I Went to Nigeria and Could Not Find a
Born-Again Christian
Written by Phil Tam-Al Alalibo
In spite of the thousands of churches
populating that fruited plain called Nigeria;
one is hard-pressed to find a true born-
again Christian in that country these days. I
wonder if they have all participated in a
silent rapture that is yet to be announced
to the rest of the world. Just a few days
ago, I read an interesting newspaper article
that was captioned – “Nigeria Still Sinful
In Spite of Many Churches. ” This is very
ironic as one of the most religious
countries, at least, according to survey,
doubles as one of the most sinful countries
on earth. Why is this the case? For a
country that appears to be deeply religious
on both the Christian and Islamic axis, a
country that boasts of thousands of
churches and mosques, a country that
sends thousands to Mecca and Jerusalem
for hajj and pilgrimage each year for
spiritual purification and renewal, the level
of moral decay, corruption, assorted vices
and mores is indeed frightening.
On my recent trip Nigeria, I noticed that
every neighborhood had a Bible-believing
church casting out demons and converting
souls for the kingdom. This could not be
evident anywhere else than in Port-
Harcourt, my home. At every turn, there is a
church and members are clapping away in
divine jubilation and in Episcopal
expectation. In fact, just a few yards from
my family home, I found, and this is new, a
Redeemed Christian Church of God with
members praying all night through loud
speakers; and on the other side of the
house is another church with the same zeal
and flare. Also in the mix, across the street
is a mosque with its aged loud speakers
mounted strategically on the roof,
permeating the silence of the night. In fact,
if residents of the area do not repent and
ask the good Lord to forgive their sins, they
have no one but themselves to blame for
what excuse would they tender on
judgment day for the absence of their
name in the envied Book of Life?
While at home, I went to visit a friend I
hadn’t seen in more than five years. This is
a good friend who in secondary school was
a fervent Christian while the rest of us were
knee-deep in worldly escapades stewing in
our fleshly desires. He was so holy then
that we all thought he would be taken in
the same manner Elijah was taken to the
heavens in a chariot without experiencing
death. But he was not taken and went on to
be a successful businessman, still keeping
the faith. As we went out to a restaurant
for dinner in his car, we were stopped by
awful looking officers (or were they
monsters) of the Nigerian Police Force.
They came around and informed us that we
were obstructing traffic as we briefly
stopped so I could purchase some music
CDs from a street vendor. Even before I
could ask them what they meant by their
frivolous charges, my friend, the holy one,
had already pulled out some naira notes
and handed to the officers with these
words, “Take this to arrange yourselves for
the evening.” At this, the officers
immediately cleared a path for us in the
crowded street almost molesting some
innocent pedestrians in the process.
Shocked at this unexpected ungodly
indulgence in solecism and solemn
depravity, I asked my friend why that was
necessary. His response summed it all and
belies the depth of moral atrophy that
pervades the land – “In Nigeria, this is how
we survived. We bribe and pray for
forgiveness.” He was not the only one
bribing and praying for forgiveness –
everyone was bribing, including elders,
deacons, pastors and all manner of born-
again Christians. The country is awash in so
much corruption that the born-again
Christians are finding it very difficult to stay
above the fray. Even though we all know
that the power of the Lord is sufficient even
in the astringent Nigerian situation, born-
again Christians in Nigeria would need a
special turbo-charged power from the Lord
to walk the narrow path. Thus, for the
born-again Nigerian Christian, the option is
very clear – you either bribe or you pray
and most are not reaching for their knee
pads.
On my way from the airport in Owerri to
Port-Harcourt, we were overtaken by a
church van filled with pious-looking-
heaven-bound-singing-and-clapping
members with the name of the church
boldly written across the sides. It appeared
they were headed for a religious function.
But just a few miles ahead, we were all
stopped by police officers at a famous
check-point; the van was immediately in
front of us. When it arrived at the check-
point, the driver without saying a word to
the officers pulled out naira notes and gave
his offering to the uniformed ones. When I
informed the occupants of my vehicle of
what had just transpired in front of us, I
noticed that they too were busy preparing
their offering for the officers and could
care less about the “sins” of the occupants
of a church van. And those in our vehicle
were also professed born-again Christians
of high repute.
A fire and brimstone spewing Nigerian
friend in Ohio was telling me just a few
weeks ago that she had no choice but to
bribe when she visited Nigeria recently. She
explained how custom officers detained her
at the airport because she refused to part
with some dollars. At first, she thought she
could win the battle by threatening to sue
them; but when she realized that in Nigeria
threats of lawsuits are not effective as they
are in the US, she was forced to go the
famous Nigerian way and prayed for
forgiveness afterwards.
Nigeria, in this regard, is hell on earth. I
wonder how any born-again Christian can
live in that country and still keep the faith
daily with the Lord. Nigeria presents a true
test of Christianity and faithfulness to the
Lord and anyone who makes it to heaven
from that country deserves to be rewarded
with a thousand crowns of gold and a seat
right next to the Almighty even if they did
not lead a single soul to Christ while on
earth. For this to happen, however, the
born-again Christian in Nigeria must not
interaction with society, he/she must
remain at home at all times (with no TV or
newspapers, only the Bible and gospel
music) to avoid the numerous iniquities of
the Nigerian humanity. Even so, the walls
will eventually speak and demand bribe for
the protection offered from a nefarious
society, after all, were the walls not made
in Nigeria by Nigerians?
I once heard a joke on the Nigerian
situation well couched in a famous song
that had been slightly altered to reflect the
iniquitous disposition of our society. The
song goes;
All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
And Nigerians ruined them all
In addition to ruining them all, the
temptation for born-again Christians in
Nigeria is abundant and manifest in all
directions and in all spheres of human
endeavor; bribery, lies, blackmailing,
avarice, greed, violence, sexual immorality
in high places and among the clergy. Even
those born-again Christians fleeing the
country are caught in one lie after the
other at Western Embassies and those who
make it out severely compromise their faith
by involving themselves in shady activities
to survive in their new countries.
I heard of the case of a high-standing
born-again Christian who went to the
American Embassy to apply for a visiting
visa. He had indicated on the application
that he was married with three kids and
was leaving them behind as assurance of
his return, whereas, he was as single as
they came. But on the day of his visa
appointment, failing to do his homework
properly, he forgot to take along his
marriage as well as birth certificates of his
‘children’ as proof of their existence and
his lies caught up with him earning him a
one-year ban from applying for an
American visa.
On Fridays and Sundays, one often sees
Moslems and Christians in mosques and
churches all throughout the country,
praying to Allah, God, singing and
meditating; but with all these prayers
knocking down innocent flying birds and
planes on their way to heaven, the country
is sinking deeper in the abyss of evil – child
ritualists everywhere, professors sexing
young pretty girls for grades, film directors
demanding sex from aspiring female
actresses in exchange for roles, human and
drug trafficking, embezzlement of state
funds, corruption of unimaginable heights,
prostitution on the rise, ‘babalawos’ in
great demand more than ever.
It appears that the same people praying
are the same people bribing, stealing
government money and relishing in
unabashed sexual immorality – Abacha
prayed, did he not? But he died in the
bosom of two sinfully beautiful chocolate-
skinned Indian prostitutes. And Obasanjo,
did he not tell us that he is a born-again
Christian of the Pentecostal variety? And
now we are hearing that he has canal
knowledge, as alleged, of his daughter-in-
law, Mojisola, an accusation he is yet to
refute in public. How about Reverend Jolly
Nyame, the former governor of Taraba
State, who is currently standing trial for
embezzlement of billions of naira; a
reverend?
The most vulnerable are the young, single
and beautiful born-again Christian ladies
who must live in Nigeria while they wait to
transit to heaven. How would they survive
in such a sinful country where sex is the
currency for advancement? They must
commit fornication (or bribe) if they are to
be admitted into the university, and after
admission, they must continue to oblige
their professors for good grades and
academic favors. After graduation, yet
again, they must commit fornication to gain
employment or favorable posting in the
National Youth Service. One would be hard-
pressed these days to find a young female
graduate of a Nigerian university who has
not been sexually violated, if not by the
professors, by male students under the
guise of offering them protection from
cults, secret societies, etc. If such a
graduate exist in today’s Nigeria, she
certainly deserves a Nobel Prize in the
category of “sexual purity.”
Lest I be misconstrued and in spite of the
title of this article, I should note well that
there are true men and women of God in
Nigeria who are keeping the faith even in
such perilous circumstances, but their
numbers are diminishing and this is not
good for Christian-dom. Perhaps, in a
befitting comical twist that underscores the
Nigerian religious imbroglio, someone
reminded me on this visit after I had asked
a zillion questions about born-gain
Christians and the sinful Nigerian society
that in Nigeria; (and Nigeria alone) there
are three types of Christians – the ordinary
Christian (OC), the born-again Christian
(BAC) and the “true” born-again Christians
(TBAC).
Confused and alarmed at this new Nigerian
religious parlance that presented an
intriguing insight, I asked what the
differences were among the three groups.
He explained carefully and I listened with
great attention as this had pricked my
curiosity; members of the OC group are
those who were born into Christian families
and therefore Christians by birth, but not
by salvation or personal knowledge of the
Lord. They attend church only twice a year,
on Easter and Christmas and they bribe and
commit sin freely, without guilt. Members
of the second group (BAC) he labored to
explain, are those who have graduated
from the OC group and have been saved.
They bribe and commit sin, but
immediately pray for forgiveness. And
members of the third group, he continued,
are those who stay true and faithful to the
Lord even in the sin called Nigeria. When I
asked in jest which group he belonged to,
he confessed that he was card-carrying
member of the BAC group, having been
recently demoted from the TBAC group.
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