Sir: Africa is indeed the most religious continent in the world and Nigeria would rank amongst the first five countries, probably securing the number one spot, because of our zealousness. Unfortunately, however, this does not translate to development or less evil. In Nigeria, the citizens will pray away problems rather than facing it headlong and surmounting it. We will pray away health issues, rather than seeing the physician; pray that God gives us good leaders rather than electing them sincerely and when they turn out bad, we pray as against voting them out or recalling them.
My people will be on the “mountain” praying from Monday through to Friday and lock up their stores; someone will wake up, pray for daily bread and yet lay on the bed all day.
Factories and businesses closed shop gradually until they were all gone. Factory buildings turned into worship places. Foreign investments all moved out to neighbouring countries because of bad leadership and mismanagement of the economy, coupled with humongous and stifling corruption.
I remember the malls and factories we had while growing up, though some of us could not even afford to shop there: the Kingsways; Chellarams; Leventis Stores; GB Olivant; Kewallarams, and the factories like Peugeot Assembly Nigeria, Volkswagen Nigeria, Exide Batteries, Ibadan, etc. All of these left our country ages ago and no government made efforts to bring them back. These investors saw the handwritings on the wall way back.
By virtue of the constitution, particularly section 10, Nigeria should be a secular state, meaning that Nigeria will not have a particular religion. So, religion should be a personal thing and government should not intervene in one’s religion. In the same vein, citizens have a right to practice the religion of their choice without any molestation. The reverse is however, the case in Nigeria. Citizens harass each other for their choice of religion and governments get involved in matters of religion, rather than focusing on development.
Religion is personal and should point us to the salvation of our souls. So, each person should be free to approach his salvation their own ways. Government should therefore, stop wasting our common patrimony on religious pilgrimages to sponsor their ilk at the detriment of other citizens who don’t give a flip.
If religion was tantamount to development, then Nigeria should be paradise on earth by now. Many not so religious countries use technology to make life better for themselves, while we go praying some imaginary four legged demons to death, when the demons are actually ourselves, ineptitude, incompetence, laziness, bad choices and bad leadership.
Religion without technology; religion without hardworking citizens; religion without solid education system; religion without transparency and religion full of deception and charlatans will only consign us to the abysmal valley of perpetual under development and poverty, rather than a silicon valley.
- Prof Tunji Oyelade, OAU, Ile-Ife.