Over the last year, I have written about my concerns about Nigeria being a tinderbox ready to explode. The insurrection in the oil-rich delta , the prevalent corruption and the increasingly establishment of Islamic law (Shariah) in the northern states have combined to put Africa's most populous nation in a precarious situation. This oil-rich state has been on the brink of disintegrating into chaos several times. 

Rarely do I see encouraging news from Africa, but The New York Times published a front-page story on Saturday that gives hope to Nigeria. Apparently, the militant Islamic forces in the northern states have proven to be just as corrupt as the Christian south. As result, they seem to have lost enormous credibility among those seeking morality and honesty in government.

The New York Times article by Lydia Polgreen opens with:

'KANO, Nigeria — Just last year, the morality police roamed these streets in dusky blue uniforms and black berets, brandishing cudgels at prayer shirkers and dragging fornicators into Islamic courts to face sentences like death by public stoning.

But these days, the fearsome police officers, known as the Hisbah, are little more than glorified crossing guards. They have largely been confined to their barracks and assigned anodyne tasks like directing traffic and helping fans to their seats at soccer games.

The Islamic revolution that seemed so destined to transform northern Nigeria in recent years appears to have come and gone — or at least gone in a direction few here would have expected."

In the lengthy must read article, Polgreen writes about the reasons for this surprising development:

"The change has little to do with religious attitudes — northern Nigeria remains one of the most pious Muslim regions in Africa, as it has been since the camel caravans across the Sahara first brought Islam here centuries ago. In Kano, the main city of Kano State, thousands of men spill out in neat rows onto the city’s main boulevards on Friday afternoon, an overflow of devotion for the week’s most important prayer, and virtually all Muslim women are veiled.

The shift reflects the fact that religious law did not transform society. Indeed, some of the most ardent Shariah-promoting politicians now find themselves under investigation for embezzling millions of dollars. Many early proponents of Shariah feel duped by politicians who rode its popular wave but failed to live by its tenets, enriching themselves and neglecting to improve the lives of ordinary people.

“Politicians started seeing Shariah as a gateway to political power,” said Abba Adam Koki, a conservative cleric here who has criticized the local government’s application of Shariah. “But they were insincere. We have been disappointed and never got what we had hoped.”

It is good to write of good news from Africa for a change.