In the past five years or so, I have been reconsidering my long-held opinion about the relation between leadership and followership. Time there was when I laid all the blame on leadership. Now I’m beginning to say that the followership should also take their fate in their own hands.

This is what I see most of the time, for example, in the plays of Femi Osofisan, one of our top writers. Play after play after play; the leaders are there doing things. But the address is to the people. Why must you continue to be ridden like a donkey? Why can’t you, too, get up in the saddle?


Nigerians are too docile, too forgiving of bad leadership. Why are they this way? A number of reasons. The first one is religion. The kind of religion we have in Nigeria is one that puts you to sleep, and after that, puts you to death. It’s not the kind of religion that’s after social justice; it’s not the kind of religion that is after the welfare of the people and the independence of their existence. Particularly guilty in this regard are the Prosperity Gospellers of the Pentecostal variety who hawk faith on the air and convert religion into superstition. If you have no job, we are told, it must be because of your sin. Your poverty (or pauperization) is a result of the offence you have committed against God.

Blissfully indemnified are the rogue-rulers whose greed has corrupted and ruined our social estate; those whose policies or lack of them have made job creation impossible by sabotaging our productive capacity? So, if you have no job, blame your sins; if you wallow in poverty, you only have yourself to blame. In the thinking and preaching of many of these latter-day evangelists, every scoundrel in power in Nigeria is “God-chosen” and must be treated as such.

Religion in this country is a dangerous opium; really dangerous opium. And that is why our rulers are encouraging the building of churches and mosques all over the place. When in December last year the newspapers carried the picture of a kneeling President Jonathan with a ministering Pastor towering above him in prayerful supremacy, we were presented with an image so symbolic of the relationship between the state and religion in Nigeria. No picture could have been more emblematic!

Religion has killed rational thinking in this country. I say this all the time, our country is still in a pre-scientific era. That is why things are like this. We don’t think logically; that is why any ruler, any fool would seize the reins and rule us, because we would always find an excuse for being ruled or being led by the nose.



Not long ago a pastor said he was between two cities and he discovered that the fuel in his car had run out. He actually checked and saw the fuel in the car was completely gone. But because of his act of faith and on the strength of his prayers, he was able to do two hundred miles on an empty tank! When he declared this testimony, people clapped and shouted “ Hallelujah!” I never heard anybody say how can? Nigerians don’t ask questions; that is why the imams and the pastors lead them by the nose, and the politicians also complete their humiliation and disempowerment. And between the clerics and the political functionaries, there is a very close liaison.

It’s a kind of power structure; one controls the political, social realm, the other controls the spiritual, metaphysical realm and they are together. Many Nigerians are not rational, interrogative people. In fact, in this country today, if you are the interrogative type you are easily labelled, branded, and condemned. People even wonder: why are you always asking questions?’ When the blessed Tai Solarin was alive, he agonised and agonised over this issue. The way he was misunderstood, the way he was misinterpreted and his anger at the way many of our people were going - that we should be up in the streets.

Another problem: well, our people are docile and the reason why they take all kinds of cheating is that many of them envisage themselves in the position of power someday, too. If I am X and the oppressor is Y, and the oppressor is oppressing me, stealing all the money, and making life difficult for me and my children, I am not likely to attack him. I’ll pray to God to let my own “miracle” happen so that someday, he will go and I will be in his place. No; I am praying for him to go but for the structure to remain.



This is the social psychology of Nigerian politics. So many people don’t see it as wrong. When they see it as wrong, it’s because it is putting them at a disadvantage; they are not really concerned with the social order or the commonweal. That’s a very important issue.

If our rulers were people with a sense of shame, they wouldn’t be talking about subsidy at all. They should cover their faces in shame and apologize to the Nigerian people; for if anything, it is the Nigerian people that need some form of hardship allowance from their incorrigibly incompetent government.

And our President and his officials have been going from church to church (have they called at the mosques yet?), asking for God’s blessing for the kind of socio-economic mayhem they are about to unleash on the Nigerian people through the removal of the so-called subsidy; asking the pastors to pray to God to make Nigerians compliant to and accepting of their impoverished situation, begging Almighty God to soften the minds of Nigerians. But no one entered a plea for God to smash the incubus of corruption and mismanagement that has brought this country to its knees. Our President never asked God to grant him the courage and candour to make a public declaration of his assets as required by the constitution of the country he rules,

P.S:If you are still wondering why that private jet-flying,crucifix-hanging,Aso Rock-dining,tongue-blasting god of men has refused to speak out against the issue of the callous fuel subsidy removal,there you have it!

http://transparencyng.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6211:prof-niyi-osundare-on-religion-and-politics-in-nigeria&catid=59:guest&Itemid=37

Nigerians, religion and politics?
Bad math!

Nice read!

Our President never asked God to grant him the courage and candour to make a public declaration of his assets as required by the constitution of the country he rules,

LMAO!. . .straight on the head!

All i can say is;
RELIGION NA POLITICS!

Not long ago a pastor said he was between two cities and he discovered that the fuel in his car had run out. He actually checked and saw the fuel in the car was completely gone. But because of his act of faith and on the strength of his prayers, he was able to do two hundred miles on an empty tank! When he declared this testimony, people clapped and shouted “ Hallelujah!” I never heard anybody say how can? Nigerians don’t ask questions; that is why the imams and the pastors lead them by the nose, and the politicians also complete their humiliation and disempowerment. And between the clerics and the political functionaries, there is a very close liaison.

Ah, the 200 mile-epiphany
If you remind them we don't measure distance in miles in Nigeria, they tell you his mathematical abilities allowed for a quick conversion (pun intended).

As long as it is a MOG telling porkies; this is considered good enough reason to suspend our collective reality

An article after my heart, may God continue to bless . . . . . oh!!!

The kind of religion we have in Nigeria is one that puts you to sleep, and after that, puts you to death. It’s not the kind of religion that’s after social justice; it’s not the kind of religion that is after the welfare of the people and the independence of their existence.

The religion in Nigeria is only after tithes, seeds and more contribution.

The message couldn't have been written any better

if only Nigerians would read this and take it seriously. . . . .

Wait a minute, is Prof. Osundare writing all this from the comfort of the US or is he back in Nigeria? The answer to this question will seriously determine how credible his criticism is.

Succinctly Put,So many god of Men,very few Men of God

moremi2008:

Wait a minute,  is Prof. Osundare writing all this from the comfort of the US or is he back in Nigeria? The answer to this question will seriously determine how credible his criticism is.

[img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSb3UuUyM_BEKfci1KH6eldrXjRm0M7yhaQ6sR6ZGTuJWJj-scd[/img]

Professor my foot. Does he have any contribution to make in his country home?
Other countries are religious, just like ours but there seems to be a problem with Nigerians most especially, people like you who prefers to sit in a beer parlour just because of some penny from the same government you hate so much because they believe in God. when it comes to sleeping with female students for grades, taking money for admission even when they are not qualified, depriving students of their educational right for months, people like you see this things to be right.

Give a Nigerian professor a sum of 500million naira to invent something for the benefit of all. I bet you, that money would be spent in a beer parlour.

LAZY INTELLECTUAL SCUMS

Nigerians truly are living in the pre-scientific era!!!

I think all nigerian professors are lazy. They invent nothing. The innovate nothing.They blame the govt for everything. All the books they publish are remixes of foreign textbooks. In my field of management and IT, what innovation has been made by any of these Nigerian Professors? These are d same professors who make d system so difficult such that students focus solely on passing exams rather than obtaining applied knowledge that would help them in life. Forget jare, he without sin cast d first stone. Who is a man of God or a god of Men can only be known by GOD above.EOD

Acidosis,

What a fruitless effort to discredit a well-documented and true reflection of the Nigerian social situation.

Why don't you just mention or list the aspects where you feel the author might have got it wrong rather than abusing him?

Lol, yet you throw tantrums when people criticise your charlatans.

The Prof. has taken his time to put up this nice article yet some people still chose to remain stu.pid.

I agree we need to be collecting hardship allowance from this incompetent govt, not the other way around. But make this profs sef go sit down, how many of them did we see on the streets of lagos, save for prof soyinka during the fuel subsidy protests?

This is what i've been screaming myself hoarse for years now,religion poisons everything.

Acidosis:

rofessor my foot. Does he have any contribution to make in his country home?
Other countries are religious, just like ours but there seems to be a problem with Nigerians most especially, people like you who prefers to sit in a beer parlour just because of some penny from the same government you hate so much because they believe in God. when it comes to sleeping with female students for grades, taking money for admission even when they are not qualified, depriving students of their educational right for months, people like you see this things to be right.

Give a Nigerian professor a sum of 500million naira to invent something for the benefit of all. I bet you, that money would be spent in a beer parlour.

LAZY INTELLECTUAL SCUMS

Osundare is Professor of English at University of New Orleans, USA, and one of the best-known poets from Africa. His works of published poetry include Songs of the Marketplace (1983), Village Voices (1984), A Nib in the Pond (1986), The Eye of the Earth (1986), which won both the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize and The Commonwealth Poetry Prize in its year of publication. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Folon/Nichols Award for ‘excellence in literary creativity combined with significant contributions to Human Rights in Africa’. Other published volumes of poetry include Songs of the Season (1987), Moonsongs (1988), Waiting Laughters (1990), Selected Poems (1992), Midlife (1993), The Word is an Egg (2000) and Tender Moments (2006). Niyi Osundare has also published four plays and essays on literature, politics and culture. Orality and performance are important features of his works, which have been translated into the Italian, French, Dutch, Czech, Slovenian, and Korean languages.

There you have it@ Mr "Professor my foot"
Now regale us with your contribution to any major human endeavour

eGuerrilla:

Ah, the 200 mile-epiphany
If you remind them we don't measure distance in miles in Nigeria, they tell you his mathematical abilities allowed for a quick conversion (pun intended).

As long as it is a MOG telling porkies; this is considered good enough reason to suspend our collective reality

Many of the imported cars from America, read the distances and mileage in miles, so may be he was using an American car. The speedometer of American spec Honda especially LX and DX of Honda Baby boy are graduated only in miles/hr. Very funny miracle though especially in this era of subsidy.

If I am not mistaken I guess d last paragraph was referring to d CAN president.
This piece summaries the true state of Nigeria regarding politics,any problem in Nigeria is attributed to spiritual angle thus making most Nigerians seeks pastors for their solutions. Our leaders knows our weakness to religion and have continue to use this to fine tune d minds of Nigerian thru these MOG

tunene:

Many of the imported cars from America, read the distances and mileage in miles, so may be he was using an American car. The speedometer of American spec Honda especially LX and DX of Honda Baby boy are graduated only in miles/hr. Very funny miracle though especially in this era of subsidy.

Your suggestion here get as e be o.

Adeboye experienced a miracle recently on a long and dangerous stretch of highway near Lagos, he says. His car was out of gas, and the gas stations were empty. Then God spoke to him, clearly, and said to keep driving. Adeboye drove 200 miles on empty. Could his gas gauge have been broken? No, he insists, God intervened "because of the need … in a crisis." Adeboye knows well what some in the West have forgotten: in today's world, everyone needs a Daddy.

Source: http://www.rccgna.org/mcm/rc/tgen.aspx?articleid=30&zoneid=5

You mean, even though flustered and possibly full of anxiety, MOG Adeboye had the sagacity to record his odometer's mileage before continuing on his celestial journey (not doubt in his duty-free American import)?
I read somewhere it might have been a merc, but why belabour such inconsequential details, huh?
silly me! I could have figured that out all on my own.

I mean, he recognised, right there and then, there were compelling reasons to document an evolving miracle. . .

The Professor has stated a lot of things that bother him about Religion and Politics.

However, religion should not be blamed for the intellectual laziness of the Nigerian masses, as the Good Book itself said in Genesis: 'go into the world and subdue'. This means that God knows we can subdue poverty, disease, famine, technological backwardness, discontent or any other human problem through the proper use of our God given faculties.

The problem with Nigeria is the lack of proper application of our God-given intellect to make a difference in the different sectors of our national life, whether in Politics, Education, Industry or the Arts and Entertainment sector etc.

For example in the area of the Arts, the favourite program for Children, when I was growing up, was, 'Tales by Moonlight' where children were taught superstitious beliefs (though with morally sound themes) through stories that was told by the lady presenter. I was initially caught up in the frenzy by children to watch this program, because once its 5:30pm on Sundays, everychild dashes home to watch the program that starts by 6:00pm of the same day. However, after a while I started to detest the program, even as a child, because I thought to myself that the western world was getting more progressive by the day through exposing their children to scientific films like, Star-Wars, Voltron and other fictional works which were somehow inclined to set  on fire, the imaginations of the children watching them and thereby setting their minds to more scientific-inclined ventures. Its no wonder that, later on The Ronald Regan Presidency actually wanted to put in practice some of the aspects of Star wars film by launching the Star -Wars program, which put missiles in outer-space to bring down any nuclear missiles that was fired at the US by enemy nations, although the program was eventually dismantled. This is a case of the real world imitating the Arts and it shows the strong nature of the western world entertainment programs.

In Politics, there is a lack of insightful leadership. For example, the western world has a clear road-map of where their economies will be in the next 50 years as they are looking for alternative sources of energy to depend on when oil runs out, they are searching for habitable planets where they could move to, in case the green house effect eventually consumes the Earth. In Nigeria, we are still very much concerned with getting adequate infrastructures etc and do not have the mindset of looking that far into the future.

In Education, children are not exposed to education at an early age that fires their imaginations. For example in the Western world, children as young as two years are exposed to educational toys and left to play with them, from the toys, the child loves to play regularly with, trained educational guidance and counselling school staff can advise the parents on which choice of career will be will suited for their children and this system works very well; I have a friend, born in Britain, whose parents were told that their child (my friend) will do well in a Career that require litrary skills with cognitive thinking, who today is a very brilliant Attorney and writter. Here in Niigeria, a parent looks at the child and says, 'you will become a Medical Doctor' without there being any rational reason for such an assertion. Also, the other forms of education that a child is exposed to, for example, through the Arts can aslo influence the level of scientific inquisitiveness of the child's mind and so ultimately influence his thinking and mindset.

The Industries we have are import dependant ones as that is the quickest way to make money. Our industrialist do not have time to invest on inventions from our universities and so do not really encourage the educational sector. They also are not very innovative in the areas of searching for what societal needs are and fulfilling it and this also has to do with the mindsets of Nigerians.

I agree with the Professor that the mindset of Nigerians need to change if the country is to become great, because any great invention or positive change in a country's political, educational, industrial and entertainment systems must start from the mind, because as a saying goes, 'the mind is a terrible thing to waste'.

the question is do u people still fear God? or u think the knowledge of man can conprehend the knowledge of God.saying bad things about man of God wont make God happy.ok

Professor Osundare, your piece has added to my cart of intelligence, gratefully i submit to your views, i share them wholeheartedly.

Let it be, that we made our contributions in our present capacity, telling my people of the need for changes in their attitude and beliefs have brought us shame, we have been called names like you have rightly said and painfully as it seems to our hearts, we have been forced to watch from the stands the extent and progress of the destruction of my people.

I would one day write my own topic on Education and Sentiment, as the basic factors that has made our leaders cheats us rapidly. We cant make suggestions, corrections and directions of what is wrong in our society. Sir, it's killing the free minded ones amongst us by the day. Our comments these days are being judged by our ethnicity, occupation, religion or even sex, that is why a yoruba man would be rained abuses if he criticize an Ijaw Man, an ibo man would be lynched at any slight possibility if he talks odd of an hausa man, a keke napep man might be beaten if he dares correct an okada man, Sir, the examples are lengthy and could bring tears close to eyes again on this day.

Sir, each day i go out on those streets of Lagos, i wonder why my people could ply these roads and still manage to keep the alausa secretariat peaceful and devoid of complaints and petition letters. Sir, until 2 children of the same parents are knocked down on any of our roads would you see the government begin immediate construction of pedestrian bridges on those risky roads. The problem is beyond our leaders now, it has now settled deep in our midst, in my country, truth no more prevails.

Sir, i think the problem is very wide and all aspects have its own grave flaws, i would suggest the constitution written by these corrupt justices are rewritten, that would be my suggestion on the first step to take if there is any sincerity in any New Nigeria.

In my country :

A man snatches a bag containing 2000 naira at the bus stop, he was chased and the bag recovered from him and the owner confirms nothing was missing from the bag after it was recovered. The man is charged to court, he is sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, whereas a Lady grounded Oceanic bank, took away Billions of Naira which could not be recovered again by the government, she is charged to one and half year in prison, she is presently abroad cooling off.

A man Desecrates 3 sisters, leave them dejected, got them pregnant, leave their family in pools of shame, he was caught, charged to court, the man would be sentenced to 1 year imprisonment with option of 20,000 Fine.

A man has Ond, Hnd, Bsc and Msc, he works tirelessly in an office of about 25km from his house, he spends 3 hours daily in the holdup, he gets home with weak eyes and clogged nose after inhaling high volumes of smoke and dust from the road on his way home, he earns 70,000 monthly whereas a boy drops out of school, never made it past Primary 6, he works as an agbero in one of those garages, he takes home at least 40,000 naira daily after spending 5000 on drinks and harlots,he owns four Danfo buses and a personal Honda Pilot Jeep.

Sir, Nigeria is a long story.

I do not see any proof that if this beloved country is being disintegrated, the emerging countries would be any better.

May the labor of our heroes past never be in vain.

@kpac, were you there when she stole the billions of naira?
That is the 1st question a lawyer would ask you.

A court is not a police station where you treat people as you wish.

If I rob you of 1million naira, with a GOOD lawyer, you are very likely to end up in prison.

It is dishearten hw people react to the truth wwhen their told. Prof. wrote something which all inwardly believe is the truth, bt, what do we get reactionists are all over the net casting insult to the writer without pointing out a mistake in the said writeup. Have said it countless number of time, "we need serious reorientation in this country". I can boldly tell you that, the is no place like home having live abroad for so long. During a discussion with a friend in my days in university, i asked him wha
http://www.nairaland.com/

Acidosis:

@kpac, were you there when she stole the billions of naira?

Acidosis of the brain, or have you forgotten she was found guilty and jailed?

Oh btw, it's easy to travel 200 miles even as the car fuel gauge reads empty: all that's needed for this wonderful miracle is a malfunction in the gauge. I have experienced such miracles myself. I usually fix the calibration of the gauge to properly reflect the actual volume of gas to prevent recurrence of the miracle because it's a miracle I can do without.

And why don't I find this miracle appealing? Simply because I wouldn't want to be telling a testimony of how I walked 200 miles when my tank was indicating full tank but then I ran out of gas. Those kind of miracles (oops I mean malfunctions) can easily switch from under-reporting to over-reporting.

[b]IT WILL SHOCK YOU THAT EVEN IF JESUS HIMSELF COMES DOWN TO APPEAL TO THESE PARTICULAR FOLLOWERS,THEY WOULD NOT LISTEN,BECAUSE JESUS MINISTRY IS NOT THE ACTRACTIVE TYPE, JESUS WARNED HIS FOLLOWERS THAT IN CHOOSING A PLACE OF WORSHIP,(LIKE CHURCH) WHICH HE LIKENS TO 'GATE', HE WARNED THAT ''THE BEST WAY IS THE NARROW WAY'' AGAINST TODAYS CHURCH ''COMMANDING CROWD''BUT PEOPLE OUT OF IGNORANCE CHOOSE TO DISOBEY JESUS,AND FOLLOW THE BROAD GATE TO THEIR PERIL.

EVEN JESUS SAID HE WILL DISOWN PROPHETS WHO PERFORM WONDERS ''IN HIS NAME'' BUT THEY BLINDLY FOLLOW,

Mat 17:13,15,22,23;


13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves

22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’. [/b]

that shows how powerfull it is to be ''brainwash''