There’s always an uneasy truce in Africa when it comes to religion. The combination of desperation and ignorance is attractive to mainstream religions, who send missionaries and monies to convert Africans to their side. In doing so, they have begun to carve apart communities. Take Nigeria as a good example; the Archbishop recently accused Muslims of “mass-producing” children in an attempt to take over communities by sheer numbers. He claims money from the Arab world is being funneled down and used to build hospitals and schools that encourage people to convert.

“They come to Africans and say, ‘Christianity is asking you to marry only one wife. We will give you four!’ ” Archbishop Okoh described this as “evangelism by mass-production”.

He’s not saying this because he believes these tactics are wrong. How could he? The Catholic Church has employed the same M.O. for quite some time now. If anything, it sounds to me like he’s jealous rather than angry. Still, the effect of such a statement cannot be underestimated, especially in a country where religious tensions are on the rise.

This is why religion poisons everything; with the election of this obviously antagonistic Archbishop, the uneasy peace building process that has been going on between Muslims and Christians may well evaporate, and we can all imagine what that would be like. This is the same country where they torture and kill children who are suspected of being witches. Do I really need to spell out what will happen here if this kind of shit keeps happening?