₦airaland Forum

Sapiosexuality:
About four decades ago, Singapore was just a desert. The country was deserted of business, good ideas, tourists and most importantly, good governance. It was plagued with corruption and the people suffered the consequences. It was a third world country. Today, Singapore is no longer regarded as a third world country. In just a decade, it moved from a third world country to a first world country. In just a decade, it became a centre for tourism, business and welcomed tons of visitors daily, thanks to Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew , now called the father of Singapore.

He worked on attracting foreign investments into the country, training the people in various fields of business and grew the country’s industrial base. To ensure the people are safe from external conflicts and secure, he made sure Singapore was admitted into the United Nations. He gave the anticorruption agencies more powers to search, investigate and prosecute corrupt persons. In his autobiography, he wrote ‘I wouldn’t call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that their is a God’.

About three decades ago, the country known as Qatar was in the same state as Today’s Nigeria. It was stupendously rich but its people had nothing to show for it. They were highly religious, praying, cussing and wishing that their oil, siphoned by the Amir, is used to change their lives for good. They couldn’t offer any revolution. They were too weak for that and some considered any attempt at truncating the leadership of the royal family a sin against God and tried to avoid God’s wrath. They were suffering but could only pray against bad governance.

They had hands and minds but shunned any thought to put them to good use. In 1995, Hamid Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the son of the emir overthrew his father in a bloodless coup and this was the beginning of Qatar’s journey to the future. He resolved the border issues the country, or justly put, the Royal Family, had with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It was he who, in trying to have a voice, make impressions and showcase the country to the world, created the powerful news Network, Al-Jazeera. He changed the country, gave it an appealing face before handing over to his son, Tamim, in 2013, who is improving on his legacies.

This is not an anti-prayer treatise. This is not an anti-God sermon to dissuade any Nigerian Christian or Muslim from practising their religion. This is not an attempt to weaken the belief of the believer in the faith. This is not a tacit endorsement of atheism, agnosticism or even an attempt to denigrate theism. This is just an attempt to separate religion and religious practise from actual governance. This is an attempt to draw the line between religion and politics. This is a call to use our talents and brainpower in solving problems we CAN solve.

This is an attempt to show that any country that works hard and smart, despite her belief in any supernatural deity or providence, will succeed. This is an attempt to show that good and bad works and commonsensical solutions do not require the inputs of religion or prayers to be effective. It is a call to stop pretending we don’t know what we can do to save ourselves from the mess we dipped our foot into. We know what to do, some of us do but pretense and laziness is stopping us from doing them. We don’t go into prayers when we have an accident, we go to the hospitals. We don’t use prayer to remove a pin stuck in the rib, we go for a surgical operation. We don’t pray before we skip a hurdle, we just jump. But when it comes to governance we try to use prayer to make an independent entity, with freewill, to do a good thing when he is not willing.

What do we really mean by praying for Nigeria? When we ask people to pray for Nigeria what exactly do we intend to achieve? When we ask people to pray for our leaders, demons, what do we mean too? Honestly, none of that has worked. All Nigerian leaders have received gigawatts of prayers but none has failed to offer gigawatts of disappointment in return. All Nigerian leaders have sponsored both Christian and Islamic Pilgrimages but none of the prayers have worked. Why will it work? Where has it worked?

In America, the country knew nature rewards work and scorns at limbless words, they applied it and it worked. In Qatar, the people were in hell until a son who knew better, who knew that prayers and goodwill is not enough and will not lift a finger, a son who was well educated and learned, transmitted his energy to the society and they were saved. The same thing happened in UAE but we have not learned. We keep praying for things we have, within us, answers to. How do you elect a demon after collecting 2000 Naira and start praying for that demon to change? How do you expect any God to interfere with the freewill of men who have sold their souls to the devil?

We can keep praying and wishing but it will change nothing. We can keep praying before any national event where we formulate disastrous policies but nothing will change. God doesn’t build countries. He, in both the Christian and Islamic religions, which the majority of Nigerians profess, has given man dominion over everything under the earth. If a government is failing, wait at the polls and stop collecting peanuts that ruin you. If something is not working, call the people in charge and demand better. If a system is faulty and you want it corrected, demand sound leadership.

Stop calling God to cover your ineffectuality. Stop calling for prayers in building a nation because you have hands and should put your minds to use. From America, Britain, Germany to the modern day prosperous countries like Qatar, UAE and Singapore, this is what was done. They knew only good governance and moving (not just deciding to) forward will help them move forward. They stopped hiding behind prayer and what God wanted and gave the people what they needed. When we are sick we visit the hospital but if the government is bad we call on God and pray when we can do something. Something is wrong with us.

shervydman:
The problem with this country is d people, they don't know their rights, they don't know that leaders are chosen to serve them n not d other way round. What would u expect from the people when they're bribed with 2.5kg of rice during election?? Reason why d governor of a state will construct a 1km road n will celebrate it with red carpet ovation. Our leaders think they're doing us favour by providing basic amenities. Our leaders are not leaders but "politicians".

d people are also divided that it's impossible to stand for one cause, another weak-link!! when some people are not contented with a leader's dispensation, some set of people will fight tooth n nail for that leader to continue his irresponsibility simply because he came from their region. How can we have visionary leaders with this intricacies??

As long as this stupid unitary system remains, Nigeria won't develop...As long as we don't develop Nigerians to think beyond mediocrity n demand better governance from d government, Nigeria is going nowhere, How can we even progress when we're still sensitizing ourselves on "sham unity" that's not there in d first place instead of promulgating progressive policies??

The most annoying part of it is d religious fanatics, they expect God to miraculously do miracles. I don't even want to talk about d religious mumus.

Sapiosexuality:
It is appalling. Our minds are too entrapped to understand the meaning of good leadership or how humans ought to be treated. We have been violated for long and we have come to accept that the rapists are doing us a favour days they refuse to rape us. We are mentally broken, tribally broken, religiously broken, culturally broken and our dull intellect has made us suffer.

Karl Marx said, religion is the opium of the masses but I think religion is the opium of the elites. Without the distraction religions offer, without that sense of hope religions offer, without that disdain for earth and the life of Pablo, people already down could be inspired to face their real enemies, the elites and politicians who dole out change to them. Like Zuckerberg said, Religion is useful.

CodeTemplar:
Religion is opium of the masses. It is meant for private use and only becomes a burden when misunderstood. I pay tithe and tax and I know how they help with physical amenities and spiritual needs.
It is when we misdirect the need of amenities to God and depend on wisdom from govt that things go awry.

shervydman:
The problem with this country is d people, they don't know their rights,

they don't know that leaders are chosen to serve them n not d other way round.

What would u expect from the people when they're bribed with 2.5kg of rice during election??

Reason why d governor of a state will construct a 1km road n will celebrate it with red carpet ovation. Our leaders think they're doing us favour by providing basic amenities. Our leaders are not leaders but "politicians".

d people are also divided that it's impossible to stand for one cause, another weak-link!!

when some people are not contented with a leader's dispensation, some set of people will fight tooth n nail for that leader to continue his irresponsibility simply because he came from their region. How can we have visionary leaders with this intricacies??

As long as this stupid unitary system remains, Nigeria won't develop...As long as we don't develop Nigerians to think beyond mediocrity n demand better governance from d government, Nigeria is going nowhere, How can we even progress when we're still sensitizing ourselves on "sham unity" that's not there in d first place instead of promulgating progressive policies??

The most annoying part of it is d religious fanatics, they expect God to miraculously do miracles. I don't even want to talk about d religious mumus.

shervydman:
The problem with this country is d people, they don't know their rights, they don't know that leaders are chosen to serve them n not d other way round. What would u expect from the people when they're bribed with 2.5kg of rice during election?? Reason why d governor of a state will construct a 1km road n will celebrate it with red carpet ovation. Our leaders think they're doing us favour by providing basic amenities. Our leaders are not leaders but "politicians".

d people are also divided that it's impossible to stand for one cause, another weak-link!! when some people are not contented with a leader's dispensation, some set of people will fight tooth n nail for that leader to continue his irresponsibility simply because he came from their region. How can we have visionary leaders with this intricacies??

As long as this stupid unitary system remains, Nigeria won't develop...As long as we don't develop Nigerians to think beyond mediocrity n demand better governance from d government, Nigeria is going nowhere, How can we even progress when we're still sensitizing ourselves on "sham unity" that's not there in d first place instead of promulgating progressive policies??

The most annoying part of it is d religious fanatics, they expect God to miraculously do miracles. I don't even want to talk about d religious mumus.

Sapiosexuality:
Is the unitary system really the problem or a lack of solid intellectual, mental architecture? Or is it that there is something about regionalism and resource control that encourages growth?

The God angle is mischievous, ignorant and provoking. They know that calling God to solve anything has never solved it. They know what other countries did to reach the heights they are today but they keep wishing.

shervydman:
Nigeria is running a bastardized system of government, not really "unitary" and not totally a "federation" but a fusion of both.

Nigeria is running a federal system of government simply because.. it's a multi-ethnic country n has huge population, federation supports common interest, reduces differences within regions/territories and discourages secession. In a nutshell, Nigeria practice federal system just to unify d country n nothing more, Nigeria doesn't devolve total power to d states that true federalism encourages.

Nigeria practice unitary system of government too because....power is concentrated at d central and almost every government parastatals is at d central, this system of government is used in countries with 1 major ethnic group n less population, things are run with ease because there's not much differences among d people unlike Nigeria.

Nigeria major in "unitary" n minor in "federal" but not on d list of countries d runs unitary system n on d list of d less than 30 countries that runs a "federal system of government".

The current structure suffocates the states.