Sharīʿa implementation was effected by the elected governors and Houses of Assembly of the twelve states that undertook it. In most states this was done after wide consultations. The governors appointed committees – usually called “Sharia Implementation Committees” – whose terms of reference were to study what steps should be taken, to consider the constitutionality of the measures proposed, to survey and enlighten public opinion, and to report back to the governor. “White Paper Committees” were then appointed, charged with drafting official statements of the government’s position and program, based on the Sharia Implementation Committee reports. In some states the governors then appointed third committees charged with carrying out the programs laid down in the White Papers; and these third committees, after months of work, sometimes also produced reports on what they had done. These documents – the pre-implementation reports of the initial Sharia Implementation Committees, the White Papers, and the post-implementation reports of the committees charged with implementing the White Papers – are goldmines of information about life in the sharīʿa states in the first years of the 21st century, about the many problems affecting the people, and about what Muslims hoped to do to improve things. A number of them are reproduced in Vol. II itself, and more are reproduced in the Supplementary Materials also made available here.
These materials are a part of The Nigeria Papers – a SHARIAsource Special Collection, compiled and edited by Independent Scholar Philip Ostien and others.