2 - Political Activism and Quietism among Nigeria's Graduates of Islamic University of Medina and their Impact on Nigeria's Politics in the 21st Century

The oil boom in Saudi Arabia in the mid-20^th century offered an opportunity for the kingdom to expand its foreign policies and cooperation. This includes outreach to many countries and collaboration with different bodies on different grounds. Missionary and educational goals shaped these policies. Nigeria is one of those countries where Saudi Arabia had great presence and recruited students for the Islamic University of Medina (IUM) founded in 1963. Saudi Arabia found willing collaborators among the cohorts it recruited, the pool of whom were coming from the north, the home for the majority of Nigeria’s Muslim population. Nigerians in Medina underwent rigorous and decisive spiritual and ideological reformation, fortifying their affiliation with, wholly assimilating to or freshly imbibing, the Salafi creed. Back home in Nigeria, the graduates reunited with or newly joined religious public arena as scholars, a position and condition that allowed them to influence and shape public perception of various issues including politics. This paper examines the binary activism and quietism that defines the worldview, outlook and approach of the graduates of Medina towards Nigeria's politics. I argue that this binary is exposed by Nigeria’s increasingly worsening and unstable situations seen by many as consequences of bad governance. Besides relevant literature consulted, the paper draws on the speeches of selected graduates whose position and sentiment on Nigeria’s politics reflect activism and quietism, and how this affects their career and is perceived by the Muslim public.