WHAT HAS RELIGION GOT TO DO WITH IT? We have been overly sentimental and inadvertently emotional in our display of ethnic and religious affinity in Nigeria. That goes without saying in other parts of the Black World. We have allowed a few of us to deck us into a corner with aspersions and notions that generally suits their egocentric yearnings at the expense of the vast majority of the masses. They have used religion and ethnicity to DIVIDE and RULE us for the better part of the last 100 years. The masses have been used as tools to project their innermost cravings even at their (the masses’) own peril. What has religion got to do with the creation/provision of food, shelter and clothing? What has ethnicity got to do with organ donation or any charitable cause for the betterment of mankind? Where is it written that a Yoruba man’s kidney would not fit an Ibibio man’s kidney once it is certified compatible by a specialist? When will the masses learn that our problem is not with our leaders but with us as the led? When will we all unite to say enough of the false teachings from the various quarters where they exploit our thirst and hunger for the basic necessities of life? When will we realise that what we are fed constantly by the Imams, Pastors, Native Priests, religious leaders of all inclinations, community leaders, and government officials et al are bedevilling our polity? I mourn for posterity. How long will we continue to stand with hands akimbo while those that are less intelligent than us continue to mutilate our communal resources and feed us from the crumbs on their table? They have succeeded in planting FEAR into our hearts and minds. They have instilled the spirit of mediocrity and ‘it is well’ in our psyche. The West are coming up with marvels and we are their ready market. They invent we consume. It beats me silly that we have not been able to successfully feed ourselves adequately since we attained independence. No one will tell me that we do not have what it takes to be a major exporter of not oil, but processed cocoa, millet, sugar, rice et al. Our lands are arable so are our beautiful women and muscle bulging men on each of the streets of Nigeria. The latest ‘technology’ in which we have grown in the last 35 years must be churches and mosques on each street. Noises of all forms are heard from dusk till dawn from these places of worship but we fail woefully in the discharge of the commandments of the Holy Books. Those in whose hands we have placed our collective fate have devised ways of using these books to circumvent our thought pattern. They have extracted parts of the Holy Books to veil our third eye while they continue to rape us indiscriminately. We allowed them. Yes, we did. Is it not time to raise our collective voices as one people to demand what is rightly ours from them? Or how would you explain to me that the blood flowing in Mohammed Danjuma is different from what exists in Obafemi Ibidapo’s veins? Perhaps you are prepared to show me how Ngozi Okeke’s respiratory organs are totally different from those in Fatima Abu’s system. Why are we allowing the same precedence to blur our onwards movement as a nation? Why do we take sides with the wrong sets of people (our common enemy) and commit injustices to our fellow brothers and sisters in the name of religion or ethnic divide? What are the rationales behind our thoughtlessness in dealing justly with our fellow brothers and sisters? It is time to call those deceivers, liars, fraudsters and agents of melancholy to book. Let us rid our minds of the age long hatred and animosity planted by a few individuals to perpetuate their evil machinations against us as a people. The moment we realise that they are not on our side that will be the day our transition to greatness will begin. Religion and ethnicity should not be a militating force against our progress. Let us move beyond the bunkum and carve a level playing field for posterity. We need a new paradigm shift and I strongly think moving away from the shackles of religion and ethnicity, especially in Nigeria, will bring about the much sought after progress in our clime. The ball is in our court once again.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:13:46 +0000
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