Religion is like a pair of shoes.....Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes.

-George Carlin

Experiencing childhood in a remote town of Ebenebe in Awka north, Anambra state. I was a profoundly given child whose dream future is naked in the presence of companions and family. Being a Reverened Father of exceptionally respected Roman Catholic Church was the best melody of my spirit. I need to make heaven you know, I would like to be singing those pleasant latin words at the alter and at peak of all, I need to convert my beloved dad from his evil ways(worshiping Idols) to Christianity.

How wrong I was. I had been fed with misconceptions about our culture and tradition. In as much as I acknowledge there was bad traditions and questionable norms of our forefathers, it is erroneous to say there are no good ones. Why are we disregarding our culture and neglecting our history and identity all in the name of religion and salvation? That's foolishness!

I AM a CHRISTIAN by the way.

I could recollect at that point, as a very young mass servant, I was castigated heavily because I was caught watching our "onwa asato masquerade". Watching those things is being considered unethical and I was given a large portion of land to cut as a punishment. Would you like to go to hell? Don't you know it's a sin? I went for confession (Catholicans go understand better)

I continued considering traditionalists to be bad individuals yet something transformed me and opened my eyes for better thinking. Amid my second year in secondary school, I was picked to be among those to represent my school in Awka Diocesan Young Catholics Students (YCS);This is a mandatory fellowship for unification of youthful Catholics to foster morals. The venue of this yearly meeting for that year was St. Dominic's Seminary Akpu, Anambra state. To my most noteworthy surprise, seminarians done masquerades to engage the guests comprising the students, parents and benefactors of many schools in Awka metropolis. I wasn't inspired. However I got the hang of something-Culture isn't EVIL all things considered.

We are emotional in nature, to me - we are highly hypocritical. Religion has blindfolded numerous personalities to an unimaginary degree and we now observe traditionalists and culture as the core problem of the society. In Anambra where I live, pastors and priests are being compensated with millions of applause for destroying places of traditions in order to persuade the victims to join them. The freedom of religion for these victimized poor traditionalists is only written and implemented on paper. On the off chance you question this reprehensible demonstration, will be rained with curses and insults. Every december, there are always crusades, these crusades are just to kill off the remaining traditionalists by setting places of their worship ablaze, still, nobody addresses that- that's hypocrisy. But when church or mosque is being presented with same feast, they run berserk and take protest to the road with amusing placards.

We welcome the civilisation conveyed to us by European missionaries yet at the same time, it is not a sufficient motivation to annul our convention. These days, just like Abhijit Naskar properly said; "It's more of religion acceptance, it's not again about tolerance". Being a religionist is no guarantee to destroy our cultural heritage. If you need to proceed with foreign religion, stick to it yet don't induce non devotees to go along with you. Aferall with a large number of churches scattered in this nation, it has demonstrated that Christianity isn't essential for good society.

Live and let live!

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