Pentecostal Presidency? The Lagos-Ibadan 'Theocratic Class' and the Muslim 'Other'

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Periodical article

Title:	Pentecostal Presidency? The Lagos-Ibadan 'Theocratic Class' and the Muslim 'Other'
Author:	Obadare, Ebenezer
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	33
Issue:	110
Period:	December
Pages:	665-678
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Church and State heads of State Pentecostalism Politics and Government Religion and Witchcraft
About person:	Olusegun Obasanjo (1937-)
External links:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240601119083 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=44BD904F86196F90FD3F
Abstract:	This paper analyses the politics of regime legitimacy through the instrumentality of religious discourse purveyed through a putative Christian 'theocratic class' surrounding the Obasanjo presidency in Nigeria. Though the emphasis is on Western Nigerian Christian discourse because of its undeniable influence in the polity since 1999, it incorporates Muslim and northern Nigerian religious discourse in so far as it is seen as constituting the significant discursive 'Other' with which the predominantly Christian geopolitical south has historically been in contention. The paper contends that the 'Pentecostalization' of governance has raised the stakes as far as the struggle to define the Nigerian public sphere is concerned, further politicizing religion, even as lip service continues to be paid to the secularity of the Nigerian State. Bibliogr., ref., sum. [Journal abstract]