Religion, spirituality and national development

Twenty years have passed since the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) composed the “Prayer for Nigeria in Distress.” Since 1995, this prayer has been said in all Catholic Churches across the nation, almost on a daily basis. Composed at the height of the rapaciousness of military rule in Nigeria, the prayer was meant to […]

Twenty years have passed since the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) composed the “Prayer for Nigeria in Distress.” Since 1995, this prayer has been said in all Catholic Churches across the nation, almost on a daily basis. Composed at the height of the rapaciousness of military rule in Nigeria, the prayer was meant to be a source of encouragement to Nigerians that if we turn to God with all our hearts and seek his face, he will hear our prayer and come to rescue us from the clutches of our oppressors. The prayer took its spiritual orientation from God’s promise in the Second Book of Chronicles, where he said: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (7:14).
In the prayer, Christians were expected to beckon on God in these words: “Lord, we are weighed down, not only by uncertainties, but also by moral, economic and political problems. Listen to the cries of your people, who confidently turn to you… Be merciful to us your people. Spare this nation Nigeria from chaos, anarchy and doom. Bless us with your kingdom of justice, love and peace.” Thanks to providence, Nigerians were able to overcome the military years, which have come to be referred to as “years eaten by the locusts.” We collectively sent the soldiers back to the barracks and inaugurated a new democratic dawn in 1999.
In 1998, the CBCN again composed another prayer titled, “Prayer against Bribery and Corruption in Nigeria.” This time around, bribery and corruption were identified as the twin evils responsible for the failure of governance. The words of the prayer were tailored to satisfy pedagogical, moral, and spiritual purposes: Addressing God, the prayer says: “You have blessed our country Nigeria with rich human and natural resources, to be used to your honour and glory, and for the wellbeing of every Nigerian. We are deeply sorry for the wrong use of these your gifts and blessings, through acts of injustice, bribery and corruption, as a result of which many of our people are hungry, sick, ignorant and defenceless. Father, you alone can heal us and our nation of this sickness. We beg you, touch our lives, and the lives of our leaders and people, so that we may all realize the evil of bribery and corruption and work hard to eliminate it”. We are still on this battle till date.
The Catholic bishops have been the most vocal champions against the depredations of a corrupt nation. Since 1960, the bishops have vehemently and consistently spoken out against this national illness through communiqués, pastoral letters, statements, and other instruments of exercising their prophetic responsibility. No one will doubt that God has been good to Nigeria and Nigerians. In spite of the myriad challenges that have bedevilled our nation, we have often emerged “victorious” – to use a favourite Christian expression.
However, I reason that if prayer was the only solution to the problems of Nigeria then by now we should have surmounted all our problems. After over 20 years of praying for a distressed nation by millions of Christians in Nigeria, our prayers should have eclipsed all our challenges. The prayers offered to God on behalf of our nation by all manner of spiritual leaders and religious congregations across the length and breadth of Nigeria should have been enough to dispel the darkness of evil, corruption and vice, but alas they are still with us. The fact that our problems still persist points to the fact that Nigeria needs more than prayers.
The trouble with us Nigerians is that we often tend to abdicate our responsibilities under the illusion that God will do something. As Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah noted in his lecture at the Platform Nigeria in Lagos in October 2015, prayer has become for most Nigerians “a substitute for hard work and dedication to duty.” Instead of applying ourselves with commitment, dedication and patriotism to our responsibilities, Nigerians are famous for saying, “God will do it,” even when we know that God has given us the basic knowledge, intelligence and common sense to solve our problems. In a brilliant article titled, “Using God as a Lamp Post,” published in Thisday newspaper in February 2014, Dr Eddie Iroh lamented the fact that Nigerians take refuge from the reality that God has endowed them with brains and intelligence to solve their problems, and run to the same God for solutions to what they have the power to do.
In Eddie Iroh’s words, “Nigerians have formed this habit of abdicating their duties and responsibilities and passing them on to God; using God as an alibi for inaction… Nigerians appear to believe that probably because God is the author and finisher of all things, he will do even that which he has delegated to us to do.”He goes on to say that, “while we may agree that there is nothing wrong with running to God when the going gets tough, the tragedy is that we tend to use God in the manner a drunkard uses a lamp post: more for support than illumination!”
The persistence of critical national challenges beckons on us to rethink the place of faith and religious rationality in the dynamics and processes of nation building. The breakdown of the architecture of governance and the failure of the State are part and parcel of crises that have made religion a first aid box for many Nigerians to navigate out of their problems. That is why the God-talk has suddenly become a thriving industry in Nigeria. Corroborating this assumption, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah says: “The self-made and do-it-yourself fly by night pastors are emerging everyday. Any wonder we daily read of the news of pastors engaged in all forms of criminal activities from forgery, theft, rape, murder, fraud and all manner of crimes that we could never have come to associate with even the most ordinary person on the pews.”
If religiosity was all we needed to solve our problems, then all our national challenges should have fizzled away by now on account of the fact that Nigeria has been adjudged to be the most religious country in the world. But this is not the case. Nigeria is the only country that has the paradoxical reputation of being corrupt, poor, religious and happy, all at the same time. I have often wondered: How can a people be so religious but so corrupt? How can a people be so poor yet so happy? These staring ironies go to reinforce the fact that for many of us religiosity is just a cover for superficiality in our relationship with God and with our neighbour. The Letter of Saint James reminds us that faith and good works go together (cf. James 2:14-17). We cannot pray and fold our arms and believe that God will do everything for us. God will save us only if we are ready to be saved.
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ojeifo is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja.