The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Religion

  • Seriously thinking: Nigeria and religion

    This is because religion does not develop a nation. It is righteousness (in being & doing) that exalts a nation

    WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware and cross-platform instant messaging service for smart phones. It uses the Internet to make voice calls, one to one video calls; send text messages, images, GIF, videos, documents, user location, audio files, phone contacts and voice notes[11][12] to other users using standard cellular mobile numbers. All data are end-to-end encrypted. It also incorporates a feature called Status, which allows users to upload photos and videos to a 24-hours-lifetime feed that, by default, are visible to all contacts, similar to Snap chat, Facebook and Instagram Stories. The client was created by WhatsApp Inc., based in Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion. By February 2016, WhatsApp had a user base of over one billion,[15][16] making it the most popular messaging application at the time. – WIKIPEDIA (The free encyclopedia)

    Huge, indeed, humongous should be the word to describe Whatsapp. However, if others have my disposition to it, Facebook would not have had a ghost of a chance, acquiring it in February 2014, as Whatsapp Inc. would long have folded up. As you read this, and God is my witness, I have an alert on my phone saying I have 5403 messages from 86 chats.  I just hate opening the Whatsapp icon on my phone: what with old, recycled, absolutely irrelevant stories being flung at you from sources, known and unknown. It is worse when, like me, you have your telephone number in the public space like most newspaper columnists. Unfortunately, this attitude comes with a price, like when I railed at my dear aburo, Hon Bimbo Daramola, when this past week I had started accusing him for failing to invite me to his Daddy’s (Papa F.A Daramola) 90th birthday ceremonies, even when I have not heard a word of what he was calling me for. He had to send a screenshot of his Whatsapp message to me dated 18, April 2017. Humbled, I apologised, explaining I was offended because, long before him, we had been Papa’s children, our most affable and extremely loving Arts teacher, Sports Master, and much more, at the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti in the 60’s. Equally, my 59/63 set has very kindly forgiven my taciturnity in getting actively engaged on our Whatsapp chat forum, and are content with reading my weekly column article which I, unerringly, forward for their reading pleasure.

    This past week, however, on one of my rare visits I chanced upon the message below which I think deserves to be published for the great lessons it is capable of teaching all of us, Nigerians. It should be particularly helpful for the Nigerian youth. I apologise to the many who must have long seen it and remain confident that repeating it will not diminish anything from its usefulness to us as a country.

    It is edited for the column. Happy reading.

    Recently, I met a top real estate agent who facilitated the purchase of one of the biggest warehouses in Lagos for a mouth-watering amount by a popular Lagos church.  What intrigued me was his assertion that more than half of the warehouses in Lagos (meant for industrial purposes) have been taken over by churches. Someone, somewhere also asserted that out of every five Nigerian Christians, two are pastors, while one out of the remaining three is ‘sensing’ the calling to ministry and the other two are seeking for miracles from the first two. I dare say this is not revival! This is unarguably the product of lack of employment. Or what manner of revival comes along with increased rate of crime, infrastructural decay, business failures and tribal and religious conflicts as in Nigeria, today? Every historic revival reduced crime and boosted social bonding and development in the society since Jesus’ (kind of life) would have taken over most peoples’ lives,  including those of  the criminals, and leaders in those societies. How? Simply because Jesus life births vision, quest for positive influence, and societal contribution in people and this way, more jobs are created, unemployment, tribal conflicts drop and crime rate reduces.

    I dare say that the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry is jumping into religious ministry in Nigeria should give us huge concern; not celebration. This is because religion does not develop a nation. It is righteousness (in being & doing) that exalts a nation. In the next 20 years, at the rate we are going, Nigerian may not have 1 doctor to 50,000 people but will have 50,000 pastors to 1 person. This can also translate to the ugly truth that expatriates will take over our labour market while young Nigerians will be jumping from pulpit to pulpit across Africa, looking for where to pastor or who to ‘prophesy’ to, with the expectation of ‘prophet’s seed offering’, in return. Lest I be misunderstood, I am an unrepentant believer in the pastoral and prophetic ministry as I actually ‘sensed’ the calling myself years back, but I became awake to the fact that my ministry is not of the pulpit but rather of the marketplace, contributing to societal development through my calling: inspired creativity and innovation.

    Fellow Nigerians, we need to teach our young people that they can fulfil ministry while coding in a technological laboratory. We need to teach this generation that pursuing ministry should not stop them from pursuing a university degree, trade or profession. We need to ‘de-religionise’ the mind of the average Nigerian youth; and we need to do this speedily before we get to the point of justifying the conversion of hospitals to cathedrals, factories to prayer camps, and colleges to prayer houses. We must teach this generation that God gave us knees to pray and hands to work, mouth to preach and brain to create – not knees without hands, or mouth without brains. We must hasten to remind this generation that we can still be apostles and still maintain a productive professional career. Apostle Paul is our witness. If we get carried away with how our 10 year old is preaching, while his Chinese/Indian age mates are building a robot, we might end up being re-colonized by the Chinese or Indians in the nearest future.

    It is true Jesus charged us to occupy until HE comes. Those who heard Him first hand (the disciples) never asked: occupy what, how, why and where? – possibly why many Christians assume that it is all about occupying the church building or pulpit. May we be that peculiar generation, the royal priesthood and holy nation that will ask these questions. Amen. Religiosity should no longer drain our brain, it should train our brain. The blood of Jesus didn’t wash our brains, it washed our sins. What washes human brain is the right information. If we, as a nation, don’t want to be conformed to this world (systems and values that cause poverty, crime, bad economy, infrastructural decay, bad leadership, etc,  as they pervade Africa) but be transformed  (cross over to the other side of being informed); we  will have to consistently review our mind (our beliefs & thinking ) that  prioritises miracles over responsibilities, forgetting that manna (representing miracles) in the wilderness, was just a temporary solution to the Israelites’ unbelief and inability  to take responsibility for their upkeep. That is why the manna came not from heaven, but from the earthly atmosphere. What later came from heaven is the word of God (His thinking pattern and systems) which turned flesh (Jesus) and dwelt amongst men. Africa (especially Nigeria), is past her manna dispensation. God is no longer in the business of only offering temporary solution and, obviously, not in the business of raising irresponsible children that are prayer warriors but thinking only of character horrors. Manna in the desert is over and done with and Israelites have turned a desert into one of the richest, and most fertile points on earth. He can miraculously heal your diabetes or hypertension if He needs to help your unbelief but He also expects you to sustain ably change your lifestyle, thereafter. He can miraculously give you your dream job to show you His love, but he expects you to work on your mind and behaviour, for high performance on that job so that you can sustain it. God can miraculously save you from that road accident, but He expects you to, thereafter, take your car maintenance, and speed checks, seriously. Nigeria shall be great again, but only when we Nigerians rise up from religiosity to do those things that can make us great again. God bless Nigeria! We are unstoppable!

  • Misuse of religion

    SIR: In the past, religion had always played a vital role in promoting peaceful and harmonious relationships within and between people and communities. In repetitive show of brinkmanship, religious leaders, and politicians alike, regularly invoked religious dictums encouraging communities to actively develop inter-religious relationships for peace and action for social justice. But things have changed. Religion is now being used as engines for spreading deceit and encouraging destruction of minds, lives, communities and assets.

    Religion is now widely blamed for much of the violence in our world. We are destroying one another by our human hatred via religiously motivated wars, massacres, bombings, witch hunt, intentional suppression of truth, and implementation of tyrannical and inhumane state policies.

    Interestingly, the number of people kneeling in submission to a dangerous twisting of truth in religion and politics is growing. Indeed, religion is being used to perpetuate a cycle of division in societies, and twisted to create a world where bigotry is placed above unity. What was once an absolute machinery for peace and love is now being passionately explained with misguided concepts, deceitful and destructive mechanisms. This has given birth to a cluster of people that are being driven by misinformation, cluelessness and double standard.

    Besides, social media has empowered religious extremists to push their message beyond geographical boundaries. The axioms are, thereupon, being passed on to a future generation where further misguided deeds will be perpetuated by youths who have code-switched to a culture of subversive ethnology.

    Now, I draw no joy in pointing out the ensuing points. But it is sad to witness how, these days, religious and political leaders employ punitive physiological intimidation and private religious belief to impose their narrow extremist beliefs or enforce harsh public policies over the totality of people who disagree with them.

    Consequently, people of the same faith are divided in their views and support of certain political and religious leaders simply because of certain agendas that are more egotistical than scriptural. As a rule, these folks do not care if the policies being implemented oppress or hurt their own community or country and its people.

    The essence of religion should be about passing on godly compassion, knowledge and wisdom to others. Humanity might suffer massively if systemic racism, bigotry, bloodletting and killings are continuously encouraged, excused or defended as part of a religion.

    For human unity and harmony to ever become a part of our human experience again, we must become aware how we have misused religion, and how our beliefs have divided us. Until humankind learns to more closely examine, sieve and correct erring religious views, I am afraid that wars and carnage might continue to plague our communities and prevent lasting peace.

    To sum up, extremism, liberalism or conservatism is not the solution to national or communal problems. The solutions to issues societies are bickering and warring over lies in embracing religious truth, love and peace. However, this can only be achieved when harmony and tolerance is embraced.

     

    • David Dimas,

    Laurel, Maryland, U.S.A

  • Religion, government and the Southern Kaduna killings

    Southern Kaduna has for so long now been under siege by terrorists who are confirmed to be Fulani Herdsmen that are often well armed with sophisticated weapons. The attacks have been unrelenting, bloody, unprovoked, unwarranted and indeed unjustified on innocent and vulnerable peasant communities of our environment. As a result of this hundreds of people have been killed, several communities burnt with the inhabitants internally displaced, and in many cases, the remaining houses not burnt have been vandalised and stripped of roofs, windows and doors to discourage them from returning back to their homes. We wish to commend all people of good will who have stood in solidarity with the southern Kaduna people by their condemnation of these forms of unjustified aggression against a defenseless people. We are also grateful to all those who have given support to the victims materially and through their prayers in view of the very little attention received from Government at both the State and Federal levels or their agencies. The impact of the relevant agencies responsible for relieve services such as NEMA and SEMA have been minimal. And because of Government’s bias towards the people, there is no plan for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of the ruined environment as is the case with the North Eastern region of Nigeria, including parts of Plateau and Kano States. It is our considered position that if Government had wielded into this matter with sincerity and seriousness, in the way she responded to the menace of rustication in Zamfara State and Birnin Gwari area in Kaduna State, things would not have gotten to the messy state they are today. The federal government exhibited a spirit of nonchalance until recently when the Vice President made some pronouncements, warning that decisive action must be taken so that the crisis will not consume all of us in the nation. The attitude of the state government has been marred by lots of complicity and bias which exacerbated rather than ameliorate tensions. The Governor in most cases seemed to have abdicated his responsibility of being Governor to all us, and instead gave in to the luxury of waging an unrelenting media campaign against Southern Kaduna people. He unabashedly takes sides with the armed herdsmen (His kinsmen) thereby failing in his responsibility as a true statesman, becoming therefore a biased umpire who blames and criminalizes Southern Kaduna victims as the cause of the mayhem. The Governor has made several efforts in the media to discredit figure of casualties that were arrived at through painstaking research, and is known for trying to change the true narrative by presenting the victims as the villain and the aggressors as the prey. The Governor has the penchance of using state apparatus to insult, denigrate, intimidate, arrest and put in prison all voices of reason from Southern Kaduna who dare to challenge his handling of this crisis. Among those that have fallen victims of his tyranny are: traditional rulers, journalists, youths, political leaders, academics, while threatening our lawyers and other leaders (Religious and Unions) with arrest for daring to speak out against the genocide.

    The primary responsibility of government as enshrined in the constitution is the protection of life and property of citizens irrespective of ethnic and/or religious persuasion. Any breach of this fundamental principle of social contract contravenes the very reason for which Government exist ..for. Unfortunately, our government both at the Federal and State levels have failed woefully in this regard because of their inability to rise above ethnic and religious bias. If anything, government has shown outright partisanship in favor of the herdsmen to the disappointment of the majority Southern Kaduna indigenes and Christians. Because of Government’s inability to serve as an un-biased umpire in the face of these crises, we are sometimes tempted to belief that there is a well planned Jihad against the people of Southern Kaduna, and Christians generally in Northern Nigeria as this is amply demonstrated by the incessant attacks and atrocities committed against the aborigines of the Middle Belt region in Northern Nigeria. The sole aim of these attacks is to conquer our people and occupy their lush lands and turning same into grazing fields for the marauding nomads. The Governor of Kaduna State is pursuing this detestable policy by his plan to forcefully take over lands in Southern Kaduna and turn same to Grazing Reserves and Routes for his kinsmen. To show Government’s insensitivity on this volatile matter, there are ongoing expansionist plans to annex more land to the already existing grazing reserves at Ladduga in Ikulu Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government area and transmute that locality from being a district into an eimirate.

    The killings continue unabatedly in fields and bushes, thereby preventing farmers from visiting and cultivating their lands. This is happening today as the Military and other security forces mount road blocks in towns and major roads while bushes remain un-safe for farming. In the Godogodo and Pasakori attacks in Jemaá Local government area for example, the military merely watched and supervised the killings and burning of homes on the pretext that their mandate did not include fighting the herdsmen. When the youth mobilized themselves to repel the attackers, the soldiers deliberately blocked them from entering the town. The herdsmen and their collaborators turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover. The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either. This level of viciousness was never witnessed even in the brutal tyranny and regime of Adolf Hitler. What is most intriguing is the level of sophistication of weapons; Ak 47, Machine Guns and many other deadly instruments of death are being freely used by the Herdsmen, leaving many wondering how these weapons got to their hands.

    Those that divine providence have enstrusted with the chilling responsibility of governing the State politically must govern justly and in a manner that includes not one that excludes other segments of the State. We therefore ask for Good Governance in Kaduna State that will include the following: 1. That those who take up the mantle of leadership will see the whole state as their Constituency and so should devout themselves conscientiously to ensure Justice and fairness for all irrespective of Religious, ethnic and political considerations. 2. That they will work hard to ensure equitable distribution of political offices among adherents of the two main religions in the State. 3. That they will see to it that in the application and use of resources that had accrued to the State and the siting or locating of developmental projects and services for the improvement of the quality of life of the people, that due regard is given to the North/South divide in the State and that no part of the State is placed in a disadvantaged position. 4. That the delineation of constituencies and siting of polling units which was arbitrarily and fraudulently carried out in the past to ensure rigging from the source in favour of one section and religion in Kaduna State must be revisited and corrected using both the geographical and numeric data that were ignored when the current policy was foisted on the people. 5. We also demand that giving the destruction that has taken place in Southern Kaduna in terms of loss of lives and properties, that the policy of reconstruction and rehabilitation undertaken by the Federal Government in respect of the North East and some parts of Plateau and Kano State must be extended to Southern Kaduna not as a concession but an entitlement. We ask that a bill for this be presented at both State and National Legislative assemblies. 6. That they will see to it that the success achieved so far in the promotion of a culture of Religious and ethnic harmony in the State by the Makarfi and other past administrations in the State are not only sustained but further built upon and strengthened.

    Despite these imbalances in our Nation and in our State, here we are again celebrating another feast of the resurrection of Christ. The fact of our Lord’s resurrection revolutionized the lives of the disciples of Christ. It transformed them from being a timid and sometimes a seemingly clueless group of disciple, to a fearless and courageous team that turned Jerusalem at some point upside down. Our faith therefore in the risen Christ must so influence and transform our lives as it did to the lives of the disciples of Christ particularly at the times of persecution such as we are facing. The injustices in our Society not withstanding, we exhort believers not to be fainthearted but courageous in facing the challenges of our time. We are to renew our faith and commitment to the living and resurrected Jesus, who triumphed over death and evil as the way to surmounting all the abuses and discrimination that we suffer in Nigeria today.

     

    • Bagobiri is the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese and Chairman, Southern Kaduna Christian Elders’ Association and can be reached via bagobirijoe@gmail.com

  • Religion, Colonialism, and power

    To  say  that religion   is  the root cause of the present global  violence in the world  today  especially  in the Middle  East  where migrants are fleeing to Europe  for dear life is no exaggeration. To  insist  that colonialism  had  a hand in the origin  of this debacle  too  will   not   be  an understatement.  To  further  argue  that the leading world powers  are using   such  religious  violence   to further  their  own  political  agenda  to dominate the world in their  own  way  is also  a logical  deduction. Yet  in spite  of all   these   prognostics,  religion  has  been,  in the past   even  till   now,   an instrument of order,  peace  and  love as preached  by   its founders. Yet,   colonialism went hand in hand with religion in several parts of the world to mould and build    tribes  , fuse  and merge cultures,  to create  many of the different  and diverse nations of the world,  as we know  it today.

    For  the purposes  of today’s  topic  it is necessary to state   some home truths  before coming to the necessary  and inevitable  conclusions. Brexit, Donald  Trump  and  now  almost Frexit  came about because  of the early  forays  of the Europeans to get  power  to dominate  and civilize  the world their own way. Colonialsm made  citizens of colonies proxy  citizens who spoke the language of their colonial  masters and adopted  their  ways of life. That  is why migrants  are  fleeing  instinctly  to the land of their former  colonial  masters   today  mostly   and nowhere  else. The  fact  that such migrants  are coming   at a time  that ISIS has declared  war on the west and has vowed  to create  a global caliphate has  made it difficult for Europeans to accept these  migrants as mere  victims  of war. Europeans fear  these Muslim migrants  as potential  fifth columnists or a Trojan horse  that will slaughter Europeans for ISIS  once  they are granted asylum as they  had  no intention of integrating  or  assimilating in the first  instance. This  is what we  non Europeans have labeled  xenophobia and the more liberal  Europeans have condemned,  while  nationalists  and populists have argued that it is time to  take back   their  lands  from foreigners  and strangers.  This   again    is  what  has  degenerated  to  testy and vicious  voting across  Europe   in elections   and   referendum  like Brexit and  lately in  France  where the two  front runners  like  Emmanuel  Macron  and  Marine  Le  Pen  do not belong to the established  parties  and Macron  especially  has never  contested  for any election  before. This  has been called  a second French Revolution by the media and  it is really  a political earthquake.

    The  personalities of the two  French  presidential  candidates   and their  lifestyles  are what I will  use  to  illustrate  todays’  topic and  show the relationship  between contemporary religion, the  legacies  of colonialism  and power.  Emmanuel  Macron  the French presidential  candidate  is married  to  a woman 24  years  older  than  him. Marine  Le Pen  lives  with  her partner and they  are  not married in the way  we  know it in this part  of the world. Such  ways  of life  are  an abomination in our  part  of the  world where same  sex marriage  is a taboo. Yet  in  France if either Marine Le  Pen  wins  or Macron   does, either  will  be the first and most powerful  citizen  of  France. A  situation which    does  not bother  the   French but is certainly  unthinkable  in the US . Yet  the US  under  the Obama Administration tried  to muzzle some African  nations like Lesotho  and Uganda over their anti gay marriage and  legal  rights  by asking them  to cancel such  laws or  forfeit the foreign  aid they  had always given them.  It  is notable  that African  nations  like  Nigeria stood  their  ground  and when Obama snubbed  Nigeria on his only W African  visit   to  Senegal  the Senegalese told  him clearly that  they  have nothing to learn  from the Americans on gay relations as it is an anathema  to their way of life. This  then is where  the issue  of the Anglican  Church  of  Nigeria comes  to mind  in the way it objected  to the ordination of gay bishops by  American  Episcopal  Churches  while the Head  of the Anglican  Communion then  turned  a blind  eye  to the  occasion.  It was left  to the last  Nigerian  Primate but one,  Peter  Akinola  to do battle on behalf  of the   global   Anglican  communion  and  insist  till  now that  homosexuality is not  part of the teachings  of the bible.  To  a large  extent  that  view  has  prevailed  to the chagrin of the British, our  colonial  masters  who  have since  gone on to  legalise  gay rights in  their   nation   beset  with  huge problems of   failed   multiculturalism, radicalization, and now xenophobia resulting in  Brexit  and a greatly  divided nation.

    Yet  the same  British  colonialists taught  us the art of governance  as their colonial  subjects and even  though  since Independence in 1960  we have gone our separate  ways as sovereign nations   we  do  not for now have much  to show for their tutorship in good governance  and responsible   transparent  leadership.  Our  present existence as a nation remains  a loud legacy  of British Colonial  administration  and   a huge testament    to  how   successful  they  have been at  how  to  manage  our  affairs   as we  have  done  so  far  to  the detriment   and   suffering of  our  masses    who  are resigned  to  inhuman  and  unending  poverty  in  the midst   of  gigantic  oil  wealth  which  the rich and powerful   have  plundered  successfully  into  their  private   pockets It  is however  poor  consolation for us as Nigerians to say that the British  are  being punished  for misguiding  and  misleading us with   the new  problems  of  migration, radicalization and Brexit.  We  too as a people  since  independence  have  largely  been  the architect  of our  general  misfortune.

    Anyway   as the saying goes  there is no cloud without  a silver  lining   and  this  is the concluding part of our  story  today. The  150th Anniversary  Celebrations   have begun  Lagos   in  Lagos for  Cathedral  Church  of  Christ,  Marina,    where  I worship  and I  cannot  hide  my joy and that  of the clergy  and congregation of  that  ancient  Cathedral  at  the occasion.  The  Cathedral  at  Marina   is the  oldest  in  Nigeria  and has  been  a source  of joy  and pride  to Nigerian Anglicans  since  it was founded  in 1867.    The   foundation stone was laid by  the  Colonial Administrator then John   Hawley   Glover  who  noted  rather  casually  and  patronizingly then as  a colonial  Christian   and  master,   that the establishment of the  Church would  civilize  a people  ‘oppressed by superstition, robbery  and  violence ‘. That   was 150 years  ago    but    the world  has moved  on since.

    Nigeria  today  is a leading member  of the global  Anglican  Communion and great  Nigerian bishops,  and prelates  have preached sermons  globally   and  at  the illustrious  Christ Church  Cathedral, Marina,   which  has great choir  comparable   to   that  of  St  Paul’s  Cathedral Choir  in  London  just  as the quality of service, chanting of psalms and singing  of hymns  by the Cathedral  congregation  are  of no lesser  quality.  I use this opportunity  to  pay tribute  to great  Bishops  of   the  Cathedral   like Bishops  Irunsewe  Kale, Festus  Segun, Archbisop Abiodun Adetiloye, my favorite  Bishop,   and  Provost   Sope  Johnson, my friend and  favorite Provost, who  was in charge  of the Cathedral  for  25 years.  I  salute   the  present   Cathedral   Bishop  of Lagos  Adebola  Ademowo    and the new  Archbishop  Fape    from  Remo,  as  well  as our  new  Provost  Bola  Ojofeitimi.   Although  a relic of colonialism, the Anglican  Church  has  done more  than any other religious  institution in Nigeria  to make  education  the instrument  of economic  growth  and  development   and the Cathedral  on the  Marina  was   a starting  point  150 years  ago.    That   certainly   is highly  commendable and worthy of celebrations. Once again long  live the Federal Republic of  Nigeria and  long  live  the  Cathedral  Church  of Christ Marina Lagos  at 150.

  • What’s morality got to do with religion?

    SIR: Intending pilgrims to the Holy Land are always cautioned by governments and the Pilgrims Welfare Board to “refrain from unholy conducts that could tarnish the image of the state and the country.” Some elsewhere are advised to flee from fornication as such acts may lead to meningitis.

    The question that must be asked is that: Is morality possible without religion? Religion and morality may not be synonyms but they are connected to each other in a number of ways. * Generally, all religions encourage their practitioners to live their lives in accordance with certain moral ethics. This is to be expected because most religious faiths define and outline the conduct expected from their followers.

    It must be understood, however, that religion is not always necessary for morality. The truth is that people do live moral lives outside the confines of any religion. What drives ethical behaviour can be attributed to a person’s moral fibre. This, in turn, can be influenced by conscience, observation of accepted social mores and the laws of the land. Fear of consequences or expectations of rewards are other factors considered when behavioural decisions are being deliberated.

    Connecting religion only to morality in all cases is unjust to millions of people in the world who do not subscribe to any religious beliefs. There are a lot of good people in the world who are morally upright and yet do not practice any religion. To illustrate this one needs to recognize the timeless truth of a popular writer who said that: “My country is the world and my religion is to do good”. Clearly, morality is not a matter of religion or lack of religion.

    Ironically, the Bible makes a case for the fact that religion is not the only standard from which people can access moral values. The story of the penitent sinner on the cross is a popular one and it can be related here for effect.  * Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One of them was bent on mocking Christ and he dared him to come down from the cross and save himself. The other one rebuked the insolent one and reminded the man that Christ was an innocent man. Christ replied by telling the man: “Surely, today you will be with me in paradise”. The lesson here is that the penitent criminal on the cross could not be considered a religious person. He did, however, possess a superior morality that impressed Christ himself and this is the point. People can be morally upright without being religious.

    Until man begins to see God in his fellow man rather than a God who’s seated somewhere beyond the skies, the world may not witness any grain of peace.  * If one sees God in others, he will be wary in killing such a person. Of course, it doesn’t imply that man is God but with a universal awareness of essence of God in all beings, caution may be exercised.

    Until we start thinking and acting ‘We’, Nigeria and humanity may find it hard to navigate this beautiful earth-plane where everyone is expected to live in peace, love and harmony.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Recession, religion and quest for bread and butter

    SIR: I have never been so worried and scared of the critical dimension that religion is assuming in negatively affecting the health and indeed the totality of our national life. This is even more so with the events going on across the country where almost everyone is caught in the frenzy of defending the faith he or she professes.

    And whereas the issues affecting our national development are by far different and unrelated to who each and every Nigerian prays to for his or her salvation, some religious fanatics, across board appear to be assuming that the God they serve has become so weak that they have to fight for him.

    Today, we are embroiled in a war of attrition in which those on the vanguard of discord are employing the instrument of religion to set the people against themselves. The range from the ravaging Boko Haram in the North-east, to the killings in Agatu, Southern Kaduna, Mbatse in Nassarawa Eggon, herdsmen attacks in various parts of the country and other retaliatory attacks.

    How do we interpret the corrosive verbal exchanges among religious leaders currently going on? How do we guarantee the impartiality of the security agencies in the midst of this religious brouhaha? And more importantly, how does our individual faith guarantee stable electricity, employment, stable and prosperous economy, educational advancement of our country and its people, reliable transportation system, eliminate kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorist bombings, poverty, corruption, etc.

    Does it matter the religious or ethnic identity of a president or minister, governor or a legislator, if we can have stable electricity, good road networks, gainful employments stable economy and the like? Should it matter to an average Nigerian if our socio-economic and political problems are solved by a leader of any religious persuasion?

    If one of the reasons people pursue religious belief is to seek justice, religious leaders in Nigeria should come together as a pressure group to influence government to administer justice to all segments of the nation.

    In that way, we may be assisting government to curtail the rising wave of criminality; whether in Borno, Kaduna or the Niger Delta. The senseless killings and the attendant reprisals under the guise of defending one’s religion or other economic purposes cannot and will not propel development in Nigeria.

    As it stands today, poverty does not discriminate between Muslims and Christians. The problem of development confronting the Nigerian Christian in Calabar is not different from those facing the Nigerian Muslim in Gusau. Across the nation, the imperative for overall development is more than ever compelling and religion is by no means one of the solutions to the problems confronting our country today.

    The time to seek urgent solutions to this religious tension is now. I recommend that Muslim and Christian leaders undergo a tour of the various states to prevail on the faithful to embrace a more cautious practice of their faith with absolute tolerance and accommodation of others.

    On the whole, government must engage all religious leaders to reiterate its assurances and commitment to the secularity of the Nigerian state, without giving room for any side to be suspicious of its intentions.

    Nigerians, like the Koreans must learn to love their country by downplaying religious sentiments and extolling the virtues of nationalism, patriotism and upholding the spirit and letters of our National Anthem.

     

    • Samson Osagie, Esq.

    University of Abuja.

  • National Assembly ‘ll not legislate against any religion, says Saraki

    National Assembly ‘ll not legislate against any religion, says Saraki

    Senate President Bukola Saraki has assured Nigerians that the Senate will not pass any law against their right or freedom of religion.

    Saraki, who spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State, at the close of the 31st National Qur’an Reading Competition, urged religious leaders to use the word of God to spread love, unity and peace.

    He said: “We should tolerate and cultivate harmonious relationship and understanding among ourselves.”

    The Senate president enjoined Nigerians to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari’s quick recovery.

    Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said the use of religion to perpetrate violence was unfortunate, given the emphasis on peace and justice by Christianity and Islam.

    He said it was the responsibility of Nigerians to resist, through peaceful means, those bent on misrepresenting religion and fomenting conflict.

    Ahmed said: “As a government focused on sustaining peaceful co-existence, we will ensure peace and harmonious relations based on the principles of justice, fairness and equity.”

    He said he was committed to distribution of infrastructure and implementation of socio-economic programmes, adding that no community will be excluded from the benefits of prosperity on account of its religious or political inclination.

    The Sultan of Sokoto and National President of Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA), Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, hailed the Lagos State government for the judgment on the use of hijab in public schools.

    He said religious leaders should prioritise “what will unite us rather than what will divide us.”

    The Sultan advised the National Assembly not to pass any legislation that prevents anyone from practice of his religion.

    He prayed for President Buhari’s quick recovery.

  • Religion – Nigeria’s fastest growing industry

    With the assumed but audacious permission of Wole Soyinka and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, I am writing this piece, attempting to reduce the pontification of the icons to the language of the ‘ordinary’ Nigerian. The duo has said variously that religion as practiced in this country can be a cog in the wheel of progress.  May I repeat this is not exactly their language, but together with my close observation of the practice of the two major religions especially in the last decades and most especially currently, many religions organizations are not doing this country any good. Christianity, the second most popular religious organization in Nigeria was introduced to this country both by European missionaries/adventurists and returning ex-slaves from the Caribbean in the 18th century.  Hence urban and semi-urban   communities like Badagry, Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan (Kudeti), Calabar, Opobo, Lokoja etc embraced the early Christians.  These early Christians were mainly of the established churches of the Church of England (the CMS Church), the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Catholic Church, and later Baptists. Invariably these churches were headed by expatriates and returning slaves.

    Apart from evangelism, the churches established schools – primary, theological, teacher training, and secondary.  Their intention and modus operandi were open and unmistakable.  In some cases they partnered with governments which benefitted from the experience and benevolence of these early Christians.

    As regards Islam – I am not qualified to trace the origins and intentions of the early adherents.  All one can say is that it was the work of crusaders and jihadists that the religion took a firm hold in Northern Nigeria.  Today the population of Christians to Moslems are almost at par, and minus hot spots like Southern Kaduna,   parts of Benue and Plateau, Christians and Muslims live together in harmony and in peace.  Even in those flash points, it is not really difference in religion but destructive activities of mobile or herdsmen that disturb the peace.

    In Southern Nigeria and perhaps in parts of the North, the ravaging  emergence of  Pentecostal  sects    giving effect to the multiplication of all sorts  of pretenders  and fortune seekers have raised  many fundamental  questions about the genuineness and  ‘Christian-ess’  of these later day evangelists, preachers and apostles.  Mention must be made about the early Pentecostal churches.    Outstanding was Joseph Babalola, the chief progenitor of the world-wide Christ Apostolic Church.  A self-made true evangelist, his church now pervades all the crannies of the land. If he were alive today, he would marvel at the dimension his original vision has assumed. Now it is not unusual                                                       for couples to turn their living room to a church and thereafter declare it a parish of the C.A.C. Today the leadership of this venerable church often ends up in civilian courts pleading to be accorded recognition.

    More disturbing is the proliferation of ‘worship’ places where neighbours are denied smooth rest at night and at early hours with their microphones and loudspeakers blaring away the night.  In some of these churches, a very imaginative husband would found a church, declare himself Archbishop and each of his two wives Bishop.  Their adherents’ and devotees never give thought to any malfeasance or self-aggrandizements by these so-called men of God.

    We have heard in this country where pastors bury life animals or dead humans in their worship place.  In some, bare-face rituals take place.  Some cases are in court while many have been decided in civilian courts.

    There are of course exceptions to this national phenomenon. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and two or three others occupy a separate place among Pentecostals.  The RCCG for example has an internal administration- call it government if you like – equal to any political administration in Nigeria.  There is not much infighting, the cheeks and bellies of the General Overseers are not obscenely bulging, and although they have Jeeps and Jets, they also establish universities where the children of mighty and of the lowly receive education.

    The pastors inviting you to the mountain top every week-end have their own agenda.  While some may act in good faith, may God forgive others who harbor other motives.  Admittedly, probably some radio stations will close without the commercial advertisement of some crusading pastors.

    Religion requires quiet communication with your God, pleading forgiveness and praying that your enemy will change for the better but not calling for fire to consume him and his family.   As a result of some evangelists and pastors, a number of homes have been destroyed and family members separated.

    It is no cynicism to say that the fastest growing industry in Nigeria today is the church as represented by pastors, the evangelists, the prophets, and of course the mighty G.Os.

    There is virtually nothing anybody can do about it.  The Holy Writ has said that at the end of time so many deviants and false prophets will be at work, proclaiming to be Christians. Isn’t that day drawing ‘nigh’ ?

     

    • Fasuan MON, JP, writes from Ado-Ekiti.
  • Religion, politics and Nigeria’s future

    Religion, politics and Nigeria’s future

    ON this Christmas, when many newspaper readers feel disinclined to do anything challenging, including reading hard stuff, it is fitting to write on something racy and breezy, something that will not addle the brain or task the distressed minds of the people during a biting recession. Everyone cares about Nigeria’s future, so this column will make reference to it, no matter how cursorily. Nigerians are deeply political; they live and breathe it, even if sometimes misguided. The column will bring it in. Religion is also truly the opium of Nigerians; what would they do or be without it? Therefore, weaving the three issues together in a joyous manner to remind Nigerians who they are and where they are in time should briefly arrest their attention in this dark period of recession, paranoia and apprehension.

    This column may draw flak by suggesting that Nigeria’s problem is chiefly leadership. But hard as it has tried to re-examine that apparently controversial thesis in order to accommodate the counterargument that change indeed could also begin with the followers, not just the leaders, it has been hard to find substance to the counter-thesis. Every Nigerian government has engaged in the delusion that a re-orientation campaign could offer the magical propagandist shot to ginger the people into patriotic fervour. That that campaign has repeatedly failed in the past few decades has not deterred every succeeding government from obsessing with that chimera. The ongoing ‘Change Begins with Me’ campaign will of course naturally fail, but it will not stop the next government from chasing shadows, even if conjured.

    The problem, it seems, is that Nigerian leaders, not to say the people themselves, have no vision of their country’s future. They prefer expediency to structured work. Much worse, both leaders and the led have probably one of the world’s most perverted conceptions of religion, one so skewed and abhorrent it is hard to imagine anything worse. And to add to this stultifying nonsense, they all lack a coherent and sensible ideology of politics. But this column’s preoccupation today is leadership, a factor that continues to undo the country and endanger the future of Nigerians in particular and the black man in general. Former United States president Richard Nixon once proffered the view that, “All the really strong leaders I have known have been highly intelligent, highly disciplined, hard workers, supremely self-confident, driven by a dream, driving others. All have looked beyond the horizon. Some have seen more clearly than others.”

    Highly intelligent, highly disciplined, President Nixon had said thoughtfully. He is right. The reader should, in fact, cast his mind way back to the First Republic and then zoom down to the current Fourth Republic, without excluding or excusing the corrupting intervening military governments. Who among Nigeria’s past leaders fits the bill? Why does anyone expect something to be built on nothing? While for ethnic reasons many Nigerians excuse the appalling failure of their kinsmen in power, and even come to their defence sometimes, the reality is that none of them, Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa/Fulani, has faintly approximated the Nixonian conception of leadership. Not one, and not even now. It is pointless trying to encourage any of them, for no leader can give what he does not have.

    President Nixon was even more unsparing. He says in his book, ‘Leaders’: “The would-be leader without the judgement or perception to make the right decisions fails for lack of vision. The one who knows the right thing but cannot achieve it fails because he is ineffectual. The great leader needs both the vision and the capacity to achieve what is right. He hires managers to help him do so, but only he can set the direction and provide the motive force.” Going further to describe management as prose, and leadership as poetry, President Nixon adds, “The leader necessarily deals to a large extent in symbols, in images, and in the sort of galvanising idea that becomes a force of history…The manager thinks of today and tomorrow. The leader must think of the day after tomorrow. A manager represents a process. The leader represents a direction of history…”

    This column has always argued that a leader without a fiery and transcendent intellect cannot hope to achieve anything substantial or enduring. He must have a brilliant and  instinctive grasp of the complex and interwoven issues his country wrestles with, and a comprehensive appreciation of the other far-reaching issues shaping the world — indeed, an understanding of the spirit of the age. It is only then he can work on those issues and shape or reshape them to fit his vision. What ails Nigerian leaders is their debilitating inability to comprehend the intriguing and sometimes mystifying issues of the day, their lack of discipline, and often their inability to extricate themselves from the primordial issues with which they have become willingly entangled. In short, they have no sense of history, and no sense of where their country should be in the coming decades viz-a-viz other countries. This column posits that no one should attempt to lead a country without first engaging in a deep study of the forces and issues that shaped the character, policies and worldviews of Alexander the Great, Deng Xiaoping, Julius and Augustus Caesar, Winston Churchill, Genghis Khan and Charles de Gaulle, among many others.

    Two qualities are indispensable to a leader. One, the leader himself must possess that innate and intrinsic passion to affect deep and fundamental changes in the society, if not the world. To possess this attribute is to also prequalify himself intellectually and have the ability to appreciate and deconstruct complex issues almost effortlessly. Second, is the need to develop this great and essential attribute by equipping himself with wide-ranging studies of leaders throughout history. China’s Deng did not just happen upon the building blocks of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’, a mixture of ‘socialist ideology with pragmatic market economy’ by chance. Once he developed the idea, he was prepared to suffer for it, and in fact did.

    The point, however, is that whether it pertains to elected governments or military regimes, Nigeria has lacked leaders, not just the right leaders, all of them fifth-rate. When they are not megalomaniacal, they are demagogic. But nothing undermines a country’s destiny more than to be ruled by demagogues devoid of intellect. Consider one or two of Nigeria’s heads of state and presidents. After the death of Gen Sani Abacha, some military generals got together and without a vision of Nigeria and deep understanding of its future and how to guarantee and energise that future, decided to impose Olusegun Obasanjo on the country. The consequences of that imposition are evident in his misshapen policies, his anti-democratic and monarchical measures that saw him deposing governors and enthroning presidents at will, and his braggart attempt at self-perpetuation. His heedless approach to policy and governance, though far better than his successors’ and predecessors’, ensured that after him, Nigeria simply went back to the starting block, bruised, battered and disillusioned.

    Somehow, too, some Nigerian leaders of northern origin, though they espouse sham religiosity, have at various times worked to undermine Nigeria’s secularity, either by covertly pushing the country into the cauldron of religious politics and organisations of the Middle East, or by building a mosque in Aso Villa without a concomitant consideration for a Christian chapel. This column believes that neither a mosque nor a chapel should have been erected at the Villa. But once one was done, it was necessary to erect the other. (The leaders must hope that the day will never come when a shrine for traditional worshippers will be required). Shamefully, it has had to take a Christian president to erect a chapel, demonstrating the smallness of the minds of his predecessors and successors alike, and the disgusting exploitation and misuse of religion. The regime of religious discrimination in the North, mixed with lethal socio-economic factors, inevitably produced an incandescent brew of violence and conflicts that still rages in the region. Till today, short-sighted national and regional leaders still do not appreciate the cause and effect of the multiple religious upheavals convulsing the North and insidiously spreading to other parts of the country.

    If more than two millennial ago, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (c. 605 BC – c. 562 BC) could cast the net wide for the recruitment of the next generation of leaders and advisers for the empire, including inducting gifted slaves into the empire’s leadership cadre, it is shocking that President Muhammadu Buhari has constricted his leadership recruitment to his kinsmen, narrowed his definition of democracy, routinely subverted the constitution and the law in the name of desperate and urgent national causes, and fixed his government’s lodestar by a strange and simplistic dualism of good and evil, and wrong and right, which even his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, as bad as he was, had trouble embracing. That reprehensible dualism is today alienating a large section of the nation, from the Southeast which is groaning under obnoxious and oppressive measures inspired by Abuja, to the Middle Belt ravaged by herdsmen as the federal government pretends to some concerns, to the militarised states of the South-South which seem to draw the contempt of the federal government, and to the Southwest which is deliberately being divided in order to be ruled in the classical realpolitik sense.

    If Nigeria is to survive, and if democracy is to endure, the country needs to produce the right leaders in 2019. Not the kind of demagogic and supremacist leader Kaduna State projects in Governor Nasir el-Rufai, a man who has unwittingly divided his state along Fulani versus others, Christian versus Muslim, and Muslim sect versus Muslim sect. Given the way Mallam el-Rufai is governing his state, it is clear who he is and what he is capable of, not to talk of the content of his tunnel vision. Not President Buhari who inherited a distressed and mismanaged country suffocating under Dr Jonathan’s parochial and short-sighted measures and policies. Given the way the president has selected his aides, he has unfortunately only managed to widen the cracks, both religious and ethnic, and suggested disingenuously that he would have advanced much more rapidly had the constitution not erected impediments in his path. And not anyone Chief Obasanjo might anoint, for the self-centred ex-president himself has inchoate knowledge of what leadership is all about, and no idea what a wholesome and inspiring vision for the country should be.

    If Nigeria is to gain vibrancy, if divisions are to be healed, if true leadership is to be enthroned in place of paranoia and sectionalism, and if ethnic and religious strife is to be subjugated, Nigeria must carefully examine those who offer themselves for election in 2019. They must vote right. But can they? This column is unsure, for the Nigerian voter has not always demonstrated the detachment and wisdom necessary to put the right people in office, the kind of detachment that downplays ethnic and religious bigotry. So, then, the first challenge is for those who nurse 2019 ambitions to begin selling themselves and their ideas to the country’s six geopolitical zones, recruiting friends and supporters, and interacting with the business, political and religious elites from all parts of the country. They must demonstrate by learning, eloquence and vision that their conception of Nigeria is different from the archaic and schizoid one bandied about by past and present leaders. By personal discipline, character, intuition, intellect and overarching appreciation of the issues of the future and of the moment, not to talk of the demand of office, the would-be Nigerian leader must be able to conceptualise a country able to provide leadership in constitution and law for the rest of Africa, a country destined for prominence and preeminence.

    Above all, the aspiring leader must eschew the disgraceful subservience past Nigerian leaders demand from their subordinates, a subservience that makes aides, heads of institutions, including the security agencies, to measure performance in terms of how much they grovel before the president and please him, a subservience that puts premium on loyalty to the president than loyalty to the country and constitution. It reflects badly on a president when state security agencies attempt to bar or circumscribe discourse and dissent, when they simply ignore the constitutional provisions on fundamental rights and threaten and humiliate the opposition, when aides themselves read the lips and mind of the president before joining debates at executive meetings. There is an absolute need for a new grade and cadre of leadership, for on these hang the future of the country, not on economic policies or job statistics.

    To adopt the sentiment of President Nixon, Nigeria ‘requires leadership of the highest order.’ If in 2019 the country misses this great leadership, the real change and restructuring needed, the inspiring peep into the future without which the country will continue to grope and stumble, and the infusion of great men and women of character and self-confidence prepared to join hands with a truly democratic and far-sighted leader, will be lacking. It is not certain that getting leadership of the highest order can be postponed for much longer without paying a huge and unsustainable price. One thing is, however, certain: the status quo is no longer tenable and does not even make sense.

  • Ruggedman and 9ice back together with Religion

    Ruggedman and 9ice back together with Religion

    Two of Nigeria’s frontline hip musicians – 9ice and Ruggedman – over the weekend came out with a new song titled Religion.

    Rich with lyrical delivery style of Yoruba proverbs by 9ice (Abolore Akande) and rap by Ruggedman (Michael Stevens), the duo sing about how they charted the face of hip hop by infusing indigenous languages and slangs.

    “Street ti take over, Yeah, we know we would” rapped Ruggedman on the song. And in what seems like a prophesy, Ruggedman said the Nigerian music industry has blossomed beyond continental imagination.

    “Ruggedman and 9ice making history. You never saw this coming but it is here.”

    The song which has been enjoying massive downloads via the internet and airplay on radio was produced by KrizBeatz and mastered by Marqi.

    The two artistes had first collaborated on Ruggedman’s track, RuggedyBaba in 2009 in which Ruggedman rapped passionately on the essence of rapping and singing in pidgin English as well as in the various mother tongues.

    “From Nigeria, the world only know juju, fuji and afrobeats but we all know hip hop is running the streets,” Ruggedman had rapped on the track.

    “Wetin go make them know where your music dey come from in the long run na the fusion of music, grammar, slang and your mother tongue.”

    9ice, who had rocked the Nigerian hip hop scene with Gongo Aso had referred to Ruggedman as Opomulero which translated from Yoruba means ‘mainframe’ in English.

    And in 2010, Ruggedman and 9ice were engaged in a public feud when it was reported that 9ice accused Ruggedman of sleeping with 9ice’s ex-wife Toni Payne while they were still married.

    However, six years later, 9ice apologised to Ruggedman. And the two frontline Nigerian hip hop musicians with the release of the joint single seemed to have effectively put the past behind them