Nigeria Beyond Divorce: Amalgamation in Perspective

Chapter Fourteen: The Problem with Nigeria – Growing Religious Tension

C H A PT E R 14 THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA – GROWING RELIGIOUS TENSION From the dawn of civilisation, religion has always played an indispensable role both in private lives of individuals and in the realm of the society. Throughout the ages human beings have always felt like invoking some supernatural being or agency to help solve problems beyond them. Religion therefore provides answer to men’s quest for issues beyond his realm. Example are such fundamental issues as creation of the world, human existence, source of life, happiness and finally death to the great beyond. The religions of the world include: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Daoism and Shinto of Japan. In Nigeria, there are two main religions – Christianity and Islam. Nigerians vigorously pursue their religions which most often are the religion they were born into. Outwardly, Nigerians are deeply religious. However, 171 172 Nigeria Beyond Divorce inwardly practicalising the tenets of their religions is disappointingly low considering the avalanche of ills plaguing the society. In public places, prayers begin and end both official and private functions. Indeed, Nigerians are at their best in trying to dialogue with God instead of worshiping Him. Unfortunately, the endless prayers from most Nigerians bounce back to them because the heart and minds reeling off those so-called power-packed prayers are unclean. They stink to high heaven. In most cases, particularly in the Christian religion, Nigerians call on God as if the Almighty Father is only for them and them alone. Rightly, they ascribe everything good to Him and everything bad is not of their making but of the devil, forgetting that devils are human beings. Consequently, the average Nigerian fails to do his or her bit before seeking divine help. And when they fail, they will not extra task themselves or search their conscience for solution but will straight away blame the devil or someone else for their failure. For instance, a young lady took her car to church on a Sunday. When the church was over, she now tried to start her car for the journey home. The car refused to start after so many attempts. The lady was mad to frenzy. People around were therefore not surprised to hear her murmuring in annoyance “O God, I have come to worship you, how can you allow the devil punish me this way?” It was eventually found that the car failed to start because of loss of contact, but that did not stop the young lady from fasting that week “to avoid such devilish embarrassments in future”. That’s a typical attitude of a Nigerian. They commonise their relationship with their Supreme Being as if they are talking to a human boss! 173 The Problem With Nigeria – Growing Religious Tension It’s no wonder that the Christian pentecostal churches are making waves. Normally, pastoral work is a calling for God’s work and only those blessed by God like my late father of blessed memory engaged in such jobs. But these days, in an era of massive unemployment, genuine pastors are there but fake ones are on the increase because what we have are the bread ‘n’ butter pastors and not the spirit filled ones. And so, as Nigeria’s production factories are closing down, the churches are buying up the buildings and converting them to churches. Unfortunately not church for God but church for goodies – money, fun, leisure etc. This is now the trend and Nigerians unfortunately, instead of learning to work and pray, will rather pray, and pray and pray – thus ignoring their talents and asking God to do the work for them. That’s not life, and unless this is checked, our youth are doomed because they will continue to regard the church as a bath tub where the prostitutes, armed robbers, kidnappers, etc, commit atrocities outside the church, and then walk in every Sunday to cleanse themselves by simply praying for God’s forgiveness. They forget that by so doing they are making fun of the Holy Spirit and sin against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. As a people, we enjoyed peaceful religious atmosphere until 1980 when Maitatsine religious uprising killed over 5,000 and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. The Kano inferno was followed by more riots in Kafanchan and Kaduna from 10th to 11th of March 1987. About 128 hotels, eighty-four churches and twenty- three...