NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*De-Christianizing the Igbo: Good or Bad?

[ Why Franklyn Ogbunweze is wrong, very wrong ]

By Azubuike Ekwueme

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, quipped an officer of the palace guard in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, as the officer sees the ghost of the dead king appears, walking over the palace walls. This time, my people, it is not Demark but Igbo land. Something has gone wrong, awfully wrong in Igbo land. The day is darkening, chicken and goats are settling in for the night too early. There may not be a tomorrow. Our respected elites in the Diaspora are bent on turning the ship around and sail into the days of darkness of the 12th century. They are suggesting de-Christianization of Igbo land - banishment of Christianity and the return to our traditional religion. Ewu a muo n'ogbu. Akwu a chaa n'odu igu. How did it ever get to this?

If the S-East and S-South are separate, independent nations state of their own, the idea of de-Christianization of the Igbo would be a non-issue, a mute point, quite frankly. The political left in the west, have been attempting to de-Christianize America and Europe, for ages. So, it can and does happen in Democracies. But we are not a Democracy. We are not even a separate, independent nation state. We are a part of an amalgam called Nigeria that is in serious trouble. Nigeria, as everybody knows, is this Lugard's cage of wild animals that eat their young for lunch. Whether they are Birom or Biafra children, it does not matter, as long as they are Christians, they'd never grow up because they are fodder for the Islamic zealots. But our most celebrated Igbo people in the Diaspora are campaigning for the Igbo to return to paganism. They think that paganism is better overall, and will bring the solutions to our myriad of problems, that Christianity had been unable or unwilling to deliver. Ogwugwu Okija should now be a respected alternative religion, our god. Politicians and certain governors, now flock to pay homage to the Ogwugwu Okija. Just like that, in one fell swoop, Christianity is dead or dying before our very eyes, in Igbo land.

If the Igbo could not have faith in the Christian scriptures, how on earth are they going to have one in Ikenga. Ikenga a dighi ile, a waa ya nku is an Igbo saying. Which literally means that Ikenga had to perform otherwise it becomes firewood. Wouldn't it will amount to the same thing - lack of faith? The solution to our problems does not lie in de-Christianization. It lies in law and order, especially in the enforcement, of laws that are already in the books. Our slave master Britain, at least left that much for us, if we could read.

The advocates for the de-Christianization seem not to understand that Nigeria, is also bristling with fervent Islamists that feed on pagans. Literally, they feed on pagans or Kafir as they call the pagans. Islam might give Jews and Christians a break but force them to pay certain taxes as punishment to force them to convert. The jihadists will think of nothing but killing off the East and the Igbo, or forcibly converting all of us to Islam. If we return to paganism again, the Igbo will have willfully, left itself unprotected by faith. If we turn tails and scurry back to paganism, as these guys would want all us to do, we'd become a massive attraction for the Jihadists for conversions or death. Pagans do not do well under Islam. Under Islam, pagans live in a borrowed time. But under Christianity, pagans could be allowed to exist, protected by the law of Democracy. Islam would kill it off or forcibly convert it. Our Igbo leaders and our educated advocates of banishing Christianity, are not yet thinking of this. Neither are they even thinking about the future 50 years, 100 years from now. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Map of Igboland. ( Igboland is in Nigeria )

The governor of old Imo State, our adorable activist, late Sam Mbakwe, once made headlines, when he seemed to suggest he missed the rule of the white man. He seemed to suggest that White rule was far better than our Black rule. Dee Sam Mbakwe looked at his world, his African black people and their thought processes, and saw nothing but despair. He concluded that white man left too early. That the Black man had not been trained long enough. Black atavistic instincts are being displayed in this de-Christianization saga. Blessed be the soul of Maazi Mbakwe, because I now believe him.

In Africa, of Mbakwe's days, as it is today, it was not politically correct to speak such truth, no matter how critical it was. Today, our elite in the Diaspora are exhibiting the same tendencies that Mbakwe railed against. We seem to forget so easily where we came from. We seemed to forget that all of are not quite 150 years remove from our primordial former existence. We are caught in a whip lash. The haze, the jet-lag of having to cruise from the 12th to the 21st century creates the miasma of the world we inhabit today. But do we know it?

Worst still, we have accepted the modern notion that Africa had this great civilizations, ruled by great Kings and Queens. That Africa had great religious traditions that rival Christianity, Hindu or Islam is brutal lie. They believed that it was Whiteman's slavery that did Africa in. They believed that if the whiteman had left black man to its own devices, the Igbo might have crawled our way back into the future of the 21st century. Bad, bad white man, it was all his fault. We have bought into this idea, served to us by the western liberal political activists. This lie was sold to us by the west out of a sense of shame for slavery. They try to calm our nerves like that of babies. We now, believe this lie. We think it is much better to have fake ego-boost, than to confront the darkness of primitivism. Look around, take the temperature of all of Black Africa, Africa south of the Sudan, and there is not one emergent, Democratic, economically vibrant nation. None! Yet, some of us are preaching, vociferously too, to return to the deep, dark ages of pagan primitivism. Is it any wonder why we cannot think straight.

There is a reason why African religion was known as pagan worship. It was, dirty and smelly. Worshippers squat on the on the ground in thick bushes. Children-of-god had no scriptures, no dogma, no alter. Human sacrifice, animal sacrifice abounded profusely. Departed relatives are deified, dark forests, calm streams, fast flowing streams and rivers are worshipped, hills and mountains all become gods on high. Pagan god was ugly, grotesque and eerie. But since western liberal education has sought to re-brand Africans, it made us feel better after years of put down. We have now started believing this lie. We have jettisoned our true history which was barbarism, and started believing the lie the liberal west is feeding us. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: A Christian Church service

Igbo people in the Diaspora, are now doing the unthinkable. Like in a séance, they have been accessing their primordial, pre-white man brain cells for thought processes. In other words, they are thinking like in the days before the coming of the White man. They have gone rogue. They are attempting to set the clock back. The Igbo original, traditions of - Igwo-Ogwu, Igba-Afa, Ichu-Aja and Igo-Alusi is nothing but paganism. One of the advocates of this madness has renamed this tradition Children of God. What they have not been able tell us is the reason why the Igbo moved rapidly to accept the foreign God of the white man. They will not tell you why Ndigbo did not advance one inch for over five thousand years, of Ichu-Aja, Igo-Mmuo, Igba-Afa and Igwo-Ogwu? These advocates of paganism are still to tell us of any good thing that came out of Ichu-Aja, Igba-Afa or Igwo-Ogwu for a span of five thousand years. Did our traditional religion keep Oyibo from taking us into slavery? Nop! Did Ichu-Aja make us NOT to killing our own twins? Nop! Did Igba-Afa (divination) ever predicted anything other than setting family against family? Nop! Has our Igwo-Ogwu prevented or cured any diseases ever? Nop! Why did the Igbo get its epiphany with Christianity and not with Igba-Aja?

Like our igbafalogists and juju priests before them, our new Igbo educated elite have given us the divination of lunacy and fallacy. As they run from Christianity, they are also running away from modernism and from philosophy and from culture of science. Do we embrace the modern white culture or do we run from it?

As I have said earlier, I can understand what drove these educated Igbo men to want to banish Christianity. But I do not agree with their solution. Neither will I ever agree with their conclusion. In Eastern Region of Nigeria today, the new kidnapping saga is driving everybody wild and out of their common senses. There is fear all over the land. Abanidiegwu is prowling around. Everyone's life, family members are all in mortal danger. Kidnap victims are often killed or they lose serious money. When the Igbo can longer go home to our own homes, nothing could be more gut-wrenching than that. Compounding all these problems is the fact that Igbo state governments have not been delivering as they should. Neither is the Federal government. Everybody is waiting for the other shoe to drop. No water, no road, no employment, no factories, no Coal corporation and no power, No 2nd Niger bridge, No Akanu Ibiam International, no nothing.

I must mention all the child-sex scandals that is riddling the Catholic church. I must also acknowledge the child-witches scandal that has enveloped Pentecostal churches in Akwa Ibom. Since the churches have been forced to give up their schools, education has gone steadily down. So, our erudite Igbo seem to believe that the churches are not doing their job. The churches have failed, the say. Christianity has failed so must vacate for juju religion. Truthfully, our churches especially or priests must show courage and lead by examples. But the solution is not de-Christianization. It would make the matter worse. The solution will be worse than the problem.

These Igbo elite have been demanding that the Igbo abandon the Christian faith. The reasons they've given varied - from Christianity being a foreign religion to it being completely ineffectual. From leftwing, liberal near total rejection of religion, to the current child molestation cases in the Catholic churches all over the world, Christianity deserves to take beating. From stolen Alusi artifacts to acrimonious evangelizations, our elites would have God dead. Anything that will make people of faith look bad is catnip to the liberal left. They have thrown everything but the kitchen sink, at the Christian faith. From Dan Brown to Rousseau to Nietzsche, the western liberal left and their neo-liberal educated Igbo, has it that God got to go. Christian religion is now the punching bag of left-leaning, liberal Africans.

But do you know why this de-Christianization thing is foolish? Christianity has been a friend of Ndigbo and the East since the white man came. They have held the candle light for Ndigbo to navigate from 12th century to the 21st in as span of 100 years. Christianity has guided the Igbo and gave us our reputable first leaders. We have problems, but driving Christianity out will not solve it. In fact it will make it worse. Since no human willfully obeys any laws out of their own free will, what will help is to create employment for the youth, build up our legal system and enforce the laws. Use the force of the law to force Christians to respect artifacts. But live Christianity alone.

Azubuike Ekwueme writes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

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