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Nigeria Vs India A Call For Reflection by AKAKAK(m): 6:50pm On Aug 10, 2016
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, language, etc. 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, etc. 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.” 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 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 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 British and Arabs left Nigeria, Nigeria has waxed strong in religion to the extent that Nigerians now set up religious 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 country 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, while 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, shopping malls, hospitality, etc. 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, nothing gets done. 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 the petroleum that we have in abundance, rice and beans that our land can produce in abundance, and even 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 is it! Even government officials, who were known to use only Peugeot cars as official cars as a sign of modesty, have upgraded to Toyota Prado, without any iota of shame, in a country where about 70 per cent live below poverty. 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. 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 two thousand ethnic groups. 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, while 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 s inking 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.

I hope this can make front page so that many can benefit from the submissions.
Re: Nigeria Vs India A Call For Reflection by mojibbz(m): 7:55pm On Aug 10, 2016
I would have loved to say more of what the poster is reiterating but if I start now, I wonder how long it will be.
But I will say this.

I don't know what's wrong with Nigeria. Ever since I've been young, all we keep hearing is it will get better, it will get better.
Oh! How I laugh for my country. It's is of logical sense that if something doesn't get better, then it rather not get worse. At least that way, it'd still br manageable. But no! Reverse is the case here in our beloved Nigeria. It keeps getting worse every day and I wonder, where did we get it all wrong?
What have we done to deserve this and yet, what have the generations yet unborn done to deserve a life like in Nigeria. What is the bane of our country? What steps have we missed? Or perhaps, we are just too wicked inwardly to care about our fellow country people?

Anyone with a little bit of power in Nigeria sees him/herself as a demigod. They abuse and misuse the power bestowed upon them by the people. They harass and decimate anyone that is perceived as of lower echelon in the society.
The other day, our beloved president approved the exchange of currency for pilgrimage at $197 and after an outcry, some ministers came to defend the action giving reasons that the funds have been in warehouse before dollar rise. But we all know that's just damage control.
Now i want to ask one question, are the funds for pilgrims more important than the funds for education? Even though I'm a Muslim, I see it as absurd that the president of a nation the status of Nigeria will give zero attention to the education of its young ones. Why is the president as old as that there in the first instance? Mow that's not even the issue, but why will the president not give a damn about the education of its young ones especially those outside the country while even some of his own wards still go for that same education outside the country?
Well I guess the president has enough money to cater for their tuition and needs even if the value of the naira drops further than it is now. But what about the others who are not as buoyant as the president? Who will cater for their children and assist them in another man's land?
And then most of this students despite all odds, defy the obstacles and still come out with flying colors and get snatched up by the western and eastern worlds and then the same government starts complaining that it's citizens are not coming back. Who will come back to the sorry case of a couple try called Nigeria??
Well, I guess this still brings us back to the abuse of power earlier stated.

I think I should stop here. I have a lot to say but even if we say from now till next month, successive nigerian governments will still get there, abuse the power, and worsen the condition of Nigeria.

It's so pathetic. I love Nigeria but it seems Nigeria has nowhere to go. I should better start loving another man's land.

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