Nigeria religion

 Sunni Islam is the most popular religion in Nigeria 

Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in West Africa.The CIA estimates over 50% of the population is Muslim while the BBC estimated in 2007 that slightly over 50% of the population is Muslim. Muslims in Nigeria are predominantly Sunnis  of the Maliki school of thought.Islam was introduced to Nigeria through two geographical routes: North Africa and the Senegalese Basin. The origins of Islam in the country is linked with the development of Islam in the wider West Africa. Trade was the major connecting link that brought Islam into Nigeria.Islam grew in North-East Nigeria, in particular, the Kanem empire as a result of trade between Kanem and Northern African regions of Fezzan, Egypt and Cyrenaica in the eleventh century. Muslim merchants from the North sometimes remained in settlements along trade routes, this merchant class would later preach the message of Islam to their host communities.