Why Nigerians Pray

By Julius Ogunro

If you live in Nigeria, it’s hard not to sometimes think that something is wrong with you. This often happens when you are down on luck and have tried all you can and things are not working out as you hoped for. Then you start thinking that perhaps it is an ancestral curse at work, or that ‘village people’ have cast a special spell on you to impede your progress. You feel frustrated and underappreciated, believing that your earnings and results are not commensurate with your skills, talents and experience.

But this is nonsense, really. You are not cursed. The real culprit is the Nigerian economy and how our society is organized. We are a poor country, mainly populated by struggling people trying to get by. In such circumstances, it is almost impossible for talents to be rewarded to the full extent they deserve. This is coupled with the fact that we are not a merit-based society. The slacker in school with a well-connected Uncle in government will probably do better in time than the first-class brain that used to teach tutorials. While influence peddling exists in every society, the most developed ones have minimized this and are mainly competence, rather than connection-based.

If you doubt this, when last did you see a job vacancy for the CBN or the foreign service?

Many Nigerians instinctively understand this. They know that success and progress here depend more on connection than competence, and respond to it in one or a combination of three ways:

1. They Pray: The greatest weapon Nigerians think they possess is prayers. Ours is one of the most religious societies in the world. According to the Pew Research Center (2023), a staggering 95 percent of Nigerians report praying daily, placing the country second only to Afghanistan in terms of prayer frequency. This indicates the deep integration of prayer into the daily routines of many Nigerians.

What do Nigerians pray about? They mostly ask for supernatural help to overcome the economic and socio-political challenges, which are mainly the outcome of leadership failures. However, the prayers are often not for help to disrupt the adverse political and economic system, or to change the status quo, but that this system favours them as is. They ask God to make their case different. ‘’There may be poverty in the land but my case will be different.’’ “Bandits may kill hundreds, but Father Lord, my family and I will be safe this new year.’’

This attitude is the reason why religious programmes are packed full weekly, and especially at the end of the year when people are more pious and hope that somehow all the failures and challenges of the preceding year will not follow them to the new one. It is responsible too for the prevalence of religious themes such as ‘Redeemed to flourish in Hard Times,’ ‘Divine Repositioning,’ and ‘No loss, No Lack, No Limitation.’’

In all of this, Nigerians seek God’s help, as a unit, to be the exception and not the rule. The norm in the country is that of poverty, insecurity and general hardship and these Nigerians think that it is only God that can make them escape these.

2. They Join Politics: This is one of the reasons why political contests are so fierce. For many Nigerian politicians, elections are a matter of life and death, a fight to finish (Supreme Court). Because being in a political office appears to be the surest way of escaping poverty and other Nigerian maladies. It provides an exclusive pass into that limited group of big men and women with power, which, in the country, is often followed by great, if unexplained, wealth. That way, you can largely function above all the problems – petty and serious - that define the average Nigerian life. To be sure, not all those who adopt this strategy contest for political offices. Some actively support political actors with the hope that they will be their vehicles to power and the soft life.

3. They flee: Many Nigerians, especially young ones, tired and frustrated by the ingrained disparities and obstacles elect to leave. They don't fight the system or are tired of doing so, and emigrate to places, especially Europe and North America, where they believe their talents and skills will be fully appreciated and rewarded. This has become so common in the last decade or so, making the Yoruba word for ‘run away’ - japa – almost becoming part of the English lexicon.

[color=#000000]Of the three strategies, prayer is the most common and easily accessible to the majority of Nigerians. It doesn’t cost anything, only faith in a supernatural being. Few Nigerians have the influence or resources to run for political office, or to emigrate from the country. But all can pray, and ask God to make their personal circumstances different, atypical of the country’s average.

At this point, prayer appears to be a desperate act of helplessness, an awareness of one’s impotence in the grand scheme of things, and an inability to change anything by oneself. But the evidence that things will truly change because it’s a new year and because Nigerians pray is scarce. Every year appears to be worse than the preceding one for the country.

Yes, there will be exceptions, a few Nigerians that will live large and well, despite the challenges, but our best hope for a peaceful, stable and prosperous society is to fight collectively to make the changes we want to see happen. Putting pressure on elected officials to ensure reforms across the board. Asking or praying to be an exception in a failing country is somewhat selfish and unrealistic. In a truly failed state, a Somalia, no one will be exempted. States fail when the nameless majority resign to fate, and accept the anomalies as normal, while seeking to be part of a shrinking pool of exemptions - until the day when there is no longer room in that pool.

https://www.thecable.ng/why-nigerians-pray

TUEEH!

BECAUSE "ADURA LEBO" MEANING PRAYER IS THE KEY.

TINUBU MUST ALWAYS PRAY TO CRUSH
BMFBOKOISWA
MACBAN AND
FULANI HERDSMEN TERRORISM.
THEY'RE RELENTINGLY DANGEROUS TO NIGERIA PROGRESS.

...
Prayers give people a sense of security. They feel Since they have prayed,they are secured. They are covered. There will be provisions for them. That what happened to others can not happen to them.


In reality,this is all nonsense. They still suffer from what others suffer from. They fall sick. Get kidnapped. Fail exams and Job interviews. Get involved in accidents. Die untimely deaths.

Nigeria is one big evidence that prayers don't work.

We pray simple because we acknowledge the existence of the mighty creator of all things!

The cherisher and sustainer of all that exists!

Ok

Prayer works

Man has a spiritual component in him. Prayer is thr link between our mortality and the Spiritual

In Nigeria we pray and go to church and ns mosque for most basic things that are supoosed to be provided by the govt.
The nigeria church will hardly get a member if we had a functioning govt in place.

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Uyi168:
.
Prayers don't wo

You just want attention. Because you have prayed yourself this morning.

Mtchewwww!

Below are pictures of a worship center that was built by the Akwa-Ibom state Government for over N30b for Akwa-Ibom people to go and pray and an Israeli woman praying in a wailing wall with a gun strapped around her.

There is a difference between praying without action and praying backed up by action.

Nigeria practices the former and Israel practices the latter.

This post seems myopic: the writer assumes we pray only to solve problems and many short sighted commenters will agree with him



Meanwhile, for those of us that pray

Beauty

.

aeno:
May God answer all our prayers

Amen

Nigerians have been poor forever so they take solace in prayer.

Prayer gives hope. Though it's false hope most times.

But hope is hope. That's what is keeping most Nigerians..... Hope. (Na where that "he go better" prayer come from

What a great piece! Thanks.
Prayer or curse is nothing but wasting of time

Prayer for economic favour is not the same thing as praying to have a relationship with God. The latter is only concerned about growth in his or her spiritual life.

Well said, but why do you pray to a god that cannot answer its own prayer not to talk of your own prayers? If god can answer prayers, his own prayers(wishes) for his son Jesus to come and end the world would have come to pass long before the existence of our ancestors.
If god answers prayers, Nigerians won't need to pray again because all their prayers have been answered. There is a friend of mine who laughed at me when i told him his God Jehovah is fake. The guy eventually relocated to USA and ever since he got there in the Corona era up to date he has never ever stepped his foot into the church. To even think he was a staunch Catholic member right here o. Now he was even saying it proudly that he has not been to church for about four years.

Evidence of screenshots to come soon.

Prayer works but most of the things we pray for in Nija doesn't need request from God.

We only need action to put them in place.

Many things dey wey God require your sensitivity to carry them out not prayers.

God is not lazy.

Prayer is good, but we must do somethings as humans to acquire good things of life either individual or collective.
The bible affirmed that God worked for 6 days. Translating this literally means he did overtime with 5 working days consideration.

I don't blame us Nigerians much because our leaders are supposed to provide the basic things of life, hence we always pray to God to intervene.

We'll get there one day.

Uyi168:
...
Prayers give people a sense of security. They feel Since they have prayed,they are secured. They are covered. There will be provisions for them. That what happened to others can not happen to them.


In reality,this is all nonsense. They still suffer from what others suffer from. They fall sick. Get kidnapped. Fail exams and Job interviews. Get involved in accidents. Die untimely deaths.

Nigeria is one big evidence that prayers don't work.

Many Nigerians still won't agree with you. Lol

Because they indirectly believe that GOD is magician

Keep praying while they steal your future in broad daylight

World most prayerful countries:
1.Afghanistan
2.Nigeria
keep praying

The nation been cursed with prayers......

Prayer is not the problem with us...
Life is spiritual in itself..so many prays..I pray too cos I believe in it..

But for Nigeria to work... again(which might not happen...I have decided to accept that reality) there's a need for an overhaul of the system...

Even the bible said it that prayer without works is dead, and only amount to self deceit

Happy Sunday