Table Of ContentReligion, Public Health and Human
Security in Nigeria
This book critically examines the intersection of religion, public health and
human security in Nigeria. Focusing on Christianity, Islam, traditional reli-
gions and “intra-religious” doctrinal divergencies, the book explores the
impact faith has on health-related decisions and how this affects security in
Nigeria. This book assesses the connection between religion and five con-
temporary major health and medical issues in the country. This includes
the issue of epidemics and pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic,
vaccines, contraception, blood transfusion and the controversies associated
with “miracle healing”. In particular, this book explores situations where
individuals have the power of choice but instead embrace faith and religious
positions that contradict science in the management of their health and,
in the process, expose themselves and others to personal health insecurity.
It investigates aspects of human security including the wider international
ramifications of health issues, approaches to cures and the interpretation of
causes of diseases, as well as the ethno-religious connotations of such inter-
pretations. Exploring key issues that have brought religion into the politics
of health and human security in Nigeria, this book will be of interest to stu-
dents and scholars in the field of African Religion, African Politics, African
Studies, public health, security, and Sociology.
Abiodun Alao is Professor of African Studies at King’s College London, UK.
He is the author of several books, the latest being Rage and Carnage in the
Name of God: Religious Violence in Nigeria, Duke University Press, 2022.
Routledge Studies on Religion in Africa and the Diaspora
2 Contextualising Eschatology in African Cultural and Religious Beliefs
Ibigbolade S. Aderibigbe
3 Politics and Religion in Zimbabwe
The Deification of Robert G. Mugabe
Edited by Ezra Chitando
4 Personality Cult and Politics in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe
Edited by Ezra Chitando
5 Race, Class and Christianity in South Africa
Middle-Class Moralities
Ibrahim Abraham
6 Religion and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Africa
Edited by Fortune Sibanda, Tenson Muyambo and Ezra Chitando
7 African Perspectives on Religion and Climate Change
Edited by Ezra Chitando, Ernst Conradie and Susan M. Kilonzo
8 Religion and Transnational Citizenship in the African Diaspora
Akan London
Mattia Fumanti
9 Religion, Public Health and Human Security in Nigeria
Abiodun Alao
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
series/routledge-studies-religion-africa-diaspora/RSRAD
Religion, Public Health and
Human Security in Nigeria
Abiodun Alao
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Abiodun Alao
The right of Abiodun Alao to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-36520-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-36522-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-33248-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003332480
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
To the memories of Felicia Areola and Comfort Oyebisi, the
aunties who “mothered” me.
and
to my siblings, Olufemi, Kayode, Funmi, Folasade and Olusayo,
in appreciation for a most memorable childhood.
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Passion, Concerns and Tensions:
Overview of Religion, Health and Security in Nigeria 1
1 Religion, Human Security and Public Health: Complex
Dimensions of Linkage 13
2 Religion, Human Security and Epidemics in Nigeria 37
3 Religion, Human Security and the Politics of Vaccines
in Nigeria 76
4 Religion and the Human Security Dimensions of
Contraception in Nigeria 103
5 Blood Transfusion, Religion and Human
Security in Nigeria 122
6 Human Security and “Miracle Healing” in Nigeria 139
7 Governance in the Politics of Religion, Public Health,
and Human Security in Nigeria 160
Conclusion: “It Is Well”… Even When It Is Not so Well 178
Bibliography 185
Index 197
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book has a most modest of origins, taking its root from a three-paged
op-ed I wrote for the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London’s
Op-ed series on the COVID-19 pandemic. The op-ed, titled “Fighting
Pandemic in the Spirit: Religion and COVID-19 in Nigeria”, looked at how
Nigeria’s three main religions (Christianity, Islam and Traditional Religion)
responded to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant
ethnopolitical and security issues emanating from these responses. Some
of those who read the op-ed suggested a revision to include the expansion
of issues whose discussions had been condensed and the incorporation of
other things that occurred after it was written, especially the religious con-
troversies surrounding the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine into the
country. There were also some who thought that this may actually offer an
opportunity to begin a serious look at a somewhat neglected aspect of secu-
rity, i.e., the impact of religion on the politics of health in relation to human
security, be it in the interpretation of the causes of diseases, the approaches
to cure, the understanding of government’s policies for the management,
the wider international ramifications of such health issues (where they exist)
and the ethno-religious connotations of the interpretations, among many
others. For example, subjects like how human security has been affected
by the tendency to adopt “spiritual” solutions to medical challenges that
may require simple hygiene and careful governmental policies, how massive
population increase due to the non-usage of contraception has impacted on
security, how human security has been affected by the belief in adopting
religious solutions to occurrences of pandemics, how the refusal to accept
blood transfusion on religious grounds has compromised human security
and numerous others are issues that need to be properly examined in the
attempt to get a bigger picture of security in Africa. There is no better place
for a discussion of this nature to start than in Nigeria, a country with one
of the most exhibitive and most demonstrative links with religion, and one
where the ramifications of human security and concerns about public health
are significantly complex.
Consequently, the primary objective of this book is to critically examine
the intersections of religion, human security and health as all these relate
