The governor of Zamfara state recently came out to say that the meningitis outbreak in his state is as a result of sin. Many people rightly criticized him for his opinion. Problem, however, is that it's a widely held belief among all Nigerians (Christians, Muslims and pagans alike), that diseases cannot affect you if you're religious. Also, that if you're religious and pray hard, you will be miraculously cured. The number of times people prefer to go to a prayer house instead of the hospital is testament to this.

This is however a fallacy. The graph below plots life expectancy for selected countries. It shows that people in 'religious' countries are more likely to die at a younger age than people in 'non-religious' countries. The one thing that correlates with long life and can be seen in the size of the bubbles in the graph, is the health expenditure.

So the verdict is simple, when sick, don't just pray, or go to a spiritualist, instead go to a hospital and pay for proper care. Leave absolute religious thinking out of your health.

Link to data - www./2oelAUW