Nigeria was never a theocracy for one second through her various constitutions from its formation by Britain in 1914 to date. Since independence from Britain in 1960, the successive governments that have governed Nigerian nation to date including the current government are all guilty of using the instrument of governance or the power of the state which includes her state funds and tax payers' money to support the propagation of the religions of their own choice in a nation with a secular constitution to date.
The history of these violations speak volumes. Nigeria's governments have spent significant amount of her state resources for decades in sponsoring selected Nigerian Christians and Muslims to Israel and Saudi Arabia on their yearly religious pilgrimages in direct violation on the secular nature of that country in all reality. The successive Nigerian governments have also provided, lands, money and state resources to back up the Christian and Muslim pilgrimage boards across Nigeria to date.
When the Nigerian seat of government finally moved to Abuja from Lagos, the military government of Nigeria at that time provided huge amount of money for the building of a national Mosque and a Christian worship center both in Abuja. In every state function in Nigeria, the opening prayer and the closing prayer are normally shared between a Christian clergy and a Muslim cleric in direct violation of the secular national constitution of Nigeria.
Under this democratic dispensation that began in 1999, Nigeria's public elected officials have directly supported religious causes with state resources or the Nigerian tax payers' money all in direct violation of the constitution. The government of the then Olusegun Obasanjo was reported to have given an import duty waiver to the Redeemed Christian Church of God that is headed by Pastor Enoch Adeboye that cost the Nigerian government more than $120 million in the lost tax revenue. Governor Aliyu of Niger State spent over N5.1 billion or $32 million in six years to subsidize the pilgrimage expenses of Muslims and Christians in his state to Saudi Arabia and Israel respectively.
President Jonathan Goodluck in 2013 embarked on a religious pilgrimage to Israel with hundreds of state officials and private Nigerians on that trip all on the backs on the Nigerian tax payers. Governor Obi of Anambra State donated N100 million or $650,000 to the Catholic Church of Nnewi. The government of Kastina State awarded N359 million or $2.4 million for the building of 34 mosques in all the 34 local government areas of the state. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State recently spent N51 million or $300,000 to acquire the land needed to build a Church.
In 2012, the National Hajj Commission received N765 million or $4.5 million from the federal government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission also received N576 million or $3.4 million from the same federal government in the same year. The financial expenses of the federal government of Nigerian on both pilgrimages was put at N1.34 billion or $8 million that year alone. For the year 2013, a budgetary allocation of N1.8 billion or $1.1 billion was made available to the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission. The same government also financed the traveling expenses of more than 70% of the 78,000 Nigerian Muslims who visited Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage in 2013. It is estimated that it costs about N800,000 or $4,800 to sponsor a Muslim to Saudi Arabia for one month and N450,000 or $2,800 to sponsor a Christian to Israel for two weeks.
Are all these developments enumerated above the practical dividends of the so called democracy in Nigeria today? Nigeria is truly a nation of religious fanatics and bigots indeed. Can any true national development ever come to Nigeria with these types of public elected officials in charge of Nigeria and these types of religious leaders and organizations who will take money that does not legally or constitutionally belong to the Churches, Mosques and those religious organizations to use?
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