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Essay by Efe Onomake

The negative Effectives of Religion on the psychology state of modern day Nigeria youths

Abstract

This Essay was born out of the desire to critically analysis the damages religion has done to the
psychic of our modern day Nigeria youths in order to proffer solutions to solve this problem.in
Nigeria we have two prominent religions which are Islam and Christianity. We have a
predominantly Christian south with a predominantly Islamic Northern population.The fact that
these two religions where introduced into Nigeria directly by colonization

The Religion of Christianity that was introduced into Nigeria by what of colonization by the
British between 1861 and 1960 has played an instrumental role in the sharping and structuring of
the destiny and mentality of a great majority of Nigerians ever since its inception. Its presence
and influence can be clearly seen and felt in the lives of almost all Nigerians which include those
living within the continent and those in diaspora. Many Nigerian Christians today will tell you
without hesitation that it is the greatest and best thing that has happened to them as it has bought
relative peace, development and a form of life to that is much more better than what their
Ancestors has before colonization and most especially salvation. There are very grateful for this
and coupled with the promise of an everlasting life in paradise after they die.
The comfort, peace, moral codes, promises, social statues and ecstasy provided by the endeared
millions of Nigerians to it over the years. This has now led to the development of a multi-billion
dollar industry around the religion and have steadily consumed resources, souls, finances,
strength and talents of a good majority of African countries while giving little or nothing back to
the people except promises of a better life when there die and hope of better days to come.
Meanwhile, the true origin and methods of the inception and dissemination of the religion across
is rarely discussed and African has almost been wiped out of blotted out of History.

It is a well-known fact that the History of Africa which is the original history of the world is
totally in contrasts to that of the Bible. Because there was Africa and there were African people
in existence before there was a Bible. Science has confirmed Africans to be the first living
humans on the planet and the oldest human remains dating over 3.8 million years of the lady
called “Lucy” was found in Africa. Also African mummies and Artifacts dating over 15000
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BCE to 400,000 BCE have been discovered in African. Meanwhile the Christians Bible story of
creation still claims that the world was created 6000 yrs ago.So when ever both narration of
history clashes. The Christians tends to stand by the position of their claim that their bible is the
written “word of God” and so cannot be a lie. Even without the absence of any physical or
historical evidence to confirm their stance. In Nigeria, the subject of African History is regarded
as unimportant or irrelevant to the growth and development of the country. This is largely due to
their Eurocentric British educational approach that is attempting to whitewash the original
history of Africa by adopting and promoting the western whitewash version of African history
as the true version. So it is not given much attention and the situation finally depreciated to the
point where In 1969 the national board of education in Nigeria finally expunged history from the
primary and secondary school curriculum.

According to Omolewa, the course of the teaching of history was adversely affected by the
events which followed the convening of the 1969 National Curriculum Conference, followed by
the adoption of a National Policy of Education, and the subsequent arrival of the 6-3-3-4
Education system in the country. A system that the former President of Nigeria Goodluck
Jonathan, in October 2010, while speaking at a national stakeholders’ meeting on the education
sector, said had failed and called on its proponents to apologize to Nigerians. According to the
Policy Advisor “The problem of implementation of 6-3-3-4 is partly due to non-availability of
personnel, materials, funds and administrative will. He said that the program failed to achieve
much not solely because of lack of human and material resources but largely due to poor
implementation.”

Therefore, the 1969 Conference, which was expected to bring hope to the Nigerian educational
system turned out to be the beginning of the decline of history teaching in Nigerian schools. In
the end the curriculum reform which grew from that conference led to the reduction of the status
of the subject of history. Eventually, history was expunged first from the primary and the junior
school curriculum, and later at the senior school level. The new curriculum saw the introduction
of the social studies and gradual elimination of history at the primary schools and the junior
secondary schools. It eventually led to what Adeyinka describes as the cramming into the
second-tier Senior Secondary School of a history curriculum that ought to take six years to teach.
Eventually the senior secondary schools were also affected,” he added. Since then, despite
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spirited efforts of respected historians like Professor JF Ade-Ajayi and Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman,
we have allowed our children grow without a sense of their own history.

In a 2014 Conference of the History of Education Society of Nigeria held December at the
University of Ibadan. Professor Michael Omolewa presented the case for making history a core
subject in the Nigerian School curriculum again. He said ““there has never been any controversy
about the value of history for nation building or the development of an individual, his society or
larger community.” Prof. Omolewa went further to say that “the appreciation of the status of
history has also been shown in the observation by the Nigerian elder statesman, Nwafor Orizu,
who asserted, as far back as 1944 in his book titled, ‘Without Bitterness’ that “Unless we know
what we are and how we came about to be what we are, we shall certainly be unable to know
where and how to go further”

He said further that “By 1966, History was among the most favored subjects at the HSC
examinations, and in which the candidates excelled. “The University of Ibadan developed a
unique curriculum with emphasis on Nigerian and African history,” revealed Professor Michael
Omolewa. Even then the teaching of history was not enforced as a compulsory subject.

What this meant is that Nigeria students have not been taught the original and proper history of
their continent and people for the last 45yrs.The effect of this policy and attitude has made the
students and many parents not to have any access to extensive historical knowledge of their
interconnections with other Africans in the continent and world ,origins of their culture, ancestral
customs and traditions and so has adopted the fake bible history as the real history of the world
in order to fill this gap and cope with the inadequate educational curriculum.

This is a major problem for the Country as a whole generation of youths has adopted the Bible
history and stories as real life events and the real history of the world. Because why the
government was busy scrubbing the subject of history from its educational curriculum. The
Religious institutions where increasing and intensify the spread of their gospel as the one only
true and supreme word of God and so the history written in the bible as the true history of the
world.

The result of this is that the average youth or child in Nigeria does not know the history of his
country let alone his continent. This has lead a good majority of them to be practically inferior
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in thinking as there have come to accept the western Europeans lies that their history started with
slavery ,that there were barbarians swinging from tree to tree before the Europeans came to save
them. There has led them to have low opinion of themselves and therefore suffer from low self-
esteem. There now feel that the only way to go is to copy every new trend and style that
originates from Europe. Even when presented with physical and historical evidence to proof that
the history of the bible is a lie and none of the stories in the Bible ever really happened but were
mere allegories and astrological fables. We now have millions of new generation Nigerians
without a proper knowledge of their history. This is very dangerous as these youths now see
themselves in the images of their colonizers eye instead of the image of their own people and
Ancestors. Their culture, language, traditions and customs have all been discarded for European
ones. Even their precious black skins are been bleach white to look like those of Europeans and
the business of fake European hair extensions is now a multi-billion dollar industry as the
average Nigerian lady now thinks her natural African hair is ugly and inferior to that of
Europeans.

The average Nigeria girl cannot go to an occasion without putting on artificial Europe hair
extension to cover her God given natural hair because she has been led to believe that her natural
hair is inferior and not beautiful as that of the white woman. The aim of the average Nigeria
youth is to separate their self as much as possible from their African roots and culture in every
way possible. This includes not associating or identifying with indigenous Africans, not eating
traditional foods in public, not attending traditional and cultural festivals, not dressing in African
attires and only associating with those of their own inclination or disposition and worst of all
total condemnation and rejection of their traditional spiritual practices and the total acceptance of
the Christian religion, bible and European culture as the one and only supreme truth there is.

This lack of knowledge of their history and themselves is making them to think that there can’t
do anything better than a European except only in the area of sport and entertainment. Many of
the youths now shy away from subjects like mathematic, computer programing and software
development, advance technologies. e.t.c .A good majority of Nigeria youths stands to live out
their whole life believing there are inferior humans and so nothing special can come out of them
except there remain Christians as this is what their Christian religion tells them.
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African scholar and historian John H. Clarke said that Europe colonization of the world was also
used to colonized information about the world. The savage theft of land and resources, the
wholesale murder of millions—this physical assault was accompanied by an ideological assault
from which Africans are still trying to recover. This could be said to be very true in the case of
Nigeria today.

Hence the aim of this study is to highlight this problem by bringing it to limelight and exposing
the extend, gravity, impact of this problem on the future of Nigeria youths and Africa as a whole
and also proffer solutions to solve this problem. This study aims to use a scientific approach to
analysis the main purpose of the Christian religion by tracing its origin, metamorphosis and
growth in African. Its methods of deployment by its controller’s and finally exposing the religion
for what it really is. A tool for mind control which only purpose is the subjugation and eventual
destruction of the African people. This study aims to prove that Africa was the cradle of
civilization in the world. That Chemistry, writing, physics, philosophy, astrology, engineering,
mathematics, architecture, medicine etc but also with important early political developments
such as state formation and monarchy and astronomy all originated from Africa and were copied
and plagiarized by the Europeans.
Contrary to the Bible history that Africa has nothing of value until the Europeans came. This
research aims to show that the early Africans civilized Europe gave them the all the technology
and assistances needed to start their civilization. That Europeans later used the religion of
Christianity following the footsteps of Islam to enslave Africans and is still using it for that same
purpose to this present day. Based on this premises, A conceptual frame work will be developed
to determine the state of mind of the average Nigeria student to test if the loss of knowledge of
African history correlations with the mental conditions ranging from the of lack of Ability to
think critically, lack of touch with reality(Delusion), cultural Identity loss and Dissociative
Identity Disorder.
This research seeks to understand why people should accept a fable as a supreme and original
truth when there is no historical and empirical evidence to back it. The research also seeks to
critically evaluate the impact of the religion on the mental and psychological state of the
Nigerian students that are followers of this religion for the following trace of the aforementioned
mental illness.
Keywords: Religion, Christianity, colonization, psychology, impact, history,
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Introduction

The English word religion originated from the Latin word “ligare” meaning to bind which was
later combined with a prefix to form the word religio meaning "taboo, restraint." A deeper study
shows the word comes from the two words re and ligare. Re is a prefix meaning "return," and
ligare means "to bind;" in other words, "return to bondage.( Oxford English Dictionary of
etymology 1966).A modern day definition of the word religion can mean anything from the
service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) commitment or devotion to religious faith or
observance(Merriam Webster dictionary 2017) or a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature,
and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency
or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral
code governing the conduct of human affairs.(Dictionary.com 2017) etc

While the word Christian is rather vague in etymology. Its origin could be traced to the Greek
word mashiach translated to christos meaning anointed in English. (Wikipedia 2017)It is
noteworthy to mention here that this term has been inused by other religious bodies before the
origin of christainty. Earlier Pagan worshippers of Serapis called themselves Christians in
134AD.Acrodding to John g.Jackson. “The Emperor Hadrian in a letter to the Consul Servianus
(A.D. 134), asserts that the worshippers of the sun-god Serapis, in Egypt, were Christians, and
that these sun-worshippers called themselves "Bishops of Christ." The worship of Serapis was
imported into Egypt from Pontus, a province bordering on Bithynia. The Christians mentioned
by Pliny the Younger4 were in all probability worshippers of Serapis.”

If we should describe the Christian religion by definition of the broad terms used to define them.
It would simply mean to bind a group of people to the certain way of life or belief system in this
case the Christian one.

Colonization
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Colonization simply means the exploitation by a stronger country of weaker one or the use of the
weaker country's resources to strengthen and enrich the stronger country is what is termed as
colonialism.(Ogunbado.2012)
This phenomenon that plagued many African, Latin-American and Asian countries was sadly
introduced into Nigeria by the British in 1861 and 1960 after the berlin conference meeting of
Europe leaders came together to split Africa up in to separate states to loot and plunder. Britain
was brought Christianity to Nigeria,However before Britain came to Nigeria.The muslims that
started the eeailer invasion of Africa in 640AD in the 7th centurt has successfully conquered and
ilsamize the whole of north Africa by 11th century islam reached Nigeria. In the early 19th
century, Islamic scholar Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad, called the Fulani War, against the
Hausa Kingdoms of Northern Nigeria. He was victorious, and established the Fulani Empire with
its capital at Sokoto.
The Islamic religion than spread throughout the northern states but was check mated by the
arrival of the British who brought Christianity with them and spread it to all the southern states.
Hence Nigeria is today partly Muslim and Christian Country.(Wikipedia.2017)
As at 2010, Christianity was recorded as the world’s largest religion with over 2.2 billion
followers in the world out of the Estimated world population of 6.9 billion world population with
Islam taking second place with a population of 1.6 billion people.A religions population watch
site place Africans that are Christians as 420 million out of a population of 1.079 billion. This
population is set to grow further as it has already been projected in that direction by many
religions growth watcher experts and also the main aim of all religions are basically to increase
their growth and sphere of influence because the people there have the more power and money
there will command. According to the Pew Research Center, Nigeria has the largest Christian
population in Africa, with more than 85 million Christians of various denominations. The
numbers of Christians in Nigeria has grown from 21.4% in 1953 to 49.3% in 2010.This number
was expected to grow between 2010 and 2015 to an estimate of about 154, 840, 000, a
percentage of about 5.3% from its 4.9% in 2010.This also puts Nigeria at 6 amongst the top 10
countries with the largest number of Christians with United States sitting at the top of the list
with 243,060,000 Christians

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether the sole aim and purpose of the Christian
religion like his brothers religion Islam and is to mentally and physically enslave and destroy the
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culture, soul, psychic and mentality of the African people while extracting as much money, time,
energy and material resources from them as possible.it is a well-known fact today that a good
majority of Africans are living their life’s solely and for the survival, growth and protection of
the Christian religion as there are now be successfully disconnected from reality and any sense of
reason. Why these set of people can talk, act and work normally. There naturally vehemently
reject any action, word or concept that is in conflict with their religion even their own cultural
history and traditional believe systems even when presented with physical and historical
evidence. The Situation has now reached a point where by the average Nigeria Christian has no
knowledge of their historical past of Africa before European colonization. There have adopted
the religious history stories told by their religion which is false as their real history. These
Nigeria Christian’s now see their themselves in the images of the experiences of their slave
masters and not in the experiences of their Ancestors. These people can be adequately described
as now suffering from various sort of Mental health maladies like lack of Ability to think
critically, lack of touch with reality(Delusion),Cultural Identity loss and Dissociative Identity
Disorder.
Therefore there cannot be said to be real Africans as there have the mind set of foreign
colonizers and the body of an African. The processing of their thought and perception by the
strong religious influence has made them to hate their and reject their ancestral culture and
traditions. Also the educational institutions has also failed to enforce the proper study of African
history in Africa in order to further its goal of mis-educating Africans so as to destroy and cut
them off from their history in order to easily control them. This has led to the breakdown of the
traditional African culture as the Christian African youth now behaves as a clone or Europe
caricature. There say that a people without knowledge of their history is like a tree without roots.
It’s a well know saying that the youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow. There is also a
popular saying that, if you don’t know where you are coming from you will never know where
you are going. And also in order to predict your future, you have to consult and past so that you
can make proper plans for the future.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA report 2015), “According to the
American Psychological Association (APA), a strong and passionate belief in a deity or higher
power, to the point where it impairs one’s ability to make conscientious decisions about common
sense matters, will now be classified as a mental illness”.
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This attempt to classify Radical religiosity as a form of mental illness could be for very good
reasons. We have seen over the course of history how people have killed and maimed their
fellow men in the name of religion. Even in recent history countless terrorist acts like suicide
bombings, pedophilias, hijackings and kidnappings are committed in the name of religion mostly
Islam. In Christendom there have been many cases of people at the point of death refusing blood
transfusions or lifesaving medicines. This are nothing new. The New trend in the Niger delta
region of Nigeria now is that the youths have totally rejected their cultural, traditional and
historical heritage and has fully adopted the Christian religion as their new culture. These set of
people view everything about their history, culture and tradition as evil, fetish, demonic,
uncivilized and mere forms of idolatry and there will not have anything to do with it. Could this
be another form of mental illness propagated by the Christian church? We should be able to find
out by the end of this dissertation.

Objectives of the study

1. To identify the percentage of Nigerian youths that have Original knowledge of African
history.

2. To identify the percentage of Nigerian youths that consider the Bible as the source of the
original history of Africa.

3. To determine and examine the impact of Christianity on the psychological and mental state
of the modern day Nigerian student.

4. To proffer solutions and recommendations.

Research Questions

1. What does the significance of the percentage of Nigerian students that currently have
knowledge of the Original history of African means?

2. What does the significance of the percentage of Nigerian students that currently consider the
Bible as the real source of African history means?

3. What is the extend of the impact of Christianity on the psychology of the modern day
Nigerian student?
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4. What are the implications of the result on the future of the people in the Country?

Research method

This research will make use of a primary and secondary source of data collection. The primary
source will consist of a literature review of past authors about the history and origin of Religion
in Africa to this present day and Nigeria in particular. The secondary data will be from
informants that are Christians. This sample class will be made up of Nigeria students with in the
ages of 18 to 45yrs that are currently studying with in the country and outside the country.

This research will be classified as a casual research because the researcher is trying to prove that
a set of variables which are the independent variables have a direct effect on another variable that
is the dependent variable or if there is a case of correlation does not imply causation . The
purpose of this study is hypothesis testing because the researcher aims to find out if there is any
relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
In this case the independent variable will be Lost of knowledge of original history why the
dependent variables are lack of Ability to think critically, lack of touch with reality (Delusion),
Identity loss and Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Our study setting is non-contrived that is the activities we are observing does not occur in any
controlled settings or environment and unit of analysis are individuals and their level of exposure
to the Christian religion. Our time horizon is cross-sectional due to limited amount of time
available, cross sectional is the best issue that perfectly fits our research design. This research is
descriptive and quantitative in structure. Descriptive research was chosen because the researcher
wants to collect information without changing or interfering with the environment (i.e., nothing
is manipulated).It can also be referred to as “correlational” or “observational”
In human research, a descriptive study can provide information about the naturally occurring
health status, behavior, attitudes or other characteristics of a particular group. Descriptive studies
are also conducted to demonstrate associations or relationships between things in the world
around you.(OHRP,2016)
Method of Data Analysis
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The data that will be collected from respondents of the study will be carefully edited. The data
will be analyzed in appropriate tables according to responses obtained to test the validity of the
hypotheses of the study. This method will make the study non-complicated and easy to
understand, simple percentage will be used in the system of analysis.
A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among 400 respondents representing the
population of the study.

Data Presentation and Analysis

This section will critically examine the data collected from the field through the questionnaire
given to a cross section of Nigerian students. The questionnaire will embraces responses
positive or negative options and the results scientifically analyzed.
Scope of the Study

Due to time constraint need for detailed and study. The country of Nigeria will be used as a case
study. Nigerian students with in the ages of 18 to 45yrs will be sampled to analyze their
knowledge of African history and the level of impact of religion on their mental psychology.
This researcher aims to trace the history of religion in Africa and how it has been usurp by
western powers to control and enslave the people of the continent of Africa and also proffer
solutions to solve this problem.

Conclusion and Recommendation.

This section will look at the implications of the results of the research and adequate
recommendations will be offered. This Research will prove or disprove the findings of previous
researchers and update the existing information available on the topic and so will add to the body
of knowledge of humanity in no small measure. This researcher believes he is the best person to
undertake the research and has undertaken similar research on the study of influential factors
for the success of SMEs in developing economics.
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Literature Review

Frantz Fanon once remarked, “Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with
reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state”. Webber illustrates how for centuries,
Christianity has been the shield that justifies colonialism; what is less known, is that it has also
served as the sword, up and down the African continent, leaving piles of bones in its wake. Just
as violence cannot be separated from colonialism, Christianity cannot be separated from colonial
violence.( Chengu 2015)

Cultural Identity Loss

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-
conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class,
generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.(Wikipedia
2016)The loss of cultural identity simply means that all these markers can be said to be absent
from the life of an individual. For instance, an individual from China that can’t speak or write the
Chinese language or know anything about the Chinese culture and traditions which may include
the Chinese music’s, foods, local products and customs and even name can be said to have lost
their cultural identity. Another example was when Africans were taken from their native lands
and shipped to America. This Africans over the years lost almost all their native cultural identity
as their names were changed to that of the owners, there were prevented from speaking their
native languages, eating their native foods, wearing traditional cloths. The children of these
captives over the years lost all form of cultural identity and has to adopt those of their captors to
this day.

According to Dr Dombeck, “People's identity is rooted in their identifications; in what they

associated themselves with. What a person associates him or herself with is ultimately who that
person is, for all identity is ultimately in relationship to something else. An American person
identifies himself or herself as "American", for example, and that becomes part of that American
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person's identity. The same person might identify themselves as male (or female), a member of a
particular religious group, a brother or sister, a child, an employee, etc. Even more personally,
they may identify themselves as a loser, as someone who is helpless to influence the course of
their lives, or as someone who needs to hate a particular religious group simply because that is
what members of their own religious group are "supposed" to do. Though such personal beliefs
may have no basis in reality, they often are taken at face value by the people who hold them.
Such people act on their mistaken or irrational beliefs and end up creating problems for
themselves”(Mentalnet 2006)

According to (Reids 1960),“The natives of west Africa experienced a loss of cultural identity due
to the westernization the missionaries bought along with Christianity”.Reids states that the
that missionaries symbolized “Christian values, western schools, hospitals, and churches. This
totally changed the life of the natives forever.
Early Nigerians who accepted Christianity were automatically westernized while those who
maintained their tribal beliefs avoided westernization of their lifestyles.
Nigerians also lost part of their cultural identity in the field of education, since the tribal history
and beliefs were no longer taught. The Christian education used the Bible to teach reading and
language skills and western practices and beliefs.
Even the government structure changed in West Africa as church and colonial structures tried to
enforce parliamentary systems on the West Africans.(Achebe ,1959)

According to Janney 2013, “The permeation of western ideas into West Africa made the African
unrecognizable to their traditional culture. Christian missionaries could not abandon their ways
of life and structures when trying to spread the gospel to the West Africans, which resulted in
the infiltration of western life into West African life”.

Based on the above, we can say that Christianity is a probable cause of cultural loss in fact. The
main process by which Christianity gets new converts is by destroying the former culture of the
potential convert or victim. Because it forces the convert to abandon their original culture and
accept the Christian culture so this automatically changes the cultural orientation and perspective
of the new convert.

Loss of Critical thinking skills

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Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe.
It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical
thinking skills is able to do the following :understand the logical connections between ideas,
identify, construct and evaluate arguments, detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in
reasoning, solve problems systematically, identify the relevance and importance of ideas reflect
on the justification of one's own beliefs and values.(chan & joe 2017)

There also said that “Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with
a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A
critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to make
use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform
himself.”

According to Saez, “Critical thinking skills are an important tool, especially when it comes to
personal beliefs and academics. When applied, critical thinking is a powerful defense against
ideas and opinions that are potentially harmful or blatantly wrong. Unfortunately, not everyone
possesses this ability, although it can be taught. Understanding what suppresses critical thinking
is an important step to obtaining a more open mind”(Saez.2016)

She also said that one of the main of the main impediments of critical thinking is indoctrination.
“When an individual is surrounded and constantly fed a one-sided view on things like personal
beliefs or politics, it stifles critical thinking. Children and students are especially vulnerable to
this, so critical thinking must always be encouraged”. According to the Association of American
Colleges & Universities, teaching students to be skeptical will "help them see through the
distortions of propaganda, and enable them to assess judiciously the persuasiveness of powerful
emotional appeals." The Christian religion discourages critical thinking among its adherents and
instead encourages blind faith and total lack of thinking.

The Christian religion is totally based on a varieties of believes that has no physical, scientific or
historical evidence to back its self with. Examples of such lack of evidence is proof if there is a
heaven or hell or scientific proof if prayers actually heal the sick, blind or cripple or physical
evidence of proof the authenticity of the previous life of any of their so called bible characters
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like body remains, graves and pervious properties or personal effects. For someone to accept a
story that cannot be proven as true means that there must be something wrong with the brain or
thinking process of such a person. Based on the above realizations we can say that Christianity
impedes critical reasoning.

Delusion

Delusion is defined according to the Oxford English Dictionary as a belief in something that is
not true. Merriam-webster dictionary defined it as the act of tricking or deceiving someone : the
state of being deluded. Also Wikipedia defined Delusion as “ a belief that is held with strong
conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.” It went further to explain that as a
pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation,
dogma, illusion, or other effects of perception. It also went further to state that Delusions
typically occur in the context of neurological or psychiatric disease, although they are not tied to
any particular disorder and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states
(both physical and mental). However, they are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic
disorders including schizophrenia, paraphrenia, manic episodes of bipolar disorder, and
psychotic depression. Based on this definition, we can also say that Christianity can led to
delusion because only some one that is deluded can hold onto a belief that is false and baseless as
true. Therefore we can safely say that followers of Christianity are been deceived by their
religious leaders.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

According to Psychology today, Dissociative identity disorder is a severe condition in which two
or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—
an individual. The person also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by
ordinary forgetfulness. There further said that “DID is a disorder characterized by identity
fragmentation rather than a proliferation of separate personalities. The disturbance is not due to
the direct psychological effects of a substance or of a general medical condition, yet as this once
rarely reported disorder has become more common. Based on the above definition of this
medical condition, we can also attribute Christianity as a potential cause, due to the fact that
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some Christians have been known to claim that there are possessed by an external entity called
the “Holy ghost or spirit” and some have been reported to speak in strange or unintelligible
languages and also to be in constant contact with spiritual entities from another planet called
Angels or dead saints that none have yet to back up with physical or scientific evidence but are
confirmed by the Christian religion to existence and converts are demanded to believe in this.
This research aims to confirm this assertion and evaluate the mental state of the Christians that
will be surveyed for any symptoms of this mental disorder.

Summary of the research

The first chapter will be a brief introduction about the origin and history of Christianity in Africa
and a brief historical overview of Africa before colonization. It will contain more of literature
review from other writers. The second chapter will take about how religion was used to enslave
Africans in Nigeria. The first and second chapter will comprised of secondary data. These are
works containing historical evidence. The third chapter and fourth chapter will comprise of
analyses of primary data collected from the field. what Nigerians think of religion today and
what it is to them. The fourth chapter will be a case study to determine the percentage of
Nigerians students that currently know their original history and those that consider the bible
history as their true history and also to examine their mental and psychological state for any of
the above listed mental illness. The fifth chapter will be analysis of findings and result of
findings, solutions and conclusion.
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