News From Nigeria
Religion in Nigeria will always be a cog in the wheel of progress because this is the Trojan horse the colonizers left behind. It is the only thing that leads to arrested development of any intelligent discussion of finding solutions to what is holding Nigeria back.
At the time the British left, they were very happy that the religion they brought had displaced our traditional methods of worship. Besides, the African religion is not inducing passion for hatred and killing of each other as their religions needed constant sacrifice of the unbelievers. They trained the African how to kill and die for their gods and forget self-inquiry and self-improvement.
In Nigeria, they made it potent for these religions to constantly be at war with each other and forget they are the victims of a master puppeteer. The African especially the Nigerian has lost his mind in the macabre of this zealotry. He is always in a perpetual state of hallucinations, religious ecstasy and zealotry. The White man’s god became African with all its hateful passions and pride.
Since we hate ourselves, we kill the self we see in each other. It is not necessary for the white man to kill us. We can do that better than him. Now and then, we call them for supervision. This reassures them of the superiority of their god. Their religion always reminds us that we are birds of different plumage. We have to deny our brothers, friends and family in order to devote our time to their god who has blessed them with technology. It must be true that their god gave them the gadget directly. We also have to build big houses for their gods because he does not like huts.. We sleep there every day but don’t see god. They tell us to just continue to pray and have faith. We don’t have to work or think. Nothing is needed but faith.
If you are a Muslim, you have to kill your neighbor if you see him tear a page from the Holy Book. Islam is peace you know! The only requirement is prayer. Five times a day or make it continuous for effect. The decibel of the loudspeakers has to be increased to drive out the demons. Those who cannot make it through the noise be damned or join in this state of lost civility. The brainwashing has started. These religions made the African supplicant and will always see the white god as their savior.
We have white Jesus and we have off white Mohammad. An African can never have any angel that looks like him and he has to always turn the other cheek. Mission accomplished. Africans cannot look for solutions from within. If a problem is too difficult to solve, all he has to do is to go to Mecca or Rome. He has to talk to the white god personally because the white god has all the answers. If he cannot see the white god, the white man will do as his deputy. This is the beginning of white worship which is the most common idolatry in Africa. The ways and whys of the conqueror become supreme; He cannot pray in Africa because his prayers will be thwarted by the many demons that abound in Africa. The land of Africa is not holy enough for the white god. This took away the agency and self-confidence of the African. Nothing in his vicinity reminds him of his divinity. Gradually, his self-confidence erodes and he sees himself as having everything in common with his colonial oppressors. Any attempt to loosen these chains of oppression is vehemently opposed by the guard of his oppressor. These guards are the various pastors and imams who play the role of interpreting the white man’s god to him. Any dream of the sheep leaving the plantation and finding the meaning of his existence, the chains is tightened and he continues with his anesthetic prayers that confuse and consume him. He can’t leave if he is a Muslim because he will be killed in the North of Nigeria. If he is in the South, he is ashamed to enforce compliance. From the cradle to the grave, the African lives with the fog of knowingness that gnaws at him. He lacks the courage to break free from the shackles of these foreign religions and he gradually evolves a duality in his existence. In most cases, he will seek the help of his ancestors to intercede by stealth. So it can be said that the African maintains a duality that is necessary to survive his environment. This duality results in double loyalty; one to the oppressors and one of his traditional roots which he has been forced to vilify. On Sundays or Fridays, he goes to the church or mosque. On the days that he can have his privacy, he goes to the Babalawo for his incantation. This double loyalty places him in an uncomfortable position where his loyalty to his imported religion becomes the same as loyalty to his colonial oppressor.
Nothing can highlight this more than the death of Charlie Kirk in America. Before the bullet could land, Nigerians have already taken sides because of this loyalty to the oppressor. All they heard is that he was a Christian. They don’t have the presence of mind to know the definition of Christianity in the land of their oppressors. They make statements that are ignorant and out of context with the issues. They start speaking and arguing about issues they know nothing about with the authority and bravado of ignorance. All they hear is that a prominent American Christian was killed. That is all. They suddenly become Christian warriors trying to force the gate of heaven to be opened for this “lovely” Christian who was killed by the devil. They will even prepare a sermon to tell their congregation to live the righteous life of Charles Kirk who was killed by the devil.
Now we may ask: Who was Charlie Kirk? To answer this question, you have to know American culture and politics in real time. Nigerians without any iota of fact will pontificate about this man’s exemplary life. Due to the fact that he is white, they will go further and equate him to Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe this, just read comments coming from Nigerians on YouTube and other social media.
This lack of knowledge and loquaciousness is very embarrassing to those of us who live in this culture and follow the issues closely. These ignorant discussions can place us in danger as those who don’t know the difference assume every Nigerian has sympathy with the white oppressors of America who use Christianity for their hateful actions against black people in America.
A white Christian went into a black church. He was welcomed. After prayers, he brought his gun and killed everyone there. His Christian god told him to do so. When he was arrested, the police took him to MacDonald for lunch. They are Christian police. What did this “good “Christian police do when they arrested George Floyd? They strangled him in plain view of the public. Here in America, rational people don’t jump to conclusions or make saints out of sinners just because they say they are Christians.
The Kkk that terrorized and lynched black Americans after the civil war were Christians. The burning cross is their insignia. Right wing Christianity in America is a white supremacy organization. Here in America, people look at the issues with objective lenses. We even ask questions and go to the archive to examine the records. The Nigerian will not do this because he cannot see beyond his narrow lens of religion and confuses his version of Christianity with American right wing Christianity which is nothing but white Supremacy organization. Please stop. Your ignorance will get a lot of people killed in America.
In America, the pace of news is very rapid and a big story today is overshadowed by bigger stories tomorrow and what seems monumental today becomes a footnote tomorrow. Who was Charlie Kirk? He was thirty one year old and dropped out of college after the first semester. He is a Christian but he preached the gospel of the Pharisees. He engages in revisionist history and uses pseudo intellectualism to argue points that cannot be factually verified. His main hatred is against Black Americans and any other blacks who live in the US. His organization, Turning Point, USA was sponsored by racist American billionaires. He does not let facts get in his way when he is talking about black people. Time after time, he says black people are mentally inferior. He tells the World that black people are very violent, and they are 13 percent of the population and fifty percent in jail. This is clearly a lie. He was the one who started the rumor that white South Africans are being subjected to genocide. This is what led to the confrontation of Donald Trump and the South African president. Trump did not believe the South African president. He sent a plane to South Africa to carry the white people to America and granted all of them asylum. I just use these few points to introduce Charlie Kirk to the Nigerian audience who have been blinded by religion.
Charlie Kirk is your oppressor. He is not a follower of Jesus. He uses the name of Jesus the way the colonial master used the name of Jesus for slavery and colonialism. Charlie Kirk was the person encouraging counter protests when George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by strangulation at the hands of the police. On January 6, 2017, he was the one who bused protesters to riot at the capitol. He is what is known as an agent provocateur. He is a right winger. He believes there should not be any amendments to the second amendment of the constitution which gives the American citizens the right to bear arms. He is opposed to any legislation that will interfere with the people’s right to bear arms. He says any death from gunshot in America should be considered collateral damage in the fight for freedom. Due to the bellicose stand of these right wingers like Charles Kirk, it is impossible to pass any sensible gun laws. These people believe very deeply that guns don’t kill people. People kill people. One can actually deduce from this summary that Charles Kirk died from his own hemlock. His hatred of black people is so visceral that at the time he was killed, he was talking about black violence in an auditorium in University in Salt Lake City, Utah. This cannot be rationalized. Utah is more than 98 % white. Why would a white man talk about the violent criminality of black people to an audience of mostly white people in Utah? The only reason is that he is on a crusade to unite white people against black people in America. He was telescoping racism to young white people who live in Utah to start hating black people they have not met. He was fomenting racial animosity. He frequently goes to Europe to give lectures and recruit white Europeans to his violent anti-black racism .This is the stuff the right wing of America feeds on.
In this journey of hatred, they identify themselves as Christians. They are Christians alright but they are not followers of Christ who taught love, tolerance and charity. He hates immigrants and wants borders closed. Recently, he said in a speech that America does not need more Indians. Are these the actions of a Christian? If he is Christian, then Donald Trump must be his pastor. They worship at the temple of bigotry. He is one of the architects of the policies that trample on the vulnerable in our society. I don’t wish for anyone dead but he is a victim of his own poison. In his own words, he can be considered collateral damage. If you ask me to shed a tear for him, then it is okay to cry for Osama bin Laden. We don’t worship the same God, so I cannot ask God to open the gates of Heaven for him even when a majority of those he hurt with his hatred have opened the gates of hell without any bumps and unambiguous road signs.
Charlie Kirk said it himself. Empathy is a bad thing. Mourning his death is against his personal wishes.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
Are we really divided by geography or culture? Nigeria is a very heterogeneous society. From the cacophony of our disagreements, there is a straight line that separates the North and the South, the East and the West.
We have been presented with the scenario that the North will always want the opposite of what the South wants. This means if the South wants unity, then the North by default will want disunity. At the moment, most people in the south want restructuring. The North does not want it as we are told.
To what extent has geography decided our destiny? Are we really different temperamentally due to accidents in our geography? We will believe so if we subscribe to the prevailing notion that we are incapable of brewing a culture that is inclusive because of our geographic placements.
Nigeria is a very heterogeneous and variegated society that has failed to evolve a theme that is inclusive of all the people within our borders. The failure to achieve this elusive unity is due to our primordial loyalties and attachments to our origins. There is a failure of imagination and expansion of our consciousness. At this place, we will see each other. This failure also means we are still like children, who have refused to grow up and will not leave home.
Some have posited that we could have been better if the imaginary line that separated the North and South was made more visible and not blurred by the interposition of Lord Lugard. Most Nigerians will always blame the British for this amalgamation. I don’t, because Lord Lugard did what he had to do for the love of Britain. He needed to save costs and make the colonization easier for His Royal Majesty. All he did was for the love of his homeland. No matter how much we blame the British, the constant is that they did what they have to do for the love of Britain.
My question is: What have we done for the love of our people and Nigeria? This is the question we should ask ourselves every day. Have we evolved any system to bring us together as the largest concentration of black people in the World? The answer is no. At the time Africans were crying for the unity of black people, some Nigerians wanted more fragmentation. This means that we cannot go beyond the artificial lines that were created to confine us and we have accepted an imaginary line that makes neighbors to be strangers perpetually. It also suggests that we are lazy and cannot go beyond our comfort zone.
We have a duty to reframe and recalibrate our relationships that are devoid of exploitation by those who gave a numerical advantage. The respect for the rights of minorities is a sine qua non in a society that aspires to be democratic. As the largest concentration of Black people in the world, it is our responsibility to evolve beyond our present conditions of strife and ethnic hostilities and adopt a more inclusive theme for our polity.
I have emphasized at various times that if you remove the imported religions, we have more in common as Nigerians. These foreign religions are actually the fuel for the tribalism and ethnic divisions that are tearing the nation apart.
There are more minorities in the North than in the South. The North is actually more advanced in terms of inter-ethnic harmony than the South. A Northerner is more likely to say he is a Northerner than a Southerner. A southerner will identify with his tribe first. This is where the Northerner is more advanced in inter-ethnic relations. They have a more panoramic view of Nigeria than the average southerner.
The South is still a basin of inter-ethnic rivalries. The reason for this is that the South is not as variegated as the North. The rivalry and low intensity animus between the South-west and South-East is becoming tiresome. This rivalry makes it difficult to evolve ethos that are beyond ethnic nationalism. These tribes instead of developing a blueprint of cohabitation with the minority tribes, they engage in parasitic relationships that are injurious to the minority tribes. They even want the minority tribes to forget their history and become members of the large tribes. Can the parasite absorb the host? Nature says no. The host just wants to be left alone to survive the interplay and ignominy of the so-called big tribes. The way Yoruba and Igbo behave in the South makes me wonder if they are aware of any other people besides them who occupy this terrain we call Southern Nigeria. They need to take a lesson from the North on how to unify people.
We need unity all over the country, but Southern unity is very essential for the unity and progress of Nigeria. Southern unity is needed to free the North from Religious tyranny that impedes progress and imprison Northern youth in a cocoon of Ignorance. This state of ignorance makes the Northern youth to erroneously identify with the vision of his oppressor.
How did the North become so united? They used a language of common purpose. No matter the drawback of the Fulani, they were able to draw up a philosophy of a common heritage. This could be religion or culture. Since we don’t have a common heritage in the South, we can draw up a common theme that can unify us. We could adopt the theme: Justice, equality and fairness. It is not enough to say you are Igbo. Do you believe in justice? Do you believe in equality? Do you believe in fairness? If the answer is yes, I will work with you to evolve a better relationship.
What does it mean to be a Yoruba? Do you believe in Justice? Do you believe in fairness? Do you believe in equality? If the answer is yes, I will work with you to evolve a better terrain for our people. It is the negative answers that come from these groups that militate against any form of unity in Nigeria.
Lord Lugard amalgamated Nigeria for the love of Britain. What have we Nigerians done for the love of Nigeria? The answer to this question will lead to our evolution to a better place where our vision is not blurred. One out of every four black people in the world is a Nigerian. This is power and should be backed by our sense of responsibility to all black people around the World. This is a leadership position that every Nigerian must take as his responsibility.
To be effective, we must as a matter of urgency restructure Nigeria for proper governance. Restructuring will reduce hostilities and arbitrariness of governance. Knowledgeable people will move from a mediocre and moribund unitary/Central governance and improve the lives of people at the local level who can be trusted to pick the right people for leadership. Our focus should be on this solemn obligation that must not be trifled by any singular loyalty to the village idiot who is still a troglodyte.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
Women in the North Central geo-political zone on Wednesday urged President Bola Tinubu not to allow forces of progress to be intimidated.
‘’The recent action of the Senate leadership can only lead to moral and political disorder’’
They also criticized the leadership of the Senate for contributing to the general frustration of bright and articulate minds in the National Assembly.
‘’The Senate appears to have become a casual blackboard for juvenile graffiti’’
The women in a statement in Makurdi applauded the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for its stand on the issues in the Senate.
They described the position of the Senate leadership on Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as an ascendancy of evil in the country.
‘’Majority of the senators now find themselves as hostages in the crude hands of the Senate leadership’’
The statement issued by the Chairperson of North Central Women Front (NCWF), Mrs. Mary Adamu lamented the activities of the forces of despotism in the country and the degradation to which Akpoti-Uduaghan has been subjected by the leadership of the Senate.
‘’Of what use are people who stay put and cowardly allow evil to exist?
The women described Akpoti-Uduaghan as a leading activist and one of the intellectual pillars of the Senate.
Particularly, the North Central women denounced the contention made by the Clerk of the Senate and called on other geo-political zones to join them in freeing the majority of the senators from the clutches of the so-called leadership.
The statement emphasized fascism, crude, beastly nature and style of deciding when to allow Akpoti-Uduaghan to the Senate.
The Alliance for Good Governance (AGG), a non-governmental organization has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to look into the issue of backlog of non- payment of Rations and Gas Contractors dues by the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCos).
The organization cited the high cost of foodstuffs such as Beans, Rice and Garri as a major factor exacerbating the problem adding that the situation has severe implication for the livelihoods of the contractors and the inmates and the overall economy.
The group said outstanding dues that the NCos owes contractors was over #5.6 billion for food supplied to inmates across the country adding that the non –payment of contractor’s dues puts the welfare of over 75,000 inmates at risk potentially that could lead to starvation and other health issues.
The NGO in a statement made available to newsmen signed by Chris Sanwo and Jude Nwokolo, group Coordinator and Secretary respectively revealed that this nonpayment can lead to abandonment of the feeding of the inmate, job losses to those under the employment of these contractors and in turn lead to increase in poverty, which the statement noted with melancholy that the Tinubu administration in seriously making concerted to address through several programme under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The group recalled that the Federal Government recently increased the daily feeding allowances for inmates from #750 to #1,125 aiming to improve their nutritional welfare for which the group said is a good development, however with this development the Rations and Gas Contractors are yet to be paid for October, November and December 2023 while some are yet to be paid for the food and Gas supplied for August 2024 and some still have outstanding payment.
‘’We urge President to take swift action to address this issue ensuring that contractors receive their payment they deserve for their work. We also call on the Committee on Interior at the National Assembly to investigate this matter and provide oversight to prevent similar situations in the future’’.
‘’Many contractors have borrowed money from financial institutions with interest rates to supply food to inmates and the non- payment of their dues is causing them significant financial hardship’’.
The group called on the National Assembly to investigate this matter and provide oversight to prevent similar situations in the future
It also urged President to take swift action, intervene in the situation and ensure prompt payment of outstanding dues to Ration and Gas Contractors.
‘’This will alleviate the suffering of inmates and the contractors alike, and ensure the continued provision of essential services to the correctional facilities stressing this challenge may undermines investor confidence and slows economic and exacerbate fiscal policies’’, the group said.