NIGERIA: A FERVENTLY RELIGIOUS AND “FANTASTICALLY CORRUPT” NATION.
…Sieving hypocrisy from reality.
By
Akpem Terese Shadrach
Terese990@gmail.com. 08066459317.
The different regions of Nigeria are dominated by different religions, but rough estimates place 50.8% of Nigerians as Christians, Muslims are at 47.8% while other religions and beliefs share the remaining figure.
Missionaries came to Nigeria as early as the 16th century but it was not until after World War 1 that churches were founded. While active participation in religious practices is recorded at a high of 93%. This may come at a price, those practicing traditional religious beliefs are allegedly being oppressed.
If you have ever been curious about finding out the religious status of Nigeria as compared to other countries in the world, you will realize that we are rated very high as far as matters of religion are concerned.
Many platforms have also carried out surveys to rate the religious status of various countries in the world and I all these, Nigeria has always been in limelight.
BBC aired the result of their survey called “WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF GOD”, a survey of peoples religious believes held in about 10 countries (US, UK, Israel, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico and Lebanon) with the participation of about 10000 people; your guess is as good as mine. Nigeria did well in the ranking and on the other hand, Russia and South Korea fell in the list of the least. Our marvelous Nigeria stands out as the only country where 100 percent of those that participated in the poll said they believe in God. As dangerous as it may look, Nigeria performed extraordinarily well as the country where more than 90 percent of her populations are ready to die in the name of religious conviction. Furthermore, more than 90% of Nigerians who participated in the poll believe that their God is the only true God; more than 91 percent said they regularly attend religious services while 95 percent said they pray regularly. And now to the matter that interests me the most- going by that poll, 96 percent of Nigerians accepted that believing in God makes for a better human being. Wonderful! Now let us evaluate this in practical terms.
Let us take it one after the other, 100% of Nigerians more or less believe in God. Is there anything wrong with that? Of course, there is completely nothing wrong in believing in God, in fact I believe that everybody on this earth believes in God one way or the other, atheism in the real sense of that word does not really exist, atheism in itself is a believe system, the truth is that many people in trying to differentiate themselves from generally accepted norms at times go to the extent of self deception, that is why some will rather tell you that they believe in a greater power only if that greater power cannot be called God; we are not going to argue about that, call Him whatever you wish- higher power, greater power, super power, the fact remains that we all somehow recognize His existence, there are still so many unanswered questions and not few coded mysteries about our universe that science is yet to clarify, till that clarification comes and very convincingly, I will continue to believe that there is a higher or greater power and that greater power I have chosen to call God. Big plus to Nigerians, for been bold enough to acknowledge the existence of God but a bigger minus for been one of the least saintly/godly nations on earth. (Do you agree?). Until recently, Nigeria was shuffling between the most corrupt and 3rd most corrupt country in the world index. I felt surprised when I searched the recent index and didn’t find them among the first 10 most corrupt countries (my prayer is gradually been answered). Every Sunday and Friday of the week is very important to Christians and Muslims in this country as we go out in our numbers to worship and offer supplications to our creator. As religious people, we are entitled to abide by His teachings which of the greatest, He said; “love your neighbor as you love yourself”, another part of it says that what He wants is not our fat burnt offering or “millions” but the help we are able to render to the poor and helpless. We attend church services were some seats are off limit to the regular worshipers, you dare not seat were you don’t belong. We go to worship centers where we have “stinking” rich people sitting in the same hall with “stinking” poor people. Even if you have a car you are not allowed to park it around the space for the big church supporters. Offerings are graded. An usher/pastor tells you don’t offer below a certain amount and it gets you thinking whether God has set standards for what you can afford. Since such attitudes are displayed right in our worship places, it becomes obvious why the larger society isn’t any better. The number of churches increases daily but that hasn’t checked the level of crime in the society. The young man with a gun around his waist is the same one that sat next to you on Sunday. The young lady posing as a prostitute is the one that ushered during the service. The civil servant signing money away is the one that gave the highest donation in church and the politician looting our common wealth was either in a Friday Jumat prayer or Sunday church service.
My journey from the most religious country to one of the least religious countries in the world empowered me with unquantifiable experience, if 95% of Nigerians regularly attend religious activities and we still have the society where our moral standard and social interaction doesn’t depict that of people who worship a God that has emphasized love then it leaves us with a question mark. Russia, Korea, China, Norway…have very high indices of Atheists in the world yet they are the countries dictating the pace of global affairs. Imagine what will happen if Russia decides to cease crude oil supply despite the fact that they are not among the OPEC nations. Imagine what will happen if China stops giving out aid to the rest of the world. Yet these are the so called Non religious countries which happen to doing quite well. Crime rate is at its minimum in these places. How do we explain that?
my dear country is flooded with religious scandals on a daily basis: pastors sleeping with church members, church leaders running with church funds, etc. these revelations only makes us wonder where we are headed but the answer is not far fetched. We might have gotten the record of a highly religious people but the one we actually have is that of a highly hypocritical people.
The most dangerous of all was that Nigeria came first as the country where more than 95% of her populations are ready to die in the name of religious conviction while 90% firmly believe that their God is the only true God. I think that the dangerousness of that result is in black and white. In a country like Nigeria that is divided equally by the two religions of Christianity and Islam, coupled with the high intolerance at all levels, the result portends a great danger. Think of the endless religious crises that we have been witnessing in Nigeria, now imagine those conflicts taking a wider range, visualize emergence of “rascals” in the south, the type that are been nurtured and sponsored in the north to unleash mayhem on innocent people, finally think of what the end product will look like- horrible, more awful than anything dreadful that country has ever witnessed.
Furthermore, 91 percent said they regularly attend religious services and 95 percent said they pray regularly. Notwithstanding that Nigeria is stinking, the prayer I think, still make so many people to either pretend that they are not perceiving anything or to be strong enough to cover their noses with anything available thus allowing co-existence no matter how artificial it may look. I think that God has a hand in keeping Nigeria as a nation till date and even making her the “happiest” nation in the world. sometimes our hypocrisy becomes so difficult to hide that since the President is from the North, he has a northern agenda and if he is from the South he also has a southern agenda. Our holy books demands us to pray for our leaders and country but we would rather pray that God rains fire and brim stone on this nation…I guess that’s what we have on our hands.
The one that interested me most is the next: over 96 percent of Nigerians accepted that believing in God makes for a better human being. It carries weight don’t you think so? Before now I had thought that better human beings make for a better society; can a country of better human beings also be one of the most corrupt country in the whole world? Insecurity, indiscipline and selfishness, are becoming custom in the country of God. What a contrast! Although we pray regularly, attend religious services yet our characters testify fully against all that. Could it be that we have bad teachers or are we simply bad listeners? Whichever one it is, the facts remain that the church and the mosque has the least positive influence on the Nigerian society, that churches are occupying every available spaces in this country has not made any of places the best place to sleep with two eyes tightly closed. Infact I have listened to the news severally were churches were robbed. Am not pushing the works of security agents to the church or mosque but you must agree with me that 96% BETTER persons can easily transform the remaining 4% to BEST persons.
I don’t know about you but I would rather chose to relate more closely to that adamant atheist or to that person who believes that David Beckham is more influential in his life than God as in the case of England where about 36% of the people that took part in the poll said that Beckham is more influential their lives), if that person is principled and of good character, such person will without doubt be easier to handle than a wolf in sheep’s clothing, am talking about that person that acknowledges the existence of God, not just that, but also claims to believe in Him, and then goes further to accept that believing in God makes for a better human being, all these notwithstanding, his life is nothing but a public display of the opposite.
The church should recognize that they are loosing the battle, we need retreat, repositioning and a new strategy of attacks, high number of church attendees and uncountable numbers off church buildings and sign post should not deceive anybody, results should be measured by what is on the ground, there is little or no behavioural evidence depicting what we claim to be.
If am to murder sentiment and draw conclusion from the facts, I will without fear or favour say that Nigerians are the greatest pretenders in History, we pretend to believe in what we in reality never believed or do we actually believe but have chosen to subdue any positive reflection that such believe can bring? Thereby, reducing ourselves to a mere object of mockery.
Yesterday, the President of this country launched the National re-orientation campaign: “change begins with me”. I believe that is the message Nigerians need right now. We can wail all we want about how this administration is failing us but one thing we cant deny too is that fact that we have greatly deviated from the sanity this country once had. Change cannot be possible if our attitude doesn’t welcome it. If our lifestyle isn’t fashioned to drop our wrong yet conventional ways of doing things then we might as well be fooling ourselves.
He said, “Nigeria today is passing through a challenging moment where hardly anything works in a normal manner. Many have attributed this phenomenon to the total breakdown of our core values over the years(AGREED). “ There is no doubt that our value system has been badly eroded over the years. The long-cherished and time-honoured, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence of corruption and patriotism, have given way in the main to dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity. “The resultant effect of this derailment in our value system is being felt in the social, political and economic spheres. It is the reason that some youths will take to cultism and brigandage instead of studying hard or engaging in decent living; it is the reason that some elements will break pipelines and other oil facilities, thus robbing the nation of much-needed resources; it is the reason that money belonging to our commonwealth will be brazenly stolen by the same public officials to whom they were entrusted; it is the reason why motorists drive through red traffic lights; it is the reason that many will engage in thuggery and vote-stealing during elections; it is part of what has driven our economy into deep problem out of which we are now working hard to extricate ourselves. “Every one of us must have a change from our old ways of doing things, we cannot fold our arms and allow things to continue the old way. “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another. “Rather than sit back and complain endlessly, we have decided to act pragmatically, with the launch of this National Re-orientation Campaign. The campaign will not be a sprint but a marathon that will run the course of our tenure. We are under no illusion that the changes we seek will happen overnight, but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor” President Buhari called for the buy-in of all Nigerians into the change campaign, with a promise that his government would provide necessary leadership for the desired results. “I am therefore appealing to all Nigerians to be part of this campaign. Our citizens must realize that the change they want to see begins with them, and that personal and social reforms are not theoretic exercise. If you have not seen the change in you, you cannot see it in others or even the larger society. In other words, before you ask ‘where is the change they promised us’, you must first ask how far have I changed my ways ‘what have I done to be part of the change for the greater good of society.’ “While the government will drive the Change Begins With Me’ … A punctual, diligent and hardworking staff can only be of benefit of not just himself or herself or the organization they work for but to various governments whether at local, state or Federal level,” he said.
all has been said. The ball is in our court and we must decide whether to remain in our current state or become more realistic about the faith we claim to have in our God and country.
God bless Nigeria.

Tell me what I don't know please

thanks for you kind observation(paragraphing). i didnt take time to sort it out after moving it from MS. word. wont happen again.