SHARIAsource

This volume documents Nigeria’s “Settlement of 1960,” under which, as part of the run-up to Nigerian Independence, important changes were made to the laws and legal institutions of the Northern Region. These included abrogation of Islamic criminal law (as well all varieties of “ethnic” criminal law and custom formerly applied) in favor of new Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes applicable in all courts to all persons irrespective of location, ethnicity, or religion; and establishment of a new Sharia Court of Appeal for the Region. The programs of sharīʿa implementation that began in 1999 sought to reverse, for the sharīʿa states, key elements of the 1960 Settlement. The documents published here include the 1958 “Report of the Panel of Jurists” that recommended most of the changes made in 1960, and a number of memorandums written in 1962 for the returning Panel of Jurists, discussing how the changes had been effected and how they were working out. Vol. I begins with an essay on “The Settlement of 1960 and Why It Still Matters Today,” and a 16-page “Who Was Who.”

These materials are a part of The Nigeria Papers – a SHARIAsource Special Collection, compiled and edited by Independent Scholar Philip Ostien and others.

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 21^st 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.

A principal aim of sharīʿa implementation was to address the many social ills besetting Nigeria, or, in this case, besetting the Muslim North. This volume documents changes in the law made variously in the sharīʿa states specifically to address corruption, alcoholic drinks, gambling, sexual immoralities, other matters related to women, unedifying media, and miscellaneous other social vices. Two scholarly essays analyze these “Changes in the Law in the Sharia States Aimed at Suppressing Social Vices” and “Sharia Implementation and Female Muslims in Nigeria’s Sharia States.”

These materials are part of The Nigeria Papers – a SHARIAsource Special Collection, compiled and edited by Independent Scholar Philip Ostien and others.

Islamic criminal law had been abrogated in Nigeria’s Northern Region as part of the Settlement of 1960 (see Vol. I). A principal aim of sharīʿa implementation was to reinstate it in the sharīʿa states. This was done through the enactment in most sharīʿa states of Sharia Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes. Vol. IV documents these codes and their sources. Included are (i) complete texts of the “Harmonized” Sharia Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes prepared by the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies at Ahmadu Bello University for consideration by the states, showing section-by-section variations among the codes actually adopted; (ii) tables showing the relationships between the new Sharia Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes and the old Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes of 1960 on which they were largely based; (iii) related laws enacted in some states; and (iv) scholarly essays on both sets of codes. Vol. IV also includes two reports on Islamic criminal procedure by Sokoto State committees; and the Supplementary Materials to Vol. IV include reports by Borno and Kaduna State committees. 

These materials are a part of The Nigeria Papers – a SHARIAsource Special Collection, compiled and edited by Independent Scholar Philip Ostien and others. 

Early zeal for application of the reinstated Islamic criminal law resulted in two zināʾ cases which attracted worldwide attention in 2001-2003: the cases of Safiyatu Hussaini and Amina Lawal, litigated in the Sharia Courts of Sokoto and Katsina States, respectively. Vol. V makes available English translations of the records of proceedings and the judgments of all the courts in which these two cases were litigated. Also included is various collateral information, including an annotated bibliography of Islamic authorities cited, brief biographies of the judges, and an essay by one of the lawyers involved in the defense of both cases.

These materials are a part of The Nigeria Papers – a SHARIAsource Special Collection, compiled and edited by Independent Scholar Philip Ostien and others.