BBC News Online: World: Africa

Nigeria's Katsina state adopts Sharia

Its introduction has led to major unrest in other states, and more than 1,000 people have died in clashes over the issue.

Katsina Governor Umar Musa Yar'Adua has spent the day opening Sharia courts.

He had already signed into law the bills bringing Sharia courts into effect and empowering them to start hearing cases, but decided not to mark the occasion with fanfare.

Another northern state, Jigawa, is expected to introduce the code on Wednesday.

No celebrations

The spokesman said that the people of Katsina had lived with Sharia for hundreds of years.

Therefore, the expansion of the Islamic code into areas of criminal law did not warrant a celebration.

But he also said that the state authorities did not want to intimidate the Christian minority, who have tended to see the spread of Sharia as an attack on their way of life.

The forces driving this expansion are complex.

Some northern Nigerian politicians, dissatisfied with the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is a Christian southerner, have used Sharia as a political tool.

But there is also a genuine popular enthusiasm for it, and some politicians have been swept along by this tide.