Interfaith Conflict and Political Development in Nigeria: The Zangon Kataf Conflict

The goals and objectives of this research, are to investigate and analyze the different ways the Zangon Kataf interfaith conflict poses a great deal of threat to the political development of Nigeria and also to try and understand what mechanisms can be put in place to prevent a future occurrence of such conflict. The research identified that the economic disparities in terms of wealth acquisition and trading advantage the Hausa Muslims had over the Atyap Christians for decades and also religious intolerance by both Muslims and Christians were the major problems of the research. The research adopted the qualitative method of research and also a descriptive research methodology was used. Data was collected through the use of questionnaires made up of closed ended questions. The major findings of the research demonstrates that the slow response by the security agencies to immediately restore peace, law and order in Zangon Kataf and the economic advantage by the Hausa Muslims as against the Atyap Christians were highlighted as the major findings. However this research recommends that community leaders need to promote the need for dialogue as a tool used in the settlement of disputes among conflicting parties. Also religious leaders need to emphasize on religious tolerance that is to say the need for one religion to tolerate the religious values of other religions and finally there is a need for government to formulate economic policies that will be favorable amongst the various religious and ethnic groups of the Nigerian state.