Nigeria: Religion As a Instrument for the Empowerment of Nigerians
what should worry us is not religion as such,
but the possibility that religion can become
pathological such as the case of Boko Haram or
the ‘pastorpreneurs’ who preach the falsehood of
prosperity without hard work. Reasonable minds,
to use, the authors own words denounce such
religious extremes and abuses. It is possible to
heal the sore without cutting the limb.
The media has an infinite power to form and
inform people. People look up to media for
information and guidance. As a platform for
information dissemination however it is also
susceptible to sundry forms of abuses, meaning
that it can also misinform and miseducate people.
Now in Nigeria, with the rising influence of the
media and its critical role in social re-
engineering and positive change, opinions offered
to the public are very critical in as much as it has
the power of influencing people’s perception of
reality, and above all their actions to realising
the ideals of social change. If it is important
that Nigerians should read, in my opinion, it is
even more important what they read for the
reason already stated.
It is not always easy to delineate the borderline
between error and truth, as such judgements will
ultimately depend on more fundamental
convictions of either the writer or the reader.
For this reason the easiest way to arrive at
plausibility is to gauge the validity of a claim
against the contrary position.
I do not believe that religion is a tool for the
impoverishment of Nigerians as Bamidele
Ademola-Olateju emphasised in the piece recently
published also on this platform. Apart from the
fact that the assumptions of the write-up are
faulty, its premises are sweeping and worrisome
and its conclusions are in fact false. The basic
assumptions and premises are that people are
religious because they are poor and that only
poor people are religious; that religion has no
social value; that people can take total control of
their lives; that embracing religion amounts to a
weakness; that the claims of religion are
unredeemable; that religion is the cause of the
ruin of education; that elites and religious
ministers are in a form of unholy alliance to foistwhat should worry us is not religion as such,
but the possibility that religion can become
pathological such as the case of Boko Haram or
the ‘pastorpreneurs’ who preach the falsehood of
prosperity without hard work. Reasonable minds,
to use, the authors own words denounce such
religious extremes and abuses. It is possible to
heal the sore without cutting the limb.
The media has an infinite power to form and
inform people. People look up to media for
information and guidance. As a platform for
information dissemination however it is also
susceptible to sundry forms of abuses, meaning
that it can also misinform and miseducate people.
Now in Nigeria, with the rising influence of the
media and its critical role in social re-
engineering and positive change, opinions offered
to the public are very critical in as much as it has
the power of influencing people’s perception of
reality, and above all their actions to realising
the ideals of social change. If it is important
that Nigerians should read, in my opinion, it is
even more important what they read for the
reason already stated.
It is not always easy to delineate the borderline
between error and truth, as such judgements will
ultimately depend on more fundamental
convictions of either the writer or the reader.
For this reason the easiest way to arrive at
plausibility is to gauge the validity of a claim
against the contrary position.
I do not believe that religion is a tool for the
impoverishment of Nigerians as Bamidele
Ademola-Olateju emphasised in the piece recently
published also on this platform. Apart from the
fact that the assumptions of the write-up are
faulty, its premises are sweeping and worrisome
and its conclusions are in fact false. The basic
assumptions and premises are that people are
religious because they are poor and that only
poor people are religious; that religion has no
social value; that people can take total control of
their lives; that embracing religion amounts to a
weakness; that the claims of religion are
unredeemable; that religion is the cause of the
ruin of education; that elites and religious
ministers are in a form of unholy alliance to foist
religion on the people in order to oppress them.
The bulwark against these stated problems, in
the author’s opinion, is good education. Once
Nigerians receive good education their problems
will all be solved. This is the emphatic point of
conclusion. While it cannot be disputed that good
education is essential for a good human life, it is
not true that good education alone can secure a
good society. What we may call a good society is
made possible by a combination of many factors
one of which is religion. I do not know of any
society where there is no religion.
I do not know of any other organisation that
stands by the poor as religious organisations do
or in fact that can boast of cumulative
empowerment for people that religious
organisations… The role of the church in politics
is no less notable. Apart from doubling up as a
medium for civic and political education of its
members, churches have mobilised massive
election participation and observation as well,
mainly on voluntary basis. Our rising democracy
is evidence to this.
Unlike the author, however I think that religion
has been a tool of tremendous empowerment in
Nigeria. I come from an area of Nigeria where all
the functional schools and hospitals are run by
religious organisations. It is reckless and unfair
for instance to see religion entirely as a bondage
and tool of impoverishment. Foreign missionaries
have spent their resources, time, energy and
even their lives for the education and
empowerment of Nigerians. Today local
missionaries are carrying on this task to a great
level of success. All the villages and corners of
the South-East today are littered with school
projects funded and run by missionaries and
religious organisations. In other parts of
Nigeria, such a claim can also be made with a
degree of plausibility.
The fact that Nigerians could pull through the
darkest days of the war or the days of military
tyranny, especially in the health sector, is
because of the ubiquitous and itinerant presence
of missionary health care. Or do we think that
Nigerians survived on their own, when literally all
government hospitals contained only broken
tables and rusty beds? How can we now denounce
religion entirely without slipping into error and
falsehood?
Churches today still provide scholarships for
indigent children, they still provide food for the
hungry, they still pay hospital bills of poor
people, they still provide homes for the homeless.
In whatever area of human need, the church as
an institution has played a significant role in
Nigeria. It can play more and to this challenge
we should rise, but to turn and impute only
incarceration, manipulation and disservice is less
than the truth. I do not know of any other
organisation that stands by the poor as religious
organisations do or in fact that can boast of
cumulative empowerment for people that religious
organisations.
The role of the church in politics is no less
notable. Apart from doubling up as a medium for
civic and political education of its members,
churches have mobilised massive election
participation and observation as well, mainly on
voluntary basis. Our rising democracy is evidence
to this. Powerful clergy also stood up against the
military in the past and today stand up against
political office holders to bring them to account.
That they can do more is true, but that they
have done nothing; or in fact that they have
colluded with the elites to thwart the lives of
Nigerians, is false.
Good education makes one to appreciate his true
worth and power and to work towards its self-
realisation. Good education opens up
opportunities. It is wrong, however, to assume
by the same token, that good education is
capable of providing answers to the most difficult
questions of human life such as the borderline
between providence and free-will.
The prophetic role played by Father Mbaka during
the last elections is still fresh in our memory.
Not only did he denounce the corruption and
ineptitude of the past regime he encouraged
Nigerians to vote for change. He said it openly
that the prophetic duty of the church demands
that it should speak for the poor, who are being
vanquished by corrupt governments. In doing this
he put his life, like many other defenders of the
poor, on the line for his convictions. Many
religious ministers have risked their lives for the
well-being of their members. Many other
courageous pastors have also spoken against the
government when they had to. I think it is wrong
to disregard the impact of such efforts.
I think that religion in principle does not create
poverty nor does good education guarantee
security. Poverty is a given condition of human
society most notably fostered, like in the case of
Nigeria, by political misgovernance. It cannot be
denied that some religious practices such as we
may see in Nigerian can become harmful to
proper self-empowerment, but such
misdevelopments cannot be seen as the core of
religion, rather as its blind spot. It is up to each
individual to decide the credibility of the religious
organisation where to pitch their tent, but the
basic assumption of religion is the indisputable
relationship that exists between God and man.
Good education makes one to appreciate his true
worth and power and to work towards its self-
realisation. Good education opens up
opportunities. It is wrong, however, to assume
by the same token, that good education is
capable of providing answers to the most difficult
questions of human life such as the borderline
between providence and free-will. To claim this is
to overstate the importance of education. Today
we have many unemployed but well educated
youths, is this caused by religion or by no
education?
Finally I can end this piece by noting that what
should worry us is not religion as such, but the
possibility that religion can become pathological
such as the case of Boko Haram or the
‘pastorpreneurs’ who preach the falsehood of
prosperity without hard work. Reasonable minds,
to use, the authors own words denounce such
religious extremes and abuses. It is possible to
heal the sore without cutting the limb.
religion on the people in order to oppress them.
