Surprisingly, whenever you heard the word "Religion" in the country Nigeria, what comes to mind is Crisis, War and sometimes death. The question we get to ask ourselves is how true is this?

In Nigeria, we have two major religion amongst others. We have Christianity & Islam. Both religions date back to the pre-colonial era in the country. Nigerians were not born Christian or Muslim, as a matter of fact, they had different traditional religion, not until Christianity and Islam found its way into the system. After Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, it was obvious that these two religions had come to stay.

Over the years, Nigerians had faced many security challenges from the religion aspect. You will agree that 75% of the insecurity issue Nigerians face has stemmed out of religion. You will also agree that this is not in line with the definition of religion that is widely accepted.

"Religion is a system of symbols (creed, code, cultus) by means of which people (a community) orient themselves in the world with reference to both ordinary and extraordinary powers, meanings, and values." (Catherine L. Albanese, America: Religion and Religion)

Another definition that narrows down our headline is a means of ultimate transformation and/or orientation." (Joseph Adler, "Varieties of Spiritual Experience: Shen in Neo-Confucian Discourse". With this definition, we can see that the religion in Nigeria is far fetched from this reality, some might say this is the half-truth but through recent crisis, we can come to an agreeable stance that Nigeria needs orientation about this subject matter.

It is time the government of the nation takes the issue of religion serious so as not help the nation but to change the perception in which people have about the nation.

Written by Timileyin Oni

source: https://www.titiloyeblog.com/2019/03/we-need-reorientation-about-religion-in.html

Cc: Lalasticlala, Mynd4, OAM4J