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This place has matriculated into the best place to be a criminal in Africa. Criminals rule as governors. Ex-convicts are in some positions of integrity and authority. In Nigeria, thieves are given places and titles of honour in churches, mosques and society. In Nigeria, there is nothing money cannot do. It is the new god firmly emplaced in our conceptual temples. The way we worship money smacks of primitive acquisitive propensities. “If E no be me, Na who God go bless?” summarizes the way we approach religion.
The sacred has departed from our land, a situation that made the Reformer to conclude, “Some people are alive only because it is illegal or crime to kill them.” Otherwise, how can you explain the topsy-turvy theological philosophies ravaging our society today? The street theology that explains that man is a human being on a spiritual journey, instead of spiritual being on a human journey, which we are truly.
Yes, the sacred has departed from our land; it is now replaced by a syncretistic mélange of primitive magic, consolidated ignorance and a clever exploitation of fears. This can probably explain a professor obliging a pastor who asked him to dance in the market square naked in the middle of the night in order to revoke an ancient ancestral curse etched in his family’s genetic code and transferred inter-generationally to him.
In business, a Nigerian can cheat you while saying the afternoon angelus in themarket. GSM handset has been stolen at crusade arenas, pockets have been picked there, etc. The list is endless. I am not saying that every Nigerian should bea saint. But, if not, why not! I am not equally saying that all Nigerians are crooks. Far from it! Millions of Nigerians are heroically living out their faith uncompromisingly. But the situation is so hopeless that the bad ones have overwhelmed the good people who are striving not to be a curse to their religion.
We have failed religion. We have smuggled the worship of Mammon and other false gods into the sacred pantheons of religion. We pray in public and pray in private. Ours is an era in the throes of unmitigated materialism, an era ofviolent and superstitious spirituality. Our land and clime has been corrupted. Credulity has been enthroned and the ignorant masses swallow every neo-paganistic creed hook, line and sinker, with unparalleled gusto, in so far as it promises immediate liberation from the unpleasant socio-economic realities of our day. We have failed the Gods of our various faiths. We have failed. What should be our response to this situation? The situation is unpalatable, no doubt. But it is not irredeemable. We can still do something about this.
No one should say he/she is too small to make a good change that can positively influence our society. If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito. A single mosquito can keep one awake all through the night, so no one is too small to make a change. So you can play a role for the reformation.
Though we have not fully exhausted the inherent spirituality in Christianity; yes, we have not tried the Christian religion. Itis my opinion that the Christian option has not been fully tried in Nigeria. Even though it has been tried to an extend but we have abandoned it without expensive trials.
This is the only religion in Nigeria that has an elevating theology for man and woman alike. And this Anthropology empowers man to drive to the extremes of his powers in his bid to actualize his ‘self’. It is presently, when Christians start to seriously question themselves on how far they are approximating the degree of excellence inherent in tenets of the faith they profess.
For the practical application and approximation of this, the church could help us more, but I would leave that to her. I am of the view that just a little practical Christianity would change Nigeria from a soup pot of chameleonic vacillation into a purposeful, sane nation free of all the debilitating socio-economic burdens saddling her presently.
On the other hand, Ladies and Gentlemen, we can as well try our own traditional religions, which we have abandoned for many years for western forms of faith. The same people like Geoffrey Parrinder who claimed that we the Africans have no system of thought, explicit or assumed, thereby denying our humanity, are the same people who do not know that Descartes “cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) applies to all men. The concept of God is very prominent in African ontology.
Parrinder rightly observes that “Africans were religious people” their ontology is anthropocentric ontology in the sense that everything is seen in terms of its relation to man. The forces in the ontological order are arranged in hierarchically descending order from God to spirits and divinities to human beings, plants and animal to phenomena and objects. God is greater in all ramifications than the lesser gods and spirits. Most African names reflect very much the African idea of God. The notion that Africans do nothave the conception of God is, therefore unfounded.
The proliferation of Afro-Christian churches in Nigeria is a living testimony to the need to make Islam and Christianity adaptable to African way of life and religion. Take, for example, celebration, music and feastings of African culture are being adopted by Christian churches. Nowadays, Muslims, Christians and traditional festivals have the participationof non-members from other religions.
Finally, there is need for all religions, including Islam, Christianity and traditional religion, to interact theologically and socially. They should hold dialogues at all levels. Adherents of each religion should see non-members as brothers and sisters, and children of the same God. This is the basis upon which Nigeria will attain nationhood and complete unity. To be very honest with my readers,the majority of our Christian leaders have not been fair with the practice of the teachings of Christ in this country. We cheat, kill, exploit others in Christ’s name. The divine actually frowns at these ignoble practices all in his name. The other day, I watched a young “Pastor” sucking the breast of a young lady in the church as a means of administering deliverance. I pity this generation because they have introduced the worship of Mammon into the original Christian creed that Christ brought.
As a Christian, I’m worried about this and wonder, if this continues, everything about Christianity will be lost to traditional religion. You can attest to the common fact on how our modern youths are abandoning Christianity to traditional religion; this is as a result of failures, duplicity and compromises hitherto witnessed in the Christian religion by some church leaders.
If nothing works in this direction, one has no alternative than to suggest that the government should recognize Nigerian indigenous religion as the official religion for both domestic and foreign policies. It can be the basis for Nigerian nationhood.
