The formation of Nigeria came to be on the back of Religion. As the British empire drew its curtain on the slave trade, which was precipitated by its defeat in the America War of Independence, it needed a continuing flow of resources and other inputs to feed its growing Industrial Revolution.
Africa as a continent had abundance of resources, of course both human and material which made it a choice to exploit. Effective exploitation could only be achieved by either enforcing might or guile. The image of slave masters coming to shore again and laying a firm grab on the land would have been seen as an affront by Africans which would result in violent resistance and resentment.
In the course of Europe’s interactions with Africa and its people, it discovered the role religion played amongst the population. Religion became a tool of infiltration. The European second return and taking over of the African continent and by extension Modern day Nigeria was spearheaded by projecting a religion and faith which seemed to have mystified the African. What the Europeans had was a more sophisticated technology and processes of organising themselves. Religion was only a moral guide, which was separated from political ideology, science and technology.
This lack of understanding made it easy for Africans to fall for the mystic of Christianity and its proponents. In the northern part of Nigeria, Islam was effectively used to lure the people under a new and more efficient system of hegemony, with the common denominator of religion. Over a period of time the peoples identity were eroded and effectively ruled over.
The toppling of the colonists was replaced by the African elite that saw religion also as an effective way of controlling the masses. In the far north of Nigeria the religion of the emirs, Islam, laid precedence over individual freedom or political thought. While this was going on, education, the librating force, was relegated. In the south, the benefits of building the individual through education was encouraged. A more enlightened and productive society emerged. Between 1950s to the late 1990s Nigeria was effectively embroiled in centrifugal and centripetal forces pushing forward and pulling backwards, with religion at the centre of the crisis.
The resumption of democracy in the late nineties, reignited the prominence of religion in Nigeria’s political life. Most politicians in Nigeria have struggled to build national acceptance but rather feel more comfortable entrenching regional loyalty through ethnicity and playing the religious card. The introduction of sharia in the far north of Nigeria shortly after Olusegun Obasanjo became president set alarm bells in motion in the south and energised the Pentecostal Church down south. Politicians saw an opportunity of romancing the clergy and have never turned back.
In 2024, the federal government is proposing spending N90 billion to fund hajj. Religion has been used as political patronage for decades and this is not abating. Funds used for religious activities can be channelled into funding a more realistic minimum wage or grants regime for businesses and other forms of individual development.
While religion is being given more attention by politicians and government, education is systematically being starved of resources and the nation’s development indices continues to fall. What gives religion in Nigeria its favourable position among politicians is that, it effectively covers up their inadequacies and their urge for unaccountability.
Because people put their hopes in religion as an escape from their daily challenges and realities, Nigeria’s political class have equally found it convenient to disengage more from their responsibilities of good governance and accountability.
Government at both state and federal level have tapped heavily into the maxim of Karl Max, which says that religion is the opium of the people by pandering to it and also using it as a distraction and divisive tool. Nigeria is presently at a crossroad and is struggling to attain developmental indices, taking the country back by about three decades.
What religion has achieved in Nigeria is making institutions of state near dormant and weakening accountability. This has allowed corruption to continue, if not thrive. Thus, the country’s competitive edge has been called to question, while Nigeria’s overall growth and sustainability is further pushed to breaking point.
Olugbenga Adebanjo
(c) Copyright, 2024
Ojuriblog 