Scholar Proposes “Universal Ethic” to End “Nigeria’s Battle of the Gods”
- Says Religious Wars are Man-Made, Calls for Ethics Rooted in God, Creation, Humanity and Nation-State
Our Staff Reporter
Nigerian scholar Professor Yusufu Turaki has said Nigeria’s crisis of ethnicity, religion and region is a man-made “Battle of the Gods” and can only be resolved by adopting what he calls a “Universal Ethic” built on the universality of God, creation, humanity and the nation-state.
In the concluding section of his August 2026 paper, Turaki argued that religious violence is not from God but from human corruption.
“Why should human beings be at war against each other, if they all worship the same God? Can the true God fight himself? If not, why are the humans themselves at war with each other in the name of the same purported One God? God is innocent and free. The real problem lies with humanity,” he wrote.
He said the contradictory behaviour of religious groups who claim to worship God shows that “this war of the Gods is purely man-made.”
According to him, humans created their own brands of religion, philosophy, science, ethnicity and culture, and have turned them into tools of division, superiority and dominance.
To counter this, Turaki proposed four universal principles that should guide all Nigerians regardless of faith, tribe or region.
He said religions must embrace a universal theistic ethic that rejects superiority, power and dominance of any group.
He warned that many religions speak of a universal God but practice exclusion, forcing “universalism into particularism” and placing their own ethnic, religious or regional values above God’s moral laws.
Turaki said all humans are co-creatures with a shared responsibility to care for creation and each other.
He blamed ecological problems and hostility on the absence of this “creational ethic,” arguing that viewing the world only through ethnic or religious lenses leads to conquest and possession rather than stewardship.
He described the Universality of Humanity as a “primal human ethic” of brotherhood and solidarity based on the fact that all people share a common ancestry.
The lack of this, he said, fuels discrimination, persecution and marginalization in Nigeria. “Fighting and killing people for and on behalf of God is human absurdity and deception,” he stated.
On the Universality of the Nation-State, Turaki called for a “national ethic” that puts citizenship and constitutional values above ethnic, religious and regional loyalties.
He criticized what he called the use of the nation-state as “possession” by some groups seeking dominance, and said Nigeria’s current constitution contains “controversial, divisive” clauses that institutionalize preferential treatment.
He added that all knowledge and religion come from three sources, including human common sense, counterfeit knowledge from spirit beings, and true revelation from God.
Because humans are “fallen,” he said, their religions, cultures and philosophies are prone to corruption and must be tested against the four universal ethics.
Turaki cited scholars Lawrence Harrison, Samuel Huntington and Geert Hofstede to stress that culture and values shape national progress.
He argued that if cultures and religions promote negative values, they must be transformed using “the transcendent moral character and attributes of God, and his universal moral laws.”
In his conclusion, he said religion’s proper role is to affirm that all humans are created by God, to preach love, and to defend human rights.
He called for Nigerian leaders to be trained to build a “national ethical structure” based on common-ground values where “every Nigerian would feel at home with no fear of domination, subjugation and subordination.”
“To keep, maintain, promote and defend the historical human freedom of every Nigerian is a task that must be done. When the battle of the Gods reaches its zenith and crescendo, definitely, Nigeria will implode and explode. Only wise leadership can save Nigeria from ruination and disintegration.” Turaki wrote.
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