A friend shared this from the Archive; Unfortunately we could not get the original author to give credit to him/her. Please if you know the author, do let me know so I can modify and give appropriate credit.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
The biggest country in Africa that the United Kingdom colonized is Nigeria. The biggest country that the United Kingdom colonized in Asia is India (which then comprised the present Pakistan and Bangladesh).

When the UK came into Nigeria and India, like all other countries they colonized, they brought along their technology, religion (Christianity), and culture: names, dressing, food, and language, among others. Try as hard as the British did, India rejected the British religion, names, dressing, food, and even language, but they did not reject the British technology. Today, 80.5 per cent of Indians are Hindus; 13.4 per cent Muslims; 2.3 per cent Christians; 1.9 per cent Sikhs; 0.8 per cent Buddhists, among others. Hindi is the official language of the government of India, but English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a “subsidiary official language.” Interestingly, it is rare to find an Indian with an English name or dressed in suit.

On the other hand, Nigeria embraced, to a large extent, the British religion, British culture – names, dressing, foods, and language – but, ironically, rejected the British technology. The difference between the Nigerian and the Indian experiences is that while India is proud of its heritage, Nigeria takes little pride in its own heritage, a situation that has affected the nationalism of Nigerians and our development as a nation.

Before the advent of Christianity, the Arabs had brought Islam into Nigeria through the North. Islam also wiped away much of the culture of Northern Nigeria. Today, the North has only Sharia courts but no Customary courts. So from the North to the South of Nigeria, the Western World and the Eastern World have shaped our lives to be like theirs and we have lost much or all of our identity.

Long after the Whites and Arabs left Nigeria, Nigeria has waxed strong in religion to the extent that Nigerians now set up branches of their home-grown churches in Europe, the Americas, Asia and other African countries. Just like the Whites brought the gospel to us, Nigerians now take the gospel back to the Whites. In Islam, we are also very vibrant to the extent that if there is a blasphemous comment against Islam in Denmark or the US, even if there is no violent reaction in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic headquarters of the world, there will be loss of lives and destruction of property in Nigeria. If the United Arab Emirates, a country with 75 per cent Muslims, is erecting the tallest building in the world and encouraging the world to come and invest in its territory by providing a friendly environment, Boko Haram ensures that the economy of the North (and by extension that of Nigeria) is crippled with bombs and bullets unless every Nigerian converts to Boko Haram’s brand of Islam. We are indeed a very religious people.

Meanwhile, as we are building the biggest churches and mosques, the Indians, South Africans, Chinese, Europeans and Americans have taken over our key markets: telecoms, satellite TV, multinationals, banking, oil and gas, automobile, aviation, and hospitality industries among others.

Ironically, despite our exploits in religion, we are a people with little godliness, a people without scruples. It is rare to do business with a Nigerian pastor, deacon, knight, elder, brother, sister, imam, mullah, mallam, alhaji or alhaja without the person laying landmines of bribes and deception on your path. We call it PR, facilitation fee, processing fee, transport money, financial engineering, deal, or whatever. But if it does not change hands, no show. And when it is amassed, we say it is “God’s blessings.” Some people assume that sleaze is a problem of public functionaries, but the private sector seems to be worse than the public sector these days.

One would have assumed that the more churches and mosques that spring up in every nook and cranny of Nigeria, the higher the morals in our society. But it is not so. The situation is that the more religious we get, the baser we become. Our land never knew the type of bloodshed experienced from religious extremists, political desperadoes, ritual killers, armed robbers, kidnappers, internet scammers, university cultists, and lynch mobs. Life has become so cheap and brutish that everyday seems to be a bonanza.

We import petrol even when we have crude oil in abundance. We also import rice and beans that our land can produce in abundance. We even import toothpicks that primary school children can produce with little or no effort. Yet, we drive the best of cars and live in the best of edifices, visit the best places in the world for holidays and use the most expensive electronic and telecoms gadgets. It is now a sign of poverty for a Nigerian to ride a saloon car. Four-wheel drive vehicles are the in thing. Even government officials, who were known to use only Peugeot products as official cars as a sign of modesty, have upgraded to Toyota Prado as official vehicle without any iota of shame, in a country where about 70 per cent live below poverty line. Private jets have become as common as cars. A nation that imports toothpicks and pins flaunts wealth and wallows in ostentation at a time its children are trooping to Ghana, South Africa and the UK for university education and its sick people are running to India for treatment.

India produces automobile and exports it to the world. India’s medical care is second to none, with even Americans and Europeans travelling to the country for medical treatment. India has joined the nuclear powers nations. India has launched a successful mission to the moon. Yet bicycles and tricycles are common sights in India. But in Nigeria, only the wretched of the earth ride bicycles.

I have intentionally chosen to compare Nigeria with India rather than China, South Korea, Brazil, Malaysia, or Singapore, because of the similarities between India and Nigeria. But these countries were not as promising as Nigeria at the time of our independence.

Some would say that our undoing is our size: the 2012 United Nations estimate puts Nigeria’s population at 166,000 million, while India has a population of 1.2 billion. Some would blame it on the multiplicity of ethnic groups: we have 250 ethnic groups, India has more than 2,000. Some would hang it on the diversity in religion: we have two major religions — Christianity and Islam; but India has many. Some would say it is because we are young as an independent nation: we have 52 years of independence; India has 65 years. Apartheid ended in South Africa only in 1994.

I am a Christian, and nothing can change me from Christianity. But I think that our country is daily sinking into religiosity to the detriment of godliness. Our land is sick and needs healing. “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” is still a saying that is germane to our current situation. We need more godliness than religion; more work and less of hope; and more action and less of words.

Let everyone tidy up his or her corner first and demand fervently that our leaders tidy their areas of governance. Our nation is degenerating at a fast pace and we need to save it now or it may be too late.


This is food for thought for all of us. Have a great day!

Our problem is that we pray too much.....we do the whole 'religion' thing more than the people that brought it!

Man go chop now...

The easiest innovation is religion and since more and more people are looking for shortcut to success or seeking spiritual help for health related issues, this innovation called religion will continue to sell until the end come.

I can't express how much i love this write up, you just hit the nail on the head. this is just the true nature of our nation and we are yet to wake up to the challenges therewith. may God help Nigeria. Nigeria, a very Religious country, in fact one of the most Religious nation on planet earth, yet it is ranked amongst the most corrupt nd poor nations of the world. Nigeria talks about culture and Religion whenever it comes to issues they disagrees or have reserves for eg the same sex marriage issue and some female dressings etc, yet you ask yourself what is our culture and Religion after all? Almost everything we practice as a nation is borrowed yet we talk about our Religion and culture, if I may ask, are Christianity and Islam that re the two major religions in Nigeria our culture or Religion, were they not borrowed? Now Nigerians are the ones teaching the whites what morals, Religious, and cultural believes are, isn't it funny and ridiculous, same people that brought these things us and made our forefathers destroy all our values nd cultures? Indeed, according to our very renowned author the late Chinua Achebe,"THINGS HAVE REALLY FALLEN APART" all these, have just one thing to show us, which is that the whites have left us in our little yester years ideas that they brought us to, and they ve moved on to the next level while it ll take us a lot of years to sink the ideas and rationale behind their new cultures, traditions, and religion before we can carry it all on our head as if we are the founding fathers, and most probably become fanatics of it and use it to cause more havoc nd destructions. And by then, the whites would have bn thousands of years ahead of us and just maybe we might be called the 10th world continent by then. "Let us emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, because none but ourselves can free our mind". Change takes time, after all it took our forefathers a lot before they can accept these foreign religions 'Christianity and Islam' so its just a matter of time before our eyes are opened to the real things and values of life.

Why has the op topic has not 1 billion like.

Desric: I can't express how much i love this write up, you just hit the nail on the head. this is just the true nature of our nation and we are yet to wake up to the challenges therewith. may God help Nigeria.

Unfortunately, this is where we are now. EVen a Governor will use God (Religion) to justify rigging saying "God supports a successful rigger!" SMH