socio-Political Theory

This dissertation develops an original socio-political theory of the relationship between democracy, Islam, and sharia politics in Northwestern Nigeria, examining the twelve-state sharia implementation process initiated in 1999 as a political project that fundamentally challenges liberal democratic assumptions about secularism, minority rights, and constitutional governance. Existing scholarship analyses sharia implementation primarily through constitutional law or Islamic theology lenses, missing the complex socio-political dynamics through which sharia politics has reconstructed political identity, electoral competition, and governance culture in the North West and North East geopolitical zones. The dissertation employs a 20-year longitudinal comparative design covering six Northern sharia states including Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Jigawa, combining panel analysis of electoral and governance data from 1999 to 2023, comparative case analysis of sharia implementation trajectories in three states, and primary research involving 80 in-depth interviews with Islamic scholars, political leaders, women's rights advocates, religious minority representatives, and civil society leaders. Historical institutionalism, the Political Islam Theory, the Constitutional Democracy Framework, and the Postcolonial State Theory jointly provide the theoretical anchors. The dissertation proposes the Sharia Democratic Negotiation Theory, which specifies how Islamic governance demands and democratic constitutional norms are negotiated, selectively implemented, and politically manipulated by elite actors in a formally democratic context. Keywords: democracy, Islam, sharia, Northwestern Nigeria, political Islam.