SHARI'A, POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE IN THE POST-MILITARY NORTHERN NIGERIA Sottotitolo: Nature, causes and effects of the implementation of Islamic law

The revitalized implementation of a “full” Shari’ah and its expansion like a wildfire to twelve northern states, at the wake of the return to a civilian administration after fifteen years of military rule, represent the most controversial example of intergroup relations for access to political power. This religious revival was set in progress by the Governor of Zamfara State, Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakura on 27 October, 1999, when he put in place a stringent Islamic Penal Code with the corporal punishments in accordance with the Qur’anic prescriptions. Hereafter, other eleven states reformed, in the first instance, the judiciary in accordance with the constitutional framework. A multiple system of courts, where Shari’ah Courts, Common Law Courts and Customary Courts stay side-by-side, replaced the so-called “Area Courts.” In addition, institutions of different nature, such as the Shari’ah Implementation Committee and the State Council of Ulama, were built up in each state with the purpose of implementing and enforcing the application of a new set of laws to sanitize the society from social vices, such as prostitution and consumption of alcohol. In effect the call for the implementation of Islamic law depended partially from the popular dissatisfaction toward an unequal administration of justice and the collapse of the social and political institutions of the Nigerian society. According to Muslims, the prevalent cause of their decadence was the existence of a judicial system which was prevalently western in origin and orientation. None of the twelve pro-Shari’ah states did all the reforms above mentioned concomitantly and in the same manner. Actually, each governor modeled the application of Islamic law on a “flexible discourse” in relation to the territory he administers. Using documentary materials and interviews carried out in Kaduna, Kano and Katsina States during a fieldwork of seven months, this research asks: why has been Shari’ah implemented differently by the twelve states, which had reintroduced the Islamic Penal Code?