In a country where good roads, electricity and healthcare facilities are taken to God in prayer, the link between religion and poverty is worth analysing more closely. Do Nigerians turn to religion due to despair, or do people fall into poverty as a result of their religious beliefs? This question is pertinent because seemingly intelligent, educated people in Nigeria believe they have no control over their lives because their living and dying has been preordained and it is all in God’s hands. For these people, life choices do not count. The only method of making major life decisions – where to school, where to live, who to marry is “to tell my pastor and pray over it.”
Religion in Nigeria has become a powerful open trap that exerts tremendous social pressure that is often impossible for the uneducated mind to avoid. In my interactions, I have seen educated people, who were normal in their homes, normal at work and everywhere outside of the Church, become complete fools once inside the Church. One cannot but wonder if the central problem comes from people turning their minds off once they walk through the door of a Church or Mosque. Their minds seem conditioned to do so since they were young. They swallow anything that is said as the truth. It is no longer what the Bible says but what my Pastor says and for the Muslims, every reference is according to this Sheikh and that Imam . To a first time visitor to Nigeria, it is easy to conclude that religion makes both educated and uneducated Nigerians mindless.
The result of our religiosity is not difficult to fathom. It has been a disaster for Nigeria in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. All ramifications considered, the malfeasance of the Abrahamic faiths is staggering in its extent and its viciousness on our national psyche. The link between religion and poverty is easy; it is control. If you feel less in control of your life, you seek beliefs that help you feel greater control. Being poor and poorly educated, lacking power in the larger world and solid knowledge of the way things work, the natural fallback becomes a belief in miracles and magic. In Nigeria, magic and miracles comes in the neat package of religion. With the nation-space littered with Pastorpreneurs, who preach prosperity and nothing else, religion may be the only source of hope for a better life for a larger portion of our people.
The trick the Pastors and the rulers who patronise and encourage them know is that the greater your education (good education), the more you understand the world, and the more options you have for moving and succeeding in it. Education is the power you can see, it is the power you create that allows you to need less of miracles and magic. That is why they have ruined education collaboratively. That is why almost all the Churches and some Islamic sects and organisations have invested in education. They make it expensive, such that majority of their congregants can’t afford it and where they can, they shape the kind of education they give. They do this to ensure successful manipulation and enslavement of our people. That is why “touch not my anointed” is one of the most quoted verse in the Bible, in today’s Nigeria. It is the reason why the poor congregant will donate his entire January salary in his bid to sow by giving his first fruits (insane). That is why a person earning minimum wage is happy his Pastor has bought a second Gulf-stream jet while he barely could afford his transportation to Church.
Without a shred of doubt, Nigerian churches have failed the poor. On the other hand, Islam is busy promoting intergenerational poverty through fatalism and fundamentalism. Religious centres have become profit oriented mega-companies. All hope is not lost. If the right investments in education are embarked upon, the situation will change. Nigeria will be a better place and the social benefits of religion will naturally take centre stage and be targeted further down the socioeconomic ladder, and delivered through education, community and charitable giving. For Nigeria’s renaissance, we must think less of hell and the annihilation of the human race. We must commit to making this life the best that it can possibly be, since it is the only life that any of us has. As urgent as we can, we must ensure that the basic needs of the majority of our people are met and that they have opportunities for security and advancement.

Written by:- Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú, a member of Premium Times‘ Editorial Board.

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=169503
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Well said!

"Religion is the opium of the masses"! So many are "blinded" by religion!

Sincere gratitude to The Most High CREATOR for The Light given!

This is not a new post hence I refuse to give an opinion since I've done that before.