9th September, 2011
Nigeria is one country that is so blessed with very religious people with only a few practising what the religions say. We keep making noise all over the place telling anyone who cares to know how much of good Christians and Muslims we are. There are stickers all over our vehicles and offices just for people around us to know what we are. We are nothing but very religious people who live and thrive in hypocrisy.
I don’t know what the pillars of Islam are, but I know that like Christianity, Islam preaches love towards fellow humans. Like a man in my estate who wakes up very early shouting on top of his voice in prayers only for you to see him the next minute beating his wife. Many of us are just religious, observing all the man-made laws and doctrines of our religion, showing outward righteousness when our insides are filled with all sorts of garbage.
After reading my last Friday’s article, a woman called me amidst tears. This woman was working before she got married to a pastor who stopped her from working and won’t even let her participate in the running of the ministry. She told me that from the time they marriage till date, she has not received anything from this man as all she does is borrow or beg to clothe herself. This man, according to her, is a very powerful man, who captivates his audience when he speaks, but he is a devil in his home; this is the case of many Nigerian homes today and this is why many pastors’ children go away from the gospel their father preaches.
We run to churches and mosques constantly without having anything to show for it. People have been accusing me of encouraging women to live their matrimonial homes because of my article of Tuesday, 6 September. I have no regrets and I won’t take that back. I repeat; any woman who finds herself in a physically abusive relationship should run for her dear life before she is sent to an early grave. After reading the article, a medical doctor called me in the presence of his wife, lamenting the death of his patient just last week who he constantly asked to pack out of her matrimonial home for the sake of her life, but she was directed by relations and church people to stay in there and continue praying. The man beat her again three weeks ago and she didn’t come out of it alive; this lady died as a result of domestic violence.
We are just religious and playing politics with the name of God; there is no fruit to show for it. We pray and fast more than every other person; we take care of other people outside and give out our best cars to people outside when your own wife at home has nothing to show for your being nice. Pastors go on the altar and preach with signs following, but do all sorts of things behind the altar. You preach in the name of God and Allah who is a God of truth and justice, but your staff and relations have nothing to show for your long hours in the mosque and church. You are only deceiving yourself because the God I know is the God of truth who searches every heart.
How many of our religious leaders are part of the people masterminding the killings of innocent Nigerians in the Niger Delta and Northern areas of Nigeria? It is really sad how our pastors and Imams have moved from what they should be doing and getting involved in playing politics. Please, leave us the common men to play politics while you go back to your altar to seek the face of God on behalf of the nation; speak, only when it is necessary to warn people against the wrath of God coming on the nation.
We go to church and mosque, engage in our religious activities so that when we die, there will be 20 Bishops to conduct the funeral service. If you like, bring the Pope to carry you himself to the grave, whatever life you lived here on earth determines your eternal destination. Isn’t it surprising how people loot the country dry and engage in all sorts of political killings only for the greatest Imam and Archbishop to start praising them at death? Isn’t it surprising that our former INEC chairman, Maurice Wuru-wuru, after destroying Nigeria and milking us dry, had the gut to use the same money made from corruption to build a church for his people. I was so sad when I saw a priest calling a man like Maurice Iwu, a good Catholic.
Woe unto them who say ‘thus says the Lord’ when he hasn’t said anything. Woe unto you religious leaders who use the name of the Almighty God to enrich yourselves. Woe unto you pastors and Imams who continually pray for the thieves we have in government, not for them to change, but for God to bless them more. I don’t know the god you are praying to, but that god is definitely not the one I know. When the anger of the Almighty descends on the nation Nigeria, you shall be the first to be destroyed; you and your greedy wife who won’t tell you to stop.
Our media houses are all making good money from religious organisations as everyone wants to advertise miracles. If we spend half of the money we spend on religious adverts (because as far as I am concerned, a good number of such telecasts are for selfish reasons and not for the name of God to be glorified) in trying to fix the lives of the poor masses, if we use that money to take care of the less privileged ones, if we take the money to the rural areas and use it to give the people health centres and pipe-borne water, they will automatically give their lives to Christ when they see the love of Christ being made manifest through you.
There is too much of preaching today, but only a few are bearing fruits unto repentance. The churches and mosques are filled with very spiritual people without the knowledge of true spirituality. We spend long hours observing all that our different religions require outwardly. But my question has always been; what about our hearts? If we get it right in and with our hearts, we would definitely get it right in our society.
Nigeria is gradually going down the grave, people are dying due to poverty as they have no money to take care of their health, they have no money to feed and pay house rents. Our landlords who call themselves good Christians and Muslims keep rendering people homeless as they want to go on collecting millions for houses built 30 years ago. Our pastors are more interested in flying private jets and acquiring properties abroad. If truly the love of God is in our hearts, we would struggle to make each other’s life better and instead of keeping the money for your generations unborn, you will use it for the good of people around you. Don’t say she is talking to the pastors and Imams alone; right where you live, someone needs to see you live what you say.
Righteousness is not in the talking, it is in the doing.