Some amazing contrasts

‘Compare’ and ‘contrast’ are used to talk about the similarities and differences between two things or objects. While ‘compare’ refers to searching for similarities, ‘contrast’ is concerned about the differences that exist in two separate elements. Contrastive studies exist in different fields of knowledge. In linguistics, contrastive analysis refers to the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities, which can occur at every level of linguistic structure including phonology (speech sounds), orthography (written symbols), morphology (word formation) and syntax (sentence structure).

Similarly, contrastive expressions exist in the holy Qur’an. Allah (SWT) in many verses draws attention, for example, to the contrasting feature(s) that exist(s) between two concepts, objects or events. For instance, He (SWT) revealsin Qur’an 35:19-22 the contrast between some pairs of situations and people saying, ‘The blind and the seeing are not alike; Nor the depths of darkness and the light; nor are the (chilly) shade and the (genial) heat of the sun; Nor are alike those that are living and those that are dead’.

Our concern in this piece is to showcase some amazing contrasts between the developed countries (of Europe and America) on one hand and developing countries on the other; using Nigeria as sample for the latter. The contrastive expositions shall cover about nine areas that include education, technology, economy, religion and judiciary.

One, Europe and America are highly developed in chemical and nuclear war technology. They manufacture and deal in continental sale of guns, rifles, ammunitions, missiles, armour tanks and fighter jets. In this particular technology, Africa including Nigeria is at the back row; armed with no more than bows, arrows and machetes. The amazing contrast between the two worlds is that while the developed world with its high-tech has low casualty figures during wars,African countries with their low-tech fighting equipment produce high casualty numbers not just in wars but even from communal clashes. This could be attributed to the lowly-value for human life among Africans.

Two, countries in Europe and America export what they manufacture such as automobiles or resources they are naturally endowed with in commercial quantity; importing only what they lack. Amazingly enough, Nigeria exports electricity to the neighbouring Niger Republic even though power supply is in very short supply to most parts of the country. Nigeria is naturally endowed with crude oil. Yet, it imports refined petroleum products from even less-oil-rich countries.

Third, universities in Europe and America have all they require for effective teaching and learning to take place in all areas of knowledge including state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, libraries stocked with latest materials,and easy access to the virtual world of knowledge on the internet. In spite of these valuable privileges, fewer candidates graduate with first class degrees. Rather, more students graduate with second class (upper and lower) degrees. In Nigeria where all the requisite conditions necessary for achieving quality education are absolutely missing, it is amazingly ridiculous that more number of undergraduate students graduate with first class degrees.

Fourth and closely related to above is the contrast in the perception of Europeans and Africans of what to look for in an applicant seeking to be employment. In Europe and America, it is the demonstrable aptitude or skills of an applicant that determines his employability. In Nigeria, it is based on the applicant’s ability to produce, by hook or crook, a certificate even if he never went to school. Tied to this retrogressive selectivity is the strength of applicant’s ‘connection’ to officials in charge of employment. A direct consequence of this is the high statistics of unproductive employees in the nation’s workforce. 

Fifth in the discourseconcerns the use of roads by motorists. In Europe and America where it would be an understatement to state that roads are good, fewer accidents are recorded when contrasted with the records of road crashes in Nigeria where most roads have either failed or are in bad shape.Fatal accidents are ordinarily anticipated to be higher where roads are generally good and wide. Recently, an accident involving 16 vehicles occurred in Enugu metropolis. Disobedience to traffic laws and abuse of drugs by motorists may not be isolated from thesetragedies.

Sixth, it may not be completely wrong to observe that religion plays little role in the systems that regulate human interactions in Europe and America.Yet, it is in this secularized worldthat justice, fairness, enforcement of and compliance to laws come to play in public and private life. A sharp contrast to this situation is illustrated in Nigeria where majority of her citizens profess Islam or Christianity as their religion; yet, it remains a country where fairness, transparency, enforcement of and obedience to law remain mere linguistic expressions. Inequity as obvious in the estimated billing by DisCos (formerly NEPA) is a typicalcase of unfair dealing when a citizen pays for the energy he never consumed.While it is godliness without religion in Europe and America, it is religion without godliness in Nigeria.

Seventh,payment of salaries and allowances to political office holders strikes another contrast between the two worlds. With her poor economic indices, Nigerian minister is one of the highest paid globally. An investigation carried out and published by Daily Trust newspaper in July 2013 revealed that the annual emoluments of a minister in Nigeria is 120 times more than the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person; implying that his pay is 120 times more than what each Nigerian is worth when the nation’s total wealth is shared by the population. Amazingly, a minister (secretary) in the US earns just 3.9 times more than the GDP per person in the US.

Eighth, when some Nigerian judges incredibly set free corruption suspects, the same suspects get convicted on the same corruption charges when re- tried by judges in Europe and America. The imprisonment of the former governor of Delta state James Ibori by a London court andthe conviction in the US of foreign suspectsaccused in the Halliburton bribery scandal are two classical but sharp contrasts of fight against corruption.

Ninth is the contrast between Americans as Afrophobics and Nigerians as anglomaniacs. While the former hates Africans as recently expressed by President Donald Trump of the US when he referred to African countries as ‘shitholes’, the latter is obsessed about anything American or European as demonstrated in Nigerians’ appetite for foreign-processed clothing, foods and drinks. May Allah (SWT)guide us to appreciate these contrasts and get our priorities right, amin.