How Christianity and Islam underdeveloped Nigeria

By Ufuoma Omorere Bernard

Before the advent of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria it’s people were progressive and driven by culture and morality. There wasn’t organized religion. What was termed African Traditional Religion wasn’t established religion but a loose form of spirituality or animism that never indoctrinated the people. Was it perfect? Certainly no but it was evolving and thus evolutionary.

The introduction of Christianity and Islam to Nigeria wasn’t pristine nor was it puritanical. To the colonialists it was a tactical decision for neo colonialism. The British, Spaniards, Portuguese and Arabs came to Nigeria purely for mercantile reasons. They came in search of fortunes and treasures and they found it in abundance. To be able to exploit these resources the aboriginals or natives must first be conquered by guile and military force.

Lest we forget Nigeria was a thriving territory of several kingdoms before colonialism. The sprawling land had the Benin kingdom, Yoruba kingdoms, Kanem Bornu Kingdom and several others with governmental structures. If you study African history you will see that we have suffered dehumanization, acculturation and assimilation in the hands of the British and Arabs. These colonialists raped our women, enslaved our people, plundered our assets and stole our resources.

If ants could run their own government why see our ancestors as barbarians? In the anthill you have the queen, soldiers and workers. Nature is wise and our ancestors were natural. They had brains. They produced weapons, built huts and mud houses, manufactured tools and made medicines and music. To see our forbears as daft is the major aim of the policy of Christianity and Islam. The primary policy of these Abrahamic religions is to capture the hearts and minds of the Africans and in this case Nigerians and subject them to acculturation and assimilation. When the root is uprooted the plant dies, when a people loses it’s “root” ……..

The colonialists knew that after a period of time that the aboriginals or natives will rebel against their rule and misrule, they’ll one day fight for independence or freedom and if not properly managed can lead to bloodshed. The way out is to impose Christianity and Islam on the aboriginals or natives. Religion is the abracadabra or sleigh of the hand to control the aboriginals or natives indefinitely. Missionaries and missionary societies were recruited and despatched to do what guns and artilleries can’t do. The Bible and the Koran are mightier than the sword..

The nation of Isreal survived over two thousand years of colonization and displacement in foreign lands because it retained it’s culture and religion. China did the same. These nations are economic giants today because they’re not copy cats. They’re a proud people. They’re proud of their culture and religion. They’re proud of their language and history. Unfortunately, Africa, albiet Nigeria couldn’t survive two hundred years of colonization because it swallowed hook, line and sinker the culture and religion of it’s colonialists.

The British colonized Nigeria technically from 1914 to 1960. The Arabs through Uthsman Dan Fodio ravaged the Northern part of the country in what was called a Jihad and indoctrinated it’s people by force into Mohammedianism. The British had a policy of Christianity using the Christian Missionary Society or CMS to tactically indoctrinate the aboriginals or natives. The British, Spaniards, Portuguese and Arabs succeeded in brainwashing us. Nigeria is now controlled by the two religions and Nigerians now persecute Traditionists. The public domain is suffused with anti African Traditional Religion propaganda. Christian and Islamic clerics openly vilify ATR. Nollywood movies derogate ATR. The colonialists succeeded in imposing their religions in all regions of the country and the people have lost their roots.

Christianity and Islam have been faultlines in the country since 1914 and played a divisive role in the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections and is the ugly underbelly behind the Kaduna and Middle Belt crisis. The Boko Haram debacle is a concurrent tragedy with religious trajectory. Christianity and Islam are counter revolutionary and counter progressive and this is why. The two religions are competitive instead of cooperative and this heats the polity and despicable characters use it to divide and rule the masses. The two religions are Abrahamic and have similar fundamentals yet are enemies. The two religions are hypnotic and keep the masses in trance and hallucination. Despite the huge amount of human and natural resources in the country the country is broke. I deliberately do not want to say that the country is poor. And where poverty is there you find crime and corruption.

Which Way Nigeria?

The way forward for the country is simple.

1. A Cultural Renaissance: We must reintroduce history in our schools and teach our future leaders the glorious history of Africa and Nigeria.

We must raise our kids to be black and proud. We must teach our kids about how the British and Arabs dehumanized our ancestors. How they packed our ancestors as sardines in boats and shipped them to foreign lands as slaves.

The government should publish a book and television documentary titled “Nigeriana” where the Nigerian spirit is celebrated and the people blended into a nation. As a people it’s time to learn, unlearn and relearn how to forge a nation from the furnace of our diversity.

2. Nigeria is a secular nation in theory but a Christian and Moslem nation in practice. The Constitution declares that we are a secular nation and we must hold and uphold this constitutional right rigidly. That means religion must be a private affair. The federal and state governments must stop bankrolling Christianity and Islam.

The governments must desist from using the Commonwealth to sponsor religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mecca. The governments must desist from building churches and mosques. The business of government is to build roads, power stations, hospitals, schools and provide security, not to service religions.

As a matter of urgency the governments should moderate Christianity and Islam through policies and regulations to wittle down it’s fiendish vice and grip over the masses. Christian and Moslem holidays should be abrogated. The birthdays of Jesus and Mohammed should be inconsequential to us.

The more religious a nation the more superstitious it is. We live in the Information Age and antiquated religions like Christianity and Islam shouldn’t be our driving force as a people but science and technology.

3. Public schools should ban prayers and indoctrination and in government functions ethics, ethos and esthetics should be recited instead of Christian and Moslem prayers.

4. The federal government should consider developing a new national language like the East Africans did with Swahili. Wazobia can be revived or we develop the Pidgin English as our national language.

5. Last but not the least, it’s incumbent on our president and governors to spearhead integrity and morality. This will make us 21st century compliant. We must invest in character development. Christianity and Islam have failed Nigeria.

What we need for now is integrity and morality. Like hydrogen and oxygen, integrity and morality will produce the water of life for Nigeria. Honesty, maturity and goodness will do for us what praying, fasting and singing cannot do. There’s nothing special about Christianity and Islam that can’t be found in Africa Traditional Religion.

ATR teaches love of God and neighbors and kindness and generosity. It also teaches life after death and reincarnation. The ugly side of ATR is also in Christianity and Islam. ATR teaches animal sacrifice. ATR teaches patriarchy.

Christianity and Islam also teaches animal sacrifice. Christianity even asserts that Jesus is a human sacrifice to God. Both Christianity and Islam are patriarchal and subjugates women.

Nigeria should be as non dogmatic as possible as it marches onward, upward and forward using the currents, crosscurrents and undercurrents of wisdom. The thesis, antithesis and synthesis of nation building is wisdom. Integrity and morality are it’s offshoots.