Religion in Nigeria

I’ve been surprised by religion here in Nigeria. I knew the basics – Muslim north, Christian south, an almost 50/50 split, tensions and occasional violence between them with churches getting torched and people getting killed. I also know that Christianity has been rising in some areas, and that some Episcopalian diocese are aligning themselves with conservative Anglican bishops in Africa.

If I didn’t know any of that, I would think that Nigeria is a very Christian nation. At the client in Benin, many doors have “John 3:16” stickers, and I have seen two people with Christian booklets at their desk. One of the 7 TV channels at the hotel is a Christian talk channel. In Abuja I read a paper that had a half-page Christian devotional/message (no corresponding Muslim message), leaders repeatedly refer to God and give credit/pin hopes on God. I went to a mall today and popped into a books/electronics store; about a third of the shelf space in the book section is devoted to religion, and almost all is Christian. While in there I heard a song I didn’t recognize that was something about praising God. (It was followed in the playlist by some hip-hop song.)

A university in Benin.

This raises two questions in my mind:
1) Is what I see religion (just outward trappings or “cultural Christianity” because everyone expects it) or genuine orthodox Christian belief?
2) What about the Muslims? Other than the large national mosque in Abuja that I can see from my hotel, I have not seen any outward signs of Islam.

I don’t know the answer to 1), and will hopefully get a chance to find out. As for 2), I think there are two main factors so far:
-I have been working in what is a mostly Christian zone, so the disparity is somewhat natural
-The Nigerian working with me said that the Muslim areas are in general poorer and less educated, partially because they have a strong system of madrasas where children learn to memorize the Koran backward and forward, but don’t learn math/science/language. My extrapolation is that institutions like newspapers or other educated areas may be disproportionately staffed by Christians.