Religion Made the Noise, India Did the Work — How Nigeria Lost Its Way

By Mogaji Wole Arisekola

Nigeria is the largest African country Britain ever colonized; India was the largest in Asia. The British came to both with the empire’s full package — religion, education, culture, language, and technology.

Here, however, the paths diverged. India rejected British religion, names, dressing, and identity, but wisely embraced British technology, systems, and discipline. Nigeria did the opposite.

Today, over 80% of Indians remain Hindus. Other religions coexist without erasing India’s soul. Hindi is the official language; English is merely a tool. Indians keep their names and identity.

Nigeria embraced British religion and culture almost wholesale — names, food, dressing, and language — while rejecting the technology and industrial mindset that built Britain. That choice explains much of our tragedy.

India fiercely protects its heritage. Nigeria treats hers with embarrassment. This loss of identity weakened our nationalism and stalled our development.

Islam entered Nigeria long before Christianity, especially in the North, sweeping away much indigenous culture. Today, Sharia courts exist while customary courts have nearly vanished. Across the country, foreign religions and cultures — Western and Eastern — have reshaped Nigeria until little of our original identity remains.

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Ironically, Nigeria is now a global exporter of religion. Churches spread worldwide; Islamic fervor erupts violently over insults made thousands of kilometers away, even when calm prevails in Saudi Arabia.

While Muslim nations like the UAE build skyscrapers and attract global investment, Boko Haram bombs Northern Nigeria into paralysis. IPOB agitates in the East. Militants cripple the South-South economy.

Yes, Nigerians are religious — but are we godly?

As we build bigger churches and mosques, foreigners quietly dominate telecoms, banking, oil and gas, aviation, manufacturing, and trade. Corruption thrives everywhere — cloaked as “PR,” “facilitation fees,” and “processing charges” — even among pastors, imams, and respected elders. We call stolen wealth “God’s blessing.

Despite exploding religiosity, morality keeps shrinking.

Our land bleeds daily — from terrorism, kidnappings, ritual killings, fraud, and lawlessness. Human life has become cheap.

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We import fuel, rice, beans — even toothpicks. Yet we flaunt obscene wealth: luxury cars, mansions, private jets. Officials parade Prados in a country where nearly 70% live in poverty. Bicycles signal shame here, though they’re normal in India.

Our children flee abroad for education; our sick rush to India for treatment. That same India builds cars, exports globally, attracts Western patients, wields nuclear power, and has landed on the moon.

Nigeria and India started from similar positions — Nigeria even looked more promising at independence. Excuses about population, ethnicity, or religion don’t hold. India has over 2,000 ethnic groups, multiple religions, and a similar independence timeline.

The difference is stark:

India chose discipline, productivity, and national pride.

Nigeria chose noise, religion without conscience, and wealth without work.

What Nigeria needs is not more religion, but more godliness.

The recent influx of Fulani bandits into our once-peaceful country has eroded any possibility of maintaining its status as one indivisible nation. The masses were denied access to their farmland, and worshippers are being slaughtered in their places of service.

Nigeria has become hell on earth.

Not more prayers, but more work.

Not more slogans, but more action.

Let every Nigerian clean up his or her corner — and demand the same from leaders. Our nation is decaying fast. If we fail to act now, there may soon be nothing left to save.

Nigeria can still rise — but only if Nigerians first change.

Mogaji Wole Arisekola, Publisher of the Streetjournal Newspaper, writes from Ibadan.