By Sunny Ikhioya 

For centuries we have remained the dark continent of the earth — brutalized, enslaved, and stripped of our culture. The humiliation was so severe that we have embraced the Stockholm Syndrome, refusing to come out of our nest. How was the white man able to leave his distant continent, come to our land, and bring us under total submission? Using guile, subtlety and religion, he convinced us to fight against one another. Can we ever be one again? Can we ever remove the yoke of the white man’s burden from our necks? The corruption and despoliation of our cultures that the white man left us with — can they ever be corrected? And the most important thing they sowed in us, a brainwashed mind, can it ever be reversed? That is the concern of this piece. It is my proposition that we can use the same method the colonialists used to get ourselves back. I am proposing reverse engineering: that the same strategy they adopted should be used by us. I am proposing that the leadership of Nigeria, and indeed the whole of Africa, should look critically at the role of religion in colonizing Africa and how we can use it to decolonize our minds. 

The day I heard a well-educated lady equate our cultures with paganism, I knew the black race was in deep trouble. There is no culture on earth that has not gone through crude, beastly practices, including human sacrifice. But with civilization, cultural exchange and positive religions, such practices have been abolished. It will therefore be foolish of us to remain stuck in the past and assume that our past is the reason for our present condition. We have simply refused to reset and recalibrate our minds to contemporary standards. If we all agree that this country needs a mind reset, how should we go about it? Let us begin with religion, then proceed to our cultural roots — that structure that severely punishes evil, that promotes respect and communal love. Afterwards, we will proceed to our educational curriculum and how it can be redesigned to suit our own needs. Religion is a very potent tool for mind domination and control. There is nothing that can make a man put his life on the line more than religion. When a poorly educated Boko Haram terrorist is convinced that he will be rewarded with seventy-two beautiful virgins for fighting in the name of Allah, he is ready to face a live bullet to achieve that goal. 

They say it is an honour to die a martyr. The colonialists came with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other to teach us that subservience is our calling and obedience is the quickest way to God. They even made children disobey their parents and abandon centuries of cultural practices and traditions. That is the power of the mind. That is what preachers use to command followership. That is what we should use to cause a refocus in the minds of Nigerians. It will be the beginning of our rebirth as a country. There is nothing that is impossible for man when his mind is set on it, and when done in combination with many other set minds, the results can be incredible and unimaginable. That is the path to our greatness. The question is, how do we make this possible in a culturally and religiously heterogeneous society like Nigeria? Bishop David Oyedepo is fond of saying that when he was young, he hated with passion the phrase “as poor as a church rat” and determined to obliterate it. In those days, serving as a priest was seen as a loss to the family and a gain to the world. There was no pecuniary reward in it. 

Today, it is the other way round. Both the genuinely called and the uncalled now jostle to be religious priests. It has become so rewarding. So, why don’t we use these talents to put the people on the proper footing? That is what this piece is all about. All religions preach peace; let it be so indeed. All religions preach integrity; let it be so indeed. Love is a universal religion; let it be so indeed. These religious leaders, what is in their minds when they meet? Do they not have in mind the emancipation of the people? What really is their mission on earth? Why don’t we collectively decide on how to reduce poverty? What about the labour unions, co-operatives, traditional and ethnic unions? Why are we intent on bringing down each other instead of focusing on our development?

Why don’t we concentrate on eliminating those factors that have kept the black race backward for centuries? How do we collectively remove the yoke of neo-colonialism that has kept us in a permanent state of stagnation? People say our problems are incurable; do we accept that as final? If there are solutions, where do we begin? The beginning of recovery must start with the state of our minds. When the mindset of a people is captured, there is little you can do about it, because the capture is exponential, growing faster than normal, affecting family tradition, culture, education, and even generations yet unborn. That is our challenge: how to recapture our mindset to think inwards for solutions, to work on our strengths and eliminate all obstacles to our growth and progress. We must look backwards to how it all started. 

The black continent went through two levels of mind reset, both competing against each other. Coming from the Arabs on the North African front was Islam. The Europeans came with Christianity as they landed on our coastlines. They came with guns and the Bible. Given that we had in the past practiced some beastly cultures, it was easy to convince the victims of those cultures to turn to them. That was why the early converts to Christianity were the ostracized and disadvantaged in society. And by the time the big chiefs and traditional rulers could understand what was happening, it had already eaten deep. The converts were ready to revolt against the system. And backed by the colonialists, there was nothing that could be done; our capture was total. From the North, they came with the subtle guile of religion and forced conversion. We must use their methods to deconstruct our minds. We must go back to religion, this time with a clear focus. 

Let us refocus the role of religion. What I am recommending here should be included in our national curriculum, and anyone who stands against it must be cleared out of the way. The Ministries of Education, Technology and National Orientation must be made to work along this path. There must be no room for extremism and fundamentalism; the wave must be about national rebirth from all sides. Before then, teachers must also be trained with specific details on the implementation of this programme. It is going to be a tough job, and only a popular candidate of the people can carry it out. It will require a strong leader in the mould of Murtala Mohammed. Negative, itinerant preachers and so-called holy men should be weeded out immediately. The primary school foundation must be very strong in inculcating these tenets so that the children grow up with them. I am suggesting that we go back to the beginning where it all started. What the invaders used to configure our minds should be studied, and the same strategies used to reconfigure them. The strategy of religion is still potent for our revival. Religious messages must begin to focus on indigenization, promoting research and industry, unity, peace, love and progress for all.