The new Neanderthals (2)

By Douglas Anele
Herd mentality is a necessary concomitant of primitivism. Evidence from psychology indicates that certain personality types are prone or easily susceptible to herd mentality and obsessive attachment to blood and ethnicity, irrespective of their educational and socio-economic background.

It follows that a man (or woman) might be educated in some of the best universities, dresses in the most fashionable clothes, and generally projects an image as the epitome of cultivated elegance and, yet, remains stymied in ethnic atavism. Such a person is psychologically and spiritually immature and hollow.

He is alienated from himself and instinctively, like an infant who depends on the security of his parents, seeks the comfort and emotional support that the group to which he belongs offers him.  His existential centre of gravity is outside himself, a pathetic condition that impels him to exaggerate the purported virtues of his ethnic group or race and simultaneously hyperbolises the weaknesses of others.

Bizarre cases such as Femi Fani-Kayode's, include narcissistic claims that the first lawyer, medical doctor, the first professor, the first this and that, is from one's ethnic group, without considering the possibility that the first armed robber executed by firing squad, the first Chief Executive Officer of a failed bank, the first Inspector General of police convicted of larceny and so on might hail from his ethnic group as well.

As we suggested earlier, the latest research findings in the human sciences reveal that, insofar as congenital ability can be detached from environmental influences, there is no clear distinction among different ethnic groups, which implies that the spurious sociobiological anthropology of ethnic irredentism is hocus-pocus.

The notion that the Igbo or Yoruba or any ethnic group has an innate superiority over another is merely a myth generated by the overweening self-esteem of ethnic jingoists, given that peculiarities of individuals from different ethnic nationalities used to classify ethnic groups as inferior or superior are largely due to contingent environmental factors.

Now, on the issue of religious differences as a potent factor which could destroy Nigeria, it is time for our people to think deeply about it and act wisely before it is too late. Nigerian rulers pretend that Nigeria is a secular state because the 1999 constitution section 10 provides that "the government of the federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion."

The veil of pretence is removed by section 38 which guarantees every Nigerian freedom of religion. Of course, freedom of religious worship is not identical with secularism. Nigeria is a multi-religious country; she is not a secular state. Over ninety-seven percent of Nigerians are adherents of different religions, although Christianity and Islam are predominant. Consequently, if the country were a secular state, the reverse should have been the case; that is, the percentage of religious adherents would have been very low.

More importantly, there would be no need to build churches and mosques in Aso Rock and in the thirty-six state government houses throughout the country, or for Nigerian political leaders to regularly consort with pastors and imams depending on the religion to which they belong.

Secularism entails drastic decline in religious consciousness or observances and in the number of people who go to churches and mosques regularly. In addition, it involves noticeable reduction in the influence of religious institutions and in the inclination of individuals to turn to religious explanations or impulses in their daily lives.

It is instructive to observe that the same constitution which allows freedom of religion is silent on freedom from religion. A truly secular state must guarantee freedom of unbelief. However, in this country unbelievers and atheists are looked at with suspicion, oftentimes with hostility. Being an atheist in Nigeria comes at a great economic and social cost. If you are an atheist like me, your colleagues, friends and family members will look at you as if something is wrong with you, as if you are from another planet. That is why most unbelievers in Nigeria are closet atheists; they would rather keep their lack of faith to themselves rather than admit it publicly.

Nigeria is a religious state to the core, a society where most people are intoxicated by religion - after all official documents from government agencies often have provision for individuals to indicate their religion. It must be admitted that religious fanaticism will destroy the country if Nigerians fail to learn appropriate lessons from the sporadic religious disturbances that have been occurring especially in Northern Nigeria since 1960. Now, highly placed Nigerians tend to dismiss or deliberately downplay the religious provenance of these violent clashes.

Oftentimes poverty, ignorance, lack of proper education and unemployment are cited as the principal causes of violent religious disturbances. Nevertheless, the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran contain passages that encourage religious intolerance and violence against unbelievers. There are some passages from both the Holy Koran and the Holy Bible against non-believers.

TO BE CONCLUDED.