THE NIGERIAN IRONY
How high levels of Religion and corruption manage to thrive simultaneously in Nigeria
A survey of people’s religious beliefs carried out by the BBC in 2004, suggested that Nigeria is the most religious nation in the world, it was recorded that over 90% of the Nigerians interviewed said that they believed in God, prayed regularly and would die for their religious beliefs. This is in addition to the virtually uncountable amount of religious worship centers and clergy men /women in Nigeria, in Nigeria, religious centers can be found in every corner of the streets and clergy men/women and religious faithful’s can be found in almost every house hold, in fact, there are more churches and mosques in Nigeria than in the countries that brought these religions to Nigeria. All these facts are pointing to the fact that Nigeria has a very high level of religiosity.
As for the case of corruption, we don’t need to over hammer the fact that Nigeria and Nigerians are very corrupt; it’s obvious and evident in all aspects of the Nigerian society. If corruption was an Olympic sport, Nigeria would have been a perpetual recipient of the gold medal. Corruption in a simple sense is being dishonest, mischievous and willing to use one’s position or power to his/her own advantage, especially for money.
It’s abnormal for these two factors to co-exist in high in frequencies in one country, one is supposed to suppress the other, but that is not the case in Nigeria. That is why it has become an issue of concern.
There are five major reasons why such exist in Nigeria, and they are;
SOCIETAL VALUES.
The societal value of the Nigerian society is another factor that has made it possible for corruption to thrive in Nigeria despite the presence of high religiosity. The Nigerian society has attached great value to materialism, irrespective of the process of acquisition, even in the various religious societies and institution (churches and mosques), people with wealth are valued, reverenced and respected irrespective of how the they acquired the wealth, and as a result of the respect Nigerians have for wealthy people, members of the society strive by any means to be wealthy in order to gain the respect and admiration of others, as explained by a foremost sociologist, Robert. K. Merton, when people can’t conform, i.e. can’t access the means of achieving the goal, which is wealth, they innovate other means, which most of the time is corrupt. The fact is that majority of Nigerians don’t have access to the legitimate means of achieving wealth, so they engage in corrupt practices in order to be valued, reverenced and respected by the society, after all, in Nigeria the end justifies the means, just as Machiavelli professed.
LOW STANDARD OF LIVING AND HIGH COST OF LIVING.
Considering the low standard of living in Nigeria, where an average Nigerian is said to live below a dollar in a day, coupled with the high cost of living, i.e. Nigerian markets are for the rich, Nigerians tend to consider individual and family gains first, irrespective of morals or religion, putting food on the table is the first thought, therefore every other things must wait, just as Karl Marx observed, that man must first eat and drink before he can partake in any form of art, religion or philosophy. So when one has an opportunity to enrich himself, he quickly takes it, not minding whether his religion supports his method of acquisition of wealth or not.
THE NOTION OF FORGIVENESS.
One major feature of the religions practiced in Nigeria, is the notion of forgiveness. That is, no matter what kind of wrong a person does, he/she would automatically be forgiven by God, once he/she asks for forgiveness. And people have continually capitalized on this to perpetuate all forms of corrupt and criminal acts. We have heard tales of people who pray before and after engaging in criminal activities, believing that all their crimes and wrong doings would be forgiven simply by saying “God forgive me”.
LACK OF TOTAL BELIEF IN THE PRESENT FOREIGN RELIGIONS.
This is one important and significant factor, this is a case where these religions are not totally believed, due to their lack of originality. Since these religions are foreign, most Nigerians don’t have a strong personal conviction to fully believe them, so Nigerians have this “let’s just do it in case” attitude towards these religions, and when they are faced with real life issues they go the other way, a perfect example can be seen in the attitudes of our politicians and government officials, during their swearing in, they swear with the bible or the Koran, but still go ahead to engage in corrupt practices, but we all know that if they swear by the god of Ogun, Ifa, Amadioha and so on, the story would be different.
MISCONCEPTION AND GROSS MIS-UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRESENT FOREIGN RELIGIONS.
Religion is supposed to be a tool used in limiting the excess selfish acts of people, but this is not the case in Nigeria, because there is this misconception and lack of total understanding of the present foreign religions, the tenets of these religions are not fully understood by Nigerians because these religions weren’t originally part of the culture of Nigerians, so people act in certain ways because they are told to do so, not because they understand what they are doing and as a result of these, people tend to interpret the laws and rules of these religions in a way that suits their actions, therefore creating room for corrupt practices.
CONCLUSION
Nigeria being one of the most religious and most corrupt countries of the world, is a clear indication that religion in Nigeria is either doing the opposite of what is expected of it, or is simply not living up to its expectations, and from the issue above (Nigerian irony), it can be deducted that Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest number of hypocrites, because everybody claims to be religious and morally sound, if that’s the case, where did the high level of corruption come from?. Am not in any way insinuating that atheists and agnostics don’t have the capacity to do good and avoid corruption, but am trying to paint the Nigerian picture, the trend of atheism is very rare in Nigeria, most Nigerians believe in the existence of God and belong to one religious body or the other.
In order for the Nigerian irony to be normalized i.e. reducing the level of corruption and maintaining that of religion, I would suggest the following,
Firstly, since Nigerians have chosen to practice foreign religions, then these religions must be fully understood and practiced with sincerity by its followers, and to ensure this “God called me” should not be a criteria to becoming custodians of any religion in Nigeria, strict measures should be taken to ascertain custodians of any religion in Nigeria in order to avoid mis-education, misconception and misinterpretation of the various religious tenets.
Secondly, if the Nigerian society can’t get it right with the present foreign religions, then its high time it begin to trace its steps back to its original religions that it had before contact with the outside world, these our original religions were generated as a result of societal needs and the people have better understanding of it.
Lastly, part of the problem can be blamed on the structure of the Nigerian society, where a few own most of the country’s wealth and the majority don’t have opportunity and access to the legitimate means of wealth acquisition, leading to crime, therefore it should be ensured by those in charge of the country’s affairs that all has equal chances and opportunity to being successful.
It can’t be over emphasized that religion has a great role in maintaining morality in the Nigerian society because man is naturally selfish, but when the religious institution we have is not playing the role expected of it, then we should begin to consider other options.

NNAMDI, NONSO.
www.roguescholarblog.
nnamdinonso1@g.mail.com