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THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA BY This topic has been handled by better minds and more gifted analysts than this writer. However, much has changed since the well-known treatise by Prof. Chinua Achebe and others that I propose to revisit this topic in a couple of write-ups in the following weeks. Today, I call attention to Nigerians’ penchant to misuse religion for their selfish ends. If you do not use God’s name in Nigeria, you cannot get anywhere. If you steal and rig elections, you have won by God’s grace! Therefore, I put the dishonest use of God and Religion at the apex of our problems.
I had spent the better part of the previous day huddled up in two different aircraft winging my way home. Upon arrival in Nigeria, the urgency of my assignment in Eastern Nigeria compelled me seek the services of one of the so-called luxury buses for me and the contingent of the Togo artisans provided me from Lagos. During the flight, I had hardly slept and by the bus departed Lagos my sleep deficit was clamoring for satisfaction. However, I was rudely awoken by the calls of a "prophet" for prayers and gospel lessons that lasted the entire journey. In between the sessions, the "prophet" sold concoctions that were supposed to cleanse witches and wizards. He also gave lively lections on aids and dispensed herbal leaves that are guaranteed to cure aids!
When I got home, I needed some spare parts to put my car and the generator back in operation. I rushed to Nnewi spare parts market and was shocked to find the entire market deserted. The dealers were holding the midday prayer session! I was amazed at the level Christianity has rooted itself among traders of all people. I bought my new battery from the prayer leader himself. He charged me extra for supposedly a French product only to discover later, it was a fake!
Initially, I was mad at all these charlatans in the bus and at the market place. But that night, I had the opportunity to collect my thoughts. Then, it dawned on me. What do you expect from these ordinary citizens, when only religion sells in Nigeria?
Our main candidates in the last presidential "selections" had to consult God and Allah before they came out to declare their intentions. One had to fast and pray forty days to seek spiritual guidance and counsel to make up his mind years after he had already started campaigning.
I do not know any country where religion is as cool as in Nigeria. Nigeria probably had the highest density of prophets, apostles, bishops, mullahs, alhajis and sheiks in the whole world. There are more prophets in Nigeria today than are in all the Testaments, both Old and New. There more bishops in Nigeria than in all of Europe. Nigeria has more sheiks than in all of Middle East.
If you go to church these days, you cannot believe what irreverent things our Reverend Fathers and Pastors do for money. The churches in the East of the Niger have descended to the lowest level of depravity in their pursuit of money. The way they hound the congregations for money is not short of armed robbery. The only difference is that instead of guns, they use candles and incense. It takes two to three hours for them to collect Sunday offering- calling faithfuls, by their various groups to come forward to make an offering in front of the altar. I was once embarrassed by being called specifically by name to come and make my offering!
They have recently started honoring Mothers and Fathers of rich faithfuls with various titles each title dotted with specified amounts (The Mother that is pleasing to all "Nne di Ora nma", The Father of the churches). The only qualification for such honors is nothing other the bank account of their children. Conspicuous from such honor lists are the humble widows and widowers, who toil more than fifteen hours a day to barely scrap a living. Missing from such lists are hard working honest artisans, whose only disqualification is their bank account.
What is the source of this moral decadence that has permeated our society? Take a look at the top of the society. We have a president, who never let any opportunity go bye without reminding us that he is a born-again Christian. My Christian up bring taught me that the tenet of the faith is modesty and moderation especially in sensuous delights. I was taught that the spirit is edified by sensuous restraint. There is no religion that does not preach restraint. I am yet to know anyone who can tell me the number wives and the number of children our president has. I can swear that not even the president knows how many wives and children he has. When he dies, we will all be parading again to London to use DNA tests to fathom how his benefits would be distributed.
Our president is the apostle of corruption crusade. How we define "corruption!" in this dispensation, I do not know. Forget that Transparency International has put us at the apex of corruption index in the world. Forget that the same organization has found that the overwhelming percentage of this corruption takes place in the presidency. Apparently corruption to the presidency is only when money is transferred to personal account.
Distortion of electoral process is simply politics. Remember that President Obasanjo bought Ota Farms at over 10Mill Naira just before he retired in 1978. Assuming that he did not spend a penny of his salary since he started earning a living, there is no way he could have saved such money those days, even taking into consideration the alleged bank loan. How has that loan been repaid?
Again, when he came out in 1998, he allegedly donated 350 Mill Naira to the PDP party, supposedly from his friends. Till date, Nigerians have not learnt who those donors were. Is it corruption to distort the electoral process? Those of us who were in Nigeria last January saw what happened at various Hotels in Abuja during the PDP presidential primaries. The way Ghana must go bags exchanged hands and the fluidity of delegate count after each visit is now a matter for history. What is the source of such bundles of cash? Does the purchase of delegates relate to security vote? Has anybody published the disbursement of various security votes since the inception of this administration? At various PDP campaign launchings, where state organs and parastetals donated millions, have we been told the sources of the funds? Can a state governor use state funds to donate to the election funds of his party?
A lot has been written about the last April elections and their transparency. The alleged corruption that permeated the election is beyond the scope of this write- up. The documentation of the various international and local observers speaks for itself. Nor can this write-up determine the source of the millions House members returned to the House Floor during the impeachment saga. Has the Presidency or the Corrupt Practices Tribunal enquired into the source of the funds. The funds were quietly returned and no questions were asked. Those who kept their share were never queried or prosecuted.
Remember one Dr. Makanjuola, former permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defense. Dr. Makanjuola is reported to be a cousin of our president. He embezzles close to a billion Naira with his cohorts. This money was money meant for paying local villagers in South East, whose land had been acquired by the Government.
Dr. Makanjuola was arrested and tried. After trial, on the date of reading the judgment, Obasanjo’s Attorney General, Mr. Agabi filed nolle prosecutor nullifying the trial. Our President supposedly fumed. He, however, did not fire his Attorney General or discipline him. Instead, he allegedly instructed that he be tried again, knowing that under die prohibition of double jeopardy, he cannot be tried again for the same offence twice. The court quickly struck out the second bite at the trial. Our president has been as silent as the lamb. Dr. Makanjuola is quietly investing his loot and some villagers in Igbo land and Nigerians are the poorer for it. Who are they deceiving!
And, so Nigeria continues to hemorrhage. Lilliputians continue to rule in the land of titans. An overwhelming percent of the best brains in the land are sojourning abroad. There are more Nigerian PhDs living overseas than are in Nigeria. At home half-baked and semi-illiterate money bags direct our politics and economy. Governance is reduced to cash-and carry affair.
We plan on launching satellites, while our leaders go to shrines to swear to alien deities. We go to Mullahs and prophets who convince us that we can gain richness overnight and live to be Methuselah, if only we kill our fellow human beings, or even our children, to prepare some rituals. Yet, we are not discriminating enough to ask our spiritualist, why he himself lives in such squalid poverty and ill-health.
We are very religious. The sight of half-clothed females offends our religious sensibilities. Therefore, we rush into the streets and mutilate and murder anyone in our path! According to Human Rights Watch our security forces led these orgies of marauding Neanderthals. By this demonstration of animalistic bestiality we book our passage to eternal glory! We declare fatwa on any citizen any time America bombs a Muslin target in the Middle East. As if the authority to bomb emanated from the poor food-seller or spare part trader in Sabon Gari. Our Christian rulers go to local pagan shrines to enforce their private contracts. To confound the absurdity, they go armed with the Holy Bible, Holy Water and the encouragement of their local Archbishops! The Godfather, who is Anglican took his Godfather to his Anglican Bishop in Enugu (Bishop Chukwuma) and the Godson went to consult his Catholic Archbishop at Onitsha (Archbishop Obiefuna). I suppose, you need to insure yourself even on both sides of the Christian divide!
Nigeria is the eighth or sixth (depending on which information you choose) greatest oil producer in the world and yet a Nigerian is condemned to only a Dollar a day for survival. Nigeria is the only member of OPEC that is listed as one of the poorest countries in the world. But individual Nigerians number among the richest in the world. To us Nigerians, government money, instead of its fiduciary sanctity, is no body’s money. It belongs to the first hands to reach it.
Think of the depravity to which the word "contract" has been reduced. Originally, contract was intended to get an expert service at the cheapest price completed at the shortest time. We have corrupted the concept of contract to its lowest absurdity. Imagine government departments awarding contracts to third parties to go to the open markets to purchase stationary at ten times the market price! Why not simply give away the money to the so-called contractors? What are the departmental purchasers employed to do? To award contracts or to distribute public funds?. The concept has so corrupted the society that you cannot get a relation to supervise a job for you or run an errand without his demanding it as a "contract."
Both Christian and Muslim adherents use their prophets and marabus to prepare charms and rituals that are supposed to protect against evil spirits and wizards. The absurdity was carried to its extreme, when we are told that one of our ministers was sworn into office in full sango regalia and rituals If I remember correctly, this fellow is a Professor! Is this fellow being sworn in as a minister of the Federation under the 1999 Constitution or as high priest of sango? Then I looked up the 163 pages of the 1999 Constitution under the seventh Schedule which prescribes "Oath of Allegiance" The oath states, "I,………..do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and will preserve and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, So help me GOD" Nowhere did I see So help me Sango! Is this man going to serve only sango adherents? Is this man now a minister under the 1999 Constitution? To be continued.
August 2003
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