The biggest country in Africa that the United Kingdom colonized is Nigeria and the biggest country in Asia colonized by the United Kingdom is India ( which then comprised the present Pakistan and Bangladesh ).
When the UK came into Nigeria and India ,they brought along their technology,religion(Christianity ), and culture: names, dressing,food, and language among others. Try as hard as the British did, India rejected their religion,names,dressing,food and even language, but they embraced their technology. Today, 80.5% of Indians are Hindus ;13.4% Muslims; 2.3% Christians; 1.9% Sikhs; 0.8% Buddhists, among others. Hindi is the official language of the government of India ,but English is used in business and administration and has the status of a subsidiary official language. Interestingly ,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 and British culture- names,dressing,foods and language but ironically, 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 own 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. So from the north to the south of Nigeria, the western and eastern world have shaped our lives to be like theirs and we have lost much or all of our identity.
Long after the whites and Arabs left Nigeria, Nigeria has waxed strong in religion to the extent that Nigerians now set up branches of their home grown churches in Europe, the Americas,Asia and other African countries. Just as the whites brought the gospel to us, Nigerians now take the gospel back to them. In Islam , we are also very vibrant to the extent that if there is a blasphemous comment against Islam or other countries, even if there was 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% Muslims, is erecting the tallest building in the world and encouraging the world to come and invest in its territory by providing a friendly environment, Boko
Haram ensures that the economy of northern Nigeria is crippled with bombs and bullets unless Nigeria converts to boko haram's brand of Islam . We are indeed a very religious people.
Meanwhile, as we are building the biggest churches and mosques, the Indians and others have taken over our key markets: telecoms,satellite TV,multinationals,banking,oil and gas,automobiles,aviation and hospitality industries among others.
We import petrol even when we have crude oil in abundance . We also import rice and beans that our land can produce in abundance. We even import toothpick 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. In a country where 70% live below poverty line, private jets have become as common as cars. Our children are trooping to Ghana, South Africa and the UK for university education and it's sick people are running to India for treatment .
India was intentionally chosen to compare with Nigeria because of the similarities , because India was not as promising as Nigeria at the time of our independence. Let everyone tidy up his or her corner first and demand fervently that our leaders tidy their areas of governance to move Nigeria forward.
Culled partly from Punch Newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment