03/09/2025
Is Southern Kaduna Exclusively a Christians Enclave?
By Nura Bako Zango
02/09/2025
Whenever one reads articles written by any of the Southern Kaduna Christians or listens to their talks either on TVs or radio programmes, one would surely conclude, based on their submissions, that Southern Kaduna is purely and exclusively a Christians region with no visible Muslims population. An empty vessel they say makes the loudest noise. We that were born and bred in the area are in a better position to tell the world that Southern is not a monolithic society despite their repeated public portrayal of Christians exclusively. The question of whether Southern Kaduna is exclusively Christian enclave has been generating passionate debate, but it returned to the fore on August 31, 2025, when former governor Nasir El-Rufai appeared on Channels Television. In that interview, El-Rufai declared that Christians in the state “are not up to 25 to 30 percent” of the total population. His words hit a nerve, especially among Southern Kaduna elites who have long argued that their region is predominantly Christian and even claim to number as many as eight million out of Kaduna’s estimated ten million people.
But how accurate are these competing claims?
Southern Kaduna, made up of eight Local Government Areas—Jaba, Jema’a, Kachia, Kagarko, Kaura, Kauru, Sanga, and Zangon-Kataf—had about 1.79 million people in the 2006 census. By 2022 projections, the figure stood at roughly 2.65 million, less than a third of Kaduna State’s population. That’s a far cry from the figures often quoted by the Christian regional activists.
And while it is true that Christians form the majority across many rural parts of Southern Kaduna, the picture is more complicated when you look closer. Towns like Kagarko and Jere have deep Muslim traditions and emirate structures. Kauru was upgraded to an emirate in 2018, further underlining the strength of its Muslim community. Kachia, a bustling trade hub, has a significant Muslim population, while Zango Urban in Zangon-Kataf remains a Hausa-Fulani stronghold neighbouring the dominant Atyap hamlets and villages. Even Kafanchan, often described as the heart of Christian Southern Kaduna, still hosts the Jema’a Emirate Council which has been in existence since 1810. Go and verify! Gwantu in Sanga is another centre where Muslims are visibly present and organized.
Perhaps the best test of El-Rufai’s claim comes from politics. In 2019, despite running on the Muslim/Muslim ticket (the first in history of the state), El-Rufai won the governorship with more than 1.1 million votes against the PDP’s 485,000. The Christian Association of Nigeria campaigned strongly against him, yet his victory margin was overwhelming. Fast forward to 2023, and history repeated itself: Uba Sani, also running with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, won the governorship by a slim margin—730,002 votes against PDP’s Isa Ashiru, who had 719,196. The breakdown tells the story. The PDP dominated in most Southern Kaduna LGAs, reflecting the strength of the Christian vote there. But the APC’s strength in the northern and central zones, where Muslims are the majority, was enough to tilt the balance. Twice in less than a decade, a Muslim/Muslim ticket triumphed in Kaduna State.
This doesn’t automatically prove that Christians are less than 30 percent of Kaduna’s population, but it does show that their numbers are not as overwhelming as some claim. The eight million claim is just an unverified assumption and armchair analysis. Elections, for all their imperfections, are one of the few moments when large numbers of people line up to be counted. In 2015 and 2023, Kaduna’s Christians showed their strength in Southern Kaduna, but the Muslims elsewhere still carried the state.
The truth, then, is that Southern Kaduna is not an exclusively Christian enclave. It is a diverse region, majority Christian in many villages and but also home to vibrant Muslim communities with history, institutions, and political and economic weight that can't be ignored.
