1757: James-Adeyinka Shorungbe on Humanism and Critical Thinking in Nigeria
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/10/04
“Essentially, organizing the affairs of the organisation, charting annual programs to promote critical thinking in Lagos (Nigeria), maintaining relationships with other organizations such as IHEU, IHEYO, NHM. HAL is also a founding member body of the humanist movement in Nigeria so I actively involved in that regard.”
“First, Nigeria is a society highly entrenched in superstition. So that is a major, impediment, to promoting critical thinking. In order to address that, education and awareness has to be done. While the Government is trying to improve the literacy level from its current level of just under 60%, a number topics that promote critical thinking are not being taught in schools.”
“As a major impediment, superstition is a big, big problem. To address this, not enough of our message is getting out there. To be honest, I don’t think we’re doing enough to get our message out there in terms of awareness and enlightenment. We have barely scratched the surface in terms of addressing superstition in Nigeria.”
“The few people who we have interacted with, they generally do not understand humanism or humanists. Their perception is anything that doesn’t recognize any divine being is straight evil, paganism, evildoers, etc. People we’ve had interactions with, often ask shocking ‘So you mean you don’t believe in God?’”
“When you try to get across the message that human problems and human situations can be solved by humans and are best solved by human efforts, we always get push backs, ‘No, no, no, you need to have divine intervention.’”
“Because Nigeria is a very conservative society and a lot of people do not openly identify as humanists, atheists, and freethinkers, agnostics, etc it is a bit difficult to count. Many official forms and data gathering application usually only have the two main faiths as beliefs. However, when you go to online forums, when you go on social media, there are quite a lot of Nigerians who express them as nonbelievers.”
“Yes, definitely, it is. With an umbrella body, you have a louder voice. You have more clout. That is one of the reasons why in Nigeria a number of associations we are all coming under the umbrella of the national body ‘Nigerian Humanist Movement’. Aside from the online community of The Nigerian Atheists and a couple of chat groups, we are still fragmented in Nigeria.”
“The Humanist Assembly of Lagos is one of 2 organizations that is formally registered and trying to break barriers and putting the voice out there for other humanists to appreciate they are not alone. That you can be different. That you can be good without any divine belief. The importance of having an umbrella body is very critical.”
“For the future, we will be looking to organise events that can showcase and promote humanism as well as critical thinking. Events such as film screenings, lectures, debates etc. Are also toying with the ideal of a radio show to enlighten the general public and kick start discussions the public space. A radio where speakers would come on and talk essentially, about everyday human issues and how these can be addressed without thinking they are caused by divine or superstitious means.”
“Just essentially, enlighten the public that various challenges one has in life can be addressed by practical action, which do not require divine intervention.”
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