Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Nigeria

Abstract

Religious organizations play a prominent though often unrecognized roles in the provision of social services in fragile states such as Nigeria. In so doing, they have become agents of governmentality, providing the Nigerian state with the cultural force it requires to legitimize and advance its claims to power. In the process, religious organizations have benefited and transformed themselves into much sought after mediators by all groups within and outside the Nigerian state. While recognizing the contributions of the political and developmental activities of religious actors in Nigeria, political actors, domestic and foreign, pay very close attention to their activities as they are conscious of the capacity of religion to constitute itself into an independent arena of political action capable of challenging the Nigerian state’s claim to political dominance within its geographical territory.