(Department of Islamic Studies Education, Nasarawa State University Keffi, 2015-02-02) Abubakar, Usman
Islam came to the place now known as Nigeria several centuries ago. Hence, before English
Lan-guage, Arabic Language and Islamic education have dominated many cultures of Nigeria.
However, government recognition of this has been very slow. This paper documents how
Arabic education came to Nigeria and its development. The paper particularly analyses the
current problems that this language and religious education is encountering at present,
including, lack of unified syllabus, lack of qualified teachers, lack of relevant texts, low
enrolment of students, the lackadaisical atti-tude of few students and the uncared attitude of
even the government. The methods adopted are historical and analytical. Suggestions were
made on how to develop Arabic and Islamic education in Nigeria.