Nigerians and the Problem of Religious Surrender Part 3

We Lost Our Wisdom in the Search for Righteousness

Excerpt from Something to Believe in: Religious Surrender and the Persistence of Magical Thinking. Originally posted Dec 2, 2018.

Speak to an average Nigerian about the country’s sorry state of affairs and you will get a resounding agreement that religious absorption is one of the major issues facing the country. You will likely get a breakdown and cogent analysis of how religious leaders and their political accomplices are taking advantage of the citizenry. The question now is “Why do we continue to surrender when we can clearly see the damaging effects of our continued followership?” Sadly, because we have internalized the message that achieving progress is not by our power, nor our might, we’ve concluded that it is not by our determination, intelligence or desire to do the right thing either.

With the arrival of the 21st century, where the fourth wave of industrial revolution and mind-blowing technology was taking place in other parts of the world, we are instead, held in enthralled wonder, as we listened to stories of how witches and wizards were tormenting people and how the devil (by using those close to us) was the cause of all our misery. Fear and distrust amongst friends and family is at a fever pitch, we’ve learned to hide information – even concerning our health – afraid to share personal details for fear of the devil using our confidants against us and further destroying us, or just being suspicious of our neighbors, friends or family as the cause of our ill health, no one is to be trusted.

The messages left behind with the exit of the colonialists remains strong within our hearts and fear of divine retribution would still not let us stray, even in our thoughts, from what we have been told to believe. We have barely moved the needle of mental progress in our country (beyond the knowledge of reading and writing) lest we fall short like Adam and Eve did by eating from the fruit of knowledge and acquiring more understanding of human nature than we are “permitted” to.

Mental laziness is the obvious result of this fear, as we found it easier to just follow the loudest voice with the easiest answers, and because it persistently urged us to surrender all to God for him to take care of, that was exactly what we did. And because Surrendering (being vanquished) entails giving up power, independent thought and the right to ask pertinent questions, we saw no reason to develop our national strength, methods, identity or philosophy, setting ourselves up for what is happening in our society today. We have become a wishy-washy people, too consumed by fear of the afterlife to focus on how they can improve and add value to their current existence.

Religion has come to be the number one thing that inspires the people; the only topic of discussion that really gets people animated, and you dare not dissent from the prophetic proclamations of faith lest you be viewed with disapproval and labelled apostate. In fact, some would regard you in shock, that you choose not to submit to religious teachings, and will do you a righteous favor of saying a prayer, in a loving attempt to save your soul from eternal damnation. We are so immersed in religion now that, we can hardly make it through two sentences without a proclamation, a declaration or a rebuke - in faith.

            The general assumption is that, by continued obedience and surrender, our burdens will be made lighter and we would find respite at the end of the day. But like every scam, the huge payday never comes. Unfortunately, because we refuse to engage rationally or intellectually with one another, we continue to fall for the deceit again and again, putting free money into the pockets of sweet talkers who persist in their promise that faith and patience is all we need to achieve economic stability and live decent lives, while they live lavishly at our expense and our family’s.

For the young generation suffering through this system, the symbolic imagery passed down from parents and popular culture, unwittingly encourages the belief that the only place where anything good is happening is in the land of the foreigners blessed by God, unlike ours which appeared to be cursed (despite the abundance of resources we could be using to improve our lives). So, they subconsciously look up to the foreigners and assume that everything they do is much better than anything we could ever try to put out and that our achieving success hinges on an opportunity to be a part of the conqueror’s community, hence our constant struggle to travel abroad. Our feeling of self-worth has plummeted as we play mental hide and seek with excuses as to why our blessings are yet to arrive in the country. And thus, our docile waiting game for blessings continues.

At this point, I would implore you to carry out reflections of your own, write down what you think every day Nigerians are doing that is not helping the society grow and see what discoveries you come up with. Think in-depth about your own actions, how honestly do you treat others at your work, in business and during daily interactions? What strikes you as the common errors perpetuating our lack of development, what can be done honestly as individuals and collectively as a nation to rectify the situation? Look around your local community, what needs urgent attention and what would it take to bring community members together to address it as a unit just for the common good without the thought of personal gain? What should be the starting point?

If we are serious about change in this country, then we need to start acting wisely and break free of the mental boundaries we have put up due to fear of religious dogma and begin to ask ourselves where, what and how, do we solve our own problems.