The Development of Arabic and Islamic Education in Africa (Focus on Nigeria): Progress and Prospects

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.