Negotiating Sacred and Secular Authority: Church History, African Indigenous Governance Systems, and the Politics of Leadership Legitimacy in Contemporary Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the historical and contemporary relationship between church authority, African indigenous governance systems, and political leadership legitimacy in Southeast Nigeria. It investigated how Christian historical developments and indigenous governance traditions shape citizens' perceptions of authority, accountability, and leadership acceptance within contemporary Nigerian society. Adopting a convergent mixed-methods research design, the study combined historical analysis of missionary expansion and church institutional development with a cross-sectional survey of 520 respondents comprising traditional rulers, religious leaders, political stakeholders, civil society actors, and community members across the five states of Southeast Nigeria. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modelling (SEM), while qualitative data from historical documents and eighteen key informant interviews were evaluated thematically. Findings revealed that indigenous governance values significantly predicted perceptions of leadership legitimacy (β = 0.56, p < 0.001), while ecclesiastical moral influence significantly shaped expectations of ethical political leadership (β = 0.49, p < 0.001); jointly, the two constructs explained 61% of the variance in perceived leadership legitimacy (R² = 0.61). The study further established that leadership legitimacy in Southeast Nigeria emerges through the interaction of democratic authority, Christian moral frameworks, and indigenous systems of communal recognition, consistent with the Triadic Authority Legitimacy Model (TALM) proposed herein. The study concludes that contemporary political legitimacy cannot be fully understood through formal state institutions alone but requires attention to historical religious experience and indigenous governance philosophy. It recommends stronger collaboration among government institutions, churches, and traditional authorities to promote culturally grounded and accountable leadership practices. The study contributes to interdisciplinary debates in church history, African political studies, and governance by providing empirical evidence on the continuing negotiation between sacred and secular authority in postcolonial Nigeria.