EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND ITS EFFECTS ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN JOS PLATEAU STATE

Religious intolerance and the its effects on the socio-economic development is an issue faced in Jos Plateau state. These religious conflicts have become a major problem confronting the state and the nation at large. Through empirical review, the study highlighted causes of religious intolerance which led to the conflict. Related literatures mostly examined the topic from the farmers and herder’s crisis in Jos while some understudied it from the perspective of religious conflicts. This study however, through a detailed analysis enhances the understanding of how religious conflicts impact economic activities, social structures, and development indicators. Data was obtained from secondary sources through already collected data from journals, historic writings and news articles as they relate to the research topic. The social identity theory is used to clearly understand the connection and relationship between religious intolerance and the groups involved in the crisis. Findings revealed that the root and remote causes of the religious conflicts are tied to intolerance, indigene/settler syndrome, unemployment, poverty, unguided utterances of religious and political leaders, lack of proper education, and absence of good governance among others. The conflict by implication have resulted in the irreplaceable loss of human and material resources that could have been useful for social and economic developmental purposes of the nation. The study, by way of conclusion hoped that awareness campaigns would be held in order to encourage tolerance, diversity and interfaith dialogue amongst the people, and sincere government schemes and efforts would be established to achieve social, economic and political distributive justice for all people in the country.