RELIGION AND POLITICS IN AFRICA; THE NIGERIAN DILEMMA

If you have ever spared a moment to study the map of the world, you will definitely come to discover a number of things. In the first place, you will find out that the greater part of the universe is covered with water such that while man flaunts his pride and ego at exploring, discovering and even overcoming the universe, he has so far only attempted a scratch while lots of nature’s vast expanse remains unknown, undiscovered, unexplored and  uninhabited. Again, you will find out that the areas inhabited by man are mapped out according to continent to distinguish one particular continent from the other. These continents are so designated and classified on the basis of their location, geographical properties, environmental characteristics, climatic similarities, and a host of other factors distinctly marking them out from the others. One particular continent stands out in its shape which is similar to that of a question mark and that continent is Africa.

                                                    

May be what partly accounted for this is the hurried manner in which Africa and its territories needed to be owned and controlled by the imperial powers. Given the fact the slavery had just come to an end, the urgent need to fill this gap through established trade and commerce between Europe and Africa arose. This situation  inevitably led to the rise of capitalism. Explorers came to discover the vast human and natural resources in the African territory and so had to establish colonies to tap these resources to produce cocoa, coffee, rubber, palm oil, timbre etc . These were later exported to Europe. The Scramble for Africa (1800-1900) was a period of rapid colonization of the African continent by the European powers. It marked the invasion, occupation, division, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers. 

It was, however, the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 chaired by the then German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck that finally lit the Olympic torch for the official invasion, occupation, division, colonization and annexation of the African territory by the Europeans. An important strategy for this colonial conquest became imperative and hence religion easily fit into the need. The harbingers first came as missionaries, intent on evangelizing the African continent, introducing their God to the Africans and convincing them to accept and worship Him. This concept of a Great God or the God of other small  gods was not entirely new to the pre-colonial Africans. Africans always had a perspective of this God who is the general overlord of other small gods and goddesses. Hence, they particularly reserved a pride of place for Him and is often denoted by several titles in some pre-colonial African cultures like “The Being who lives in Heaven but has his clothes spread on earth”, “The Great God”, “The Creator”, “The Omnipotent Being”, etc.

Like the Athenian biblical episode where St. Paul met a lot of alters dedicated to  “the unknown God” and asserted that was the Being he brought to them, it became very easy to identify and label this existential Being and to find acceptance in the hearts and minds of the locals. Naturally, they knew He existed, they just didn't know Him, so anybody with any invaluable proof about His existence gets not only a fair hearing but also a fair following. Hence, the missionaries happened on Africa and with them, followed the colonialists.

It seems reasonable to infer that the colonialists first decided to come as missionaries and then upon gaining acceptance into numerous African territories, dropped the hood that identifies the monk to take up the arms and barrels that cowed the natives.  However, I do not think so. For while it can be said that the missionaries came on their own with their own agenda of evangelization and spread of the goodnews, the colonialists only usurped an opportunity of white missionary presence in most parts of Africa to launch their own programme of annexation.

Overtime, the Africa worldview seemed to hammer the nail further into the head. It is a world view that is essentially pantheistic, dominated as it were by gods and spirits. This view about the gods was no different from that of the Romans which was paganistic in both character and performance. Like the Romans, Africans had god of thunder, fertility, rain, love, harvest, earth, famine and others too numerous to mention. Every god had a role to perform in the daily activities of man. To suffer want or lack in any aspect of life was seen as a direct punishment from the god whose law had been infringed and who must necessarily be appeased if a reversal of fortune was expected. Dead spirits were also believed to come and watch over the living and particularly loved ones. This is why it is customary to pour libations first to the ground during the morning offering by the eldest in the family or before drinking wine. This comes against the strong belief that unseen spirits need to drink first before humans as a mark of salutation, respect and recognition to them.

The gods were believed to determine the fate and destiny of humans in the African perspective. Not only were chief priests and priestesses chosen by them, kings and queens were also appointed and anointed by them. In their place, their children continued the family dynasty as this was naturally seen as extending the divine mandate in all its unbrokenness. When a king becomes wicked and defiant of the gods, he either loses someone dear to him, or is taken into captivity by another king or made to suffer a terrible ailment which will eventually lead to death.

The imperial power thus operated against such a pantheistic background as this for many years in most African countries. When the right to self-rule was finally obtained, this structure was not jettisoned but rather continued to thrive. In Nigeria for example, the British colonialists encouraged the Muslim North to rule over the Christian South.  Several reasons added up to this. Firstly, the northerners had an oligarchic system where the people followed the dictates of their rulers. Disobedience to these laid-down guidelines, norms and regulations was taken as an affront on the Prophet himself  and was not to be lightly taken. It thus became very easy to control these people by simply controlling their rulers. In the South, the British indirect rule policy was log-jammed on account of the fact that the southern rulers do not enjoy the aristocratic and sometimes theocratic status of their northern counterparts. Anybody can become a king and even when you eventually become one, you only rule over your own kingdom. Added to this is the fact that the Christian religion particularly does not encourage “cult of rulership” as the concept of freewill is one of the essential components of the Christian tenets.

Notwithstanding the above, for the most part of her post independence years, Nigeria has been ruled by leaders from the north. Transitioning fully to democracy in the year 1999, politics has largely been played along religious lines. It is often easy for people to forget about the perennial problems plaguing them to logging in on the  perspective that he is a Muslim or Christian and so deserves our support. Very little thought and consideration is given with regard to the capability of an electoral candidate to move the state or country forward. The question of interest which one represents is often asked before what a candidate has to offer. This situation gave rise to what we known today in Nigeria as “consensus candidate” and is often a product selection of religious consideration. The effect is that we are back to where we were or even worse.

While people like to blame the colonial masters for the Nigerian woes sometimes, the truth still remains that theNigerian leaders who took over the baton from the colonialists have fare very badly and even worse off.

Politicians frequent churches and mosques and become extremely prayerful whenever the elections loom and they need to convince the people that they are not only religious beings but religious humans as well as religious politicians capable of managing their resources and affairs in a religious manner. Once the elections are over and out, these churches and mosques turn into pilgrim centres and places that are visited only on special occasions. The end result is that when people elect their leaders not on the basis of value judgement, merit, capability but on consideration of religious sect, denomination and belongingness to this, they literally mortgage their future and the future of their posterity. This is classic illustration of the present Nigerian situation.

In the run-up to last week’s 2016 presidential elections in the U.S, many Nigerians spent time, energy, money and other type of resources forecasting, analyzing and predicting the outcome of the election in the United States. Even after the results were announced, predictions have continued on how the Trump-presidency would fare and its possible implications on the continent and even for Nigeria. Unfortunately, if only a paltry number among this numerous had spent time to analyze, forecast and possibly scrutinize the candidates that stood for its presidential election in 2015, maybe the country would be a little better and the economy less messier than it is at the moment. Sadly enough, Nigerians will have to live with the consequences of the realities of their 2015 presidential choice for roughly the next three years to come.

My submission of course is not that religion does not play a part in politics, for clearly we saw in the last U.S presidential elections that it did. Mr. Trump’s standpoint on some issues like planned parenthood particularly abortion helped swing votes in his favour especially among traditional Christians and Catholics whose doctrines vehemently oppose killing of unborn children. I only argue that in most African countries like Nigeria, religioun is so wound up and intertwined with politics that people tend to overlook the salient matters affecting their lives and have as a basis for their choice of leaders,  belongingness to a particular religious sect or the other.

In most cases, some religious leaders assume covert political powers which they can always manipulate to their own advantage. Sometime in July 2016, the federal government declared a two-day public holiday to mark the Eid-el Fitri celebration. However, due to non sighting of the moon, this was extended by yet another day as adiviced by the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affair, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III. For a country still crawling in underdevelopment and reeling under the heavy weight of corruption, that decision translates not only to a waste of catch-up time with the rest of other developed countries, but also an exaggeration of irrelevance. This is certainly one instance of religion overlapping politics.

Few days before the 2016 U.S presidential elections, a controversial Nigerian pastor/prophet/man of God  popularly called T.B Joshua stated that God had revealed the next president of the United States to him. He went on to say that he saw a woman as the next U.S president. Though no name was mentioned at the time, yet, it was clear he was talking about Hillary Clinton as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the two principal athletes on this year's race to the white house.  With the elections over, Clinton lost and Trump won, the prophet is yet to answer a lot of questions. Clearly such a prediction would have tipped the balance in a different direction and possibly swung the votes to the side of the woman if the context were to be different. Such is the extent of religious politics in Nigeria.

The effects of mixing religion with politics is such that people wait for their fate to be designed for them instead of shaping their destinies by themselves. Young people graduate from school and look up to government to help fix their lives while the leaders have no plans on how to go about this. Years roll by and frustration set in only for many to realize in the evening of their lives that they have been played by their blind faith. When religion is separated from politics, people tend to see clearly the malaise afflicting the society and try to look for real cure from true healers not political herbalists or native doctors. They rise above religious sentiments and spring changes that make their land great and prosperous again raising hope high and bringing despair down to its lowest ebbs.