I know that this cannot be an easy sell to Nigerians. Even as I write, I can feel the resentment to the suggestion that our country’s redemption lies in anything close to righteousness. And I understand why.
Here is a country with a president who has visited churches in the first two years of his tenure than possibly all former presidents put together. On each of his visits, he is accompanied by a large number of his cabinet members who belong to his faith. So one can say that every Christian on the Federal Executive Council has been part of the President’s itinerant Christianity.
Our vice-president visits the holy land of Mecca at least twice every year, in addition to the dutiful observance of his five daily prayers and Jumat services on Fridays. Governors of the 36 states are not too far away from the religious accomplishments of our first two citizens, as each one according to his faith would visit the church or the mosque as often as is needed.
To further seal their “good works”, each governor supervises the sponsorship of hundreds of citizens to the Holy Lands of Mecca and Israel yearly even as educational and health institutions collapse. I assume that aside from the political patronage essence of the sponsorship of pilgrimages, governors have hopes that this would be counted as righteousness for them.
Senators and Representatives, commissioners in the states, local government chairmen and thousands of political appointees all over the land are not left out in this physical act of worshipping God. So are the ordinary citizens no matter at what post they find themselves in the country. Even at the first and only session that the recently inaugurated National Conference has held, arguments about religion have already surfaced.
But nothing has changed. This year alone, thousands of Nigerians including helpless, innocent children have been murdered in cold blood. Some were slaughtered, some beheaded, some set ablaze, some shot dead with high calibre equipment which should not be found in the hands of criminals. Fathers now rape their children on a daily basis. We administer fatal extrajudicial sentences on our brothers and sisters with abandon, blood flows all over the land like water, while greed and selfishness abide in us, yet we all literally live in worship houses.
Just last Saturday, 18 Nigerians, four of them pregnant, left their homes in legitimate pursuit of a means of livelihood. They never returned to their loved ones. They were marched to their death in a stampede which resulted from the thoughtlessness of some highly placed Nigerians who were too detached to realise the inadvisability of calling hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths out for less than five thousands job vacancies, half of which would have been filled by their cronies.
Currently, we have lost count of how much is missing from our treasury. A certain 20 billion US dollars has developed wings, then a 35 billion naira and then God knows how much. Members of the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives, people whose salaries and emoluments are only known to God and themselves, gleefully open up what many would see as the corruption in the executive. Politicians and civil servants are stealing the life out of the nation. People are dying in instalments and the living are getting poorer by the day. Every waking day, we creep into darkness worse than the previous day. These are really scary times.
Yet those who cause us these troubles enter worship houses every day even when they will commit another atrocity against Nigeria the next moment. And then, someone is here talking about righteousness?
But that is exactly my point. The reign of religion has confused us all. This is why I suggest that we take a moment to ponder over the difference between religion and righteousness. And that at no time in history has religion without righteousness saved the world, no wonder the Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation.
www.dictionary.com defines religion as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature… and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” It defines righteousness as “the quality or state of being just or rightful” What I understand from these definitions is that each religion should constantly remind adherents of its set moral codes and lead them into a state of righteousness. Religion should be a platform for building and reforming society in such a way that every member of that society can attain their best.
Most religions believe that after all humans die, they would face judgment. This judgment would be based on how well they keep to the moral codes dictated by their religion and at the end of it, the Almighty Being will decide whether the work done by each individual on earth qualifies him to live eternally with God or in eternal damnation with Satan. The implication of this is that what we do or do not do here would count for or against us in the hereafter.
Islam for example teaches as follows: “It is not righteousness that you turn your faces (in prayer) towards East or West; but it is righteousness to believe in God and the Last day, and the Angels and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your wealth – in spite of your love for it – for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer and practise regular charity; to fulfil the contracts which you have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain and adversity and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God – minded (Qur’an, 2:177).
The Bible also talks about seeking the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. Matthew 22: 36- 40 says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The Bible further explains that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails” Love conquers all. If you really have love therefore, you would never harm the other person.
In an article with the title “Crime and African traditional religion”, S.A Adewale says: “In traditional African society the sacred and the secular are inseparable. What religion forbids or condemns society also forbids and condemns… An offence against God is an offence against man, and in like manner an offence against man is an offence against God…. Forbidden criminal actions include adultery, breach of covenant, burglary, fornication, incest, kidnapping, irreverence and unkindness to parents, lying, murder, rape, seduction, speaking evil of rulers, swearing falsely, theft, sodomy and malice… and any person committing any of them is regarded as a criminal and is punishable.”
But Nigerians think that they can replace righteousness with religion, so we attend worship houses without paying attention to the tenets of our faith. Because we do not take the tenets of our religions seriously, we have also found it difficult to be loyal to the laws of our country with the result that everyone does what they feel like doing confident that they would be able to manipulate the legal system.
This is why we are a community in anarchy and we will remain so until we individually decide to embrace righteousness as a way of life. We must realise, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, that it is better to have a heart without prayers than prayers without a heart. We must begin to practise our faith with kindness and commitment to humanity without which we are not communing with God. We must realise that what we do to our neighbourhood is a measure of our righteousness before God. Leaders must realise that what they do to the multitude of men and women that die in pain, hunger and deprivation would determine how their progeny end up here on earth as well as how they end up in eternity. To free our country from shackles therefore, we should all go after righteousness and stop this religious deceit before it is too late to realise that God cannot be mocked.
. Adedokun, a Lagos based PR consultant, writes from nadedokun@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter:@niranadedokun.
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