I was reading recently about an expatriate's view on Nigeria, and one thing struck a cord with me...... he said the greatest offence to many Nigerians is to say you don't practice any religion of faith. (can't remember actual words). Truly the country can boast of been very if not most religious in the World. With some groups having close to billion followers worldwide.

It's also worth noting that some of the greatest reforms all over the world were driven by religious individuals using the force of their following to drive positive changes. No surprise there that these people are revered and honoured in history today.

It's got me thinking why aren't the religious leaders in Nigeria using their following to drive social, economic and political changes? Something has got to kick start the much needed change and revolution Nigeria is so in need of. Is there no true man of honour? Why are the religious breed more interested in manipulating their followers minds to the benefit of their individual pockets, flying in private jets, building/congregational competition or causing tribal divide and massacres.

Below are a few examples of people that have used or currently using their positions to drive reforms

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolentcivil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism.[1]Born Michael King, his father changed his name in honor of German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptistminister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycottand helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests inBirmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possiblecommunist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality throughnonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north toChicago. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., called thePoor People's Campaign. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations thatJames Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting, and the jury of a 1999 civil trial found Loyd Jowers to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is aSouth African social rights activist and retiredAnglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Townand primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).Tutu's admirers see him as a man who since the demise of apartheid has been active in the defence of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed, though his consistent opposition to Israel and the United States has made him controversial. He has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, poverty, racism, sexism, the imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, homophobia and transphobia. 


Pope Francis, who was elected in March, has struck a different tone to his predecessor on a range of issues.

Catholics in England and Wales are being urged to complete a worldwide survey into how they think the Church deals with issues such as contraception and gay marriage.

Pope Francis launched the unprecedented questionnaire earlier this month.

The responses will help form new Vatican guidance for an estimated 1.2bn followers to be published in 2015.

He said recently the Church was too focussed on preaching about abortion, gay people and contraception.

And he made headlines when he said it was not up to him to pass judgement on the sexual orientation of clergy.

The 39-question survey seeks views on issues such as what "pastoral attention" can be given to those in same sex relationships.

It asks whether Christians today are aware of "how morally to evaluate different methods of family planning" and whether "this moral teaching is accepted".

The survey is intended to give Catholic bishops around the world information ahead of a special meeting to discuss the Church's policy on the family next autumn.

Although there is no suggestion the Pope intends to change formal doctrine or belief, the survey is being seen by some observers as a further sign of his intention to reform the church.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi(pronounced [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employingnonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorificMahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled," "venerable"[2])—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,[3]—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father,"[4] "papa."[4][5]) in India.Born and raised in a Hindu, merchant caste, family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of theIndian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi)Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential communityand wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook longfasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.Gandhi's vision of a free India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.[6] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[6] was partitioned into two dominions, a smaller Hindu-majority India and MuslimPakistan.

Sources: wikipedia & BBC © 2013