Nigeria Exports Religion, India Exports Cars
By Azuka Onwuka
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 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.