Ebenezer Obadare, Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), has urged the United States congress to pressure Nigeria into making Sharia law unconstitutional and disbanding Hisbah, the Islamic religious police operating in several northern states.
Obadare spoke in Washington on Tuesday while serving as an expert witness during a roundtable convened by US lawmakers to examine Nigeria’s rising insecurity and allegations of targeted persecution of Christians.
During the session, some lawmakers accused the Nigerian government of attempting to “run out the clock” on the issue. They described ongoing killings as “a targeted campaign of religious cleansing”, vowing to act swiftly “to save more lives”.
Obadare told the lawmakers that unchecked jihadist groups especially Boko Haram — remain the principal drivers of insecurity.
“Boko Haram’s barbarous and implacable campaign to overthrow the Nigerian state and establish an Islamic caliphate … is the source of Nigeria’s present discontents,” he said.
“Every proposal to solve the Nigerian crisis that does not take seriously the need to radically degrade and ultimately eliminate Boko Haram as a fighting force is a non-starter.”
He argued that sustained pressure backed by incentives has proven effective in influencing Nigeria’s counterterrorism posture.
Calls for Constitutional Changes and Dismantling of Hisbah
Obadare urged the US to adopt a two-pronged policy approach:
Assist the Nigerian military to neutralise Boko Haram, and Pressure President Bola Tinubu to outlaw Sharia law in the 12 northern states where it has operated since 1999, and to disband Hisbah groups that enforce Islamic norms.
Hisbah operates across parts of northern Nigeria, promoting adherence to Islamic moral codes. Although Sharia law applies only to Muslims, Christian groups — including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) have alleged cases of Hisbah overreach and harassment of non-Muslims. Several northern states adopted Sharia-based civil and criminal law beginning in 1999, with varying degrees of enforcement.
“As recent events have shown, the Nigerian authorities are not impervious to incentives,” he said, citing Nigeria’s past response to its Country of Particular Concern (CPC) listing and threats of unilateral US action against Boko Haram.
He noted Tinubu’s recent measures — including airstrikes on insurgent enclaves, the recruitment of 30,000 additional police personnel, and the declaration of a national security emergency — as evidence that Washington retains leverage.
