Our religious leaders and our plight

To be honest, I have always tried as much as possible to stay clear out of religious issues. But this time around, I just felt I must do some talking even just to satisfy my troubling soul; because I have always subscribed to the reality that no human among us has the strength or intellect to really fight for God.

 Over the years since the coming of various religious groups in this country, the average Nigerian has been subjected to various tirade from different pastors, imams, reverend, sheik and what have you.

We have been victims of incitement by our religious body against each other, maiming and killing one another due to the utterances of some of these purported men of God. We have seen and witnessed how some of these men hide under the cover of religion to commit some of the most heinous crime against humanity. Fresh in our memories are the inciting preaching by some of our religious leaders during the last presidential election where some shameless ungodly pastors and imams instigated their followers against each other, this by openly metamorphosing into politicians and brazenly encouraged their followers to vote based on religious and ethnic sentiments.

The Nigerian religious leaders have been seen or heard more when it comes to issue that has to do with a rival religious group. Then you will see them coming out boldly to utter selfish and myopic utterances. All these without the consent of  the majority of their followers who at the end of the day become the victims of their utterances, as most of the leaders are nowhere to be found when the kata-kata bursts.   Experience has shown that most of them are people who talk hypocritically and never practice what they preach.

The Nigerian religious leaders are never seen or heard when the politicians are looting the nation’s resources or politicking desperately on zoning and other undemocratic issues. They are only seen when issues like Sharia, Islamic banking, religious crusades, and other activities they see as unreligious against their interest. Presently what we have in the controversial polity is the issue of Islamic banking and some leaders of the two religions are already at daggers drawn with each other. In fact,some of them have introduced ethnic and tribal sentiment to the whole thing.

Why is it that nothing beneficial ever comes to Nigeria without our religious leaders trying to read meaning into it? Are those calling themselves religious heads really enlightened and educated in their callings? Why is it that all across Africa we are the only nation with narrow-minded religious leaders with divide and rule ideas? We are the nation purported to have the highest concentration of churches and mosques in the world, yet are still daily out- winked by some hypocrites disguised in religious gowns and beads.

 Why is it that our noise making religious leaders have not been able to tackle the government on the disgraceful poverty level and lack of security presently in the country? Why have they not come out to condemn the shameful state of our roads, schools, infrastructure and the closure of our hitherto functioning textile industries and other viable industries across the country that have long been shut down? Why haven’t they lent their strong voice on the need to,as a matter of urgency, complete the long neglected Ajaokuta Steel industry? Or are our religious leaders shy of telling the world the moral decadence in our homes, mosques and churches? What has been their contribution to the shameful inflating price of kerosene in the country and the sore rising prices of foodstuffs in our markets? Instead we hear them everyday fighting an unrealistic media war on issues that other thoughtful religious leaders of other nations have long learnt how to deal with amicably.

To be honest, some Nigerian religious leaders have over the decades used the advantage at their disposal to preach more on segregation, nepotism, tribalism, and total division among the average Nigerians who no doubt are spiritually inclined. Some of them have since turned into politicians or their mouthpiece and unleashed senseless preaching and sermons during campaign and election periods. We have flambouyant imams, reverend fathers, sheiks and pastors cruising around in big jeeps and other expensive automobile across the country. We have big gigantic mansions belonging to various religious groups and individuals across our land and we have seen many of them owning private jets and massive real estates. They dine and wine with those at the corridors of power and are beneficiaries of wasteful resources by the governments on pilgrimages every year.  Some of them have their children  in the best schools abroad, while their eyes and voices are closed to the neglected ones across the country.

When would our so-called religious leaders learn how to fight against hunger and unemployment ravaging many homes across the country? When would they learn how to preach truthfully against corruption among its members in our various churches and mosques? When would they learn how to come together to fight against the maladministration and injustices going on in virtually all the regions?  Or when would they come collectively to truthfully preach unity and tolerance among the various religious sects in the country? Would their religious teaching make them come out boldly to preach against the retrogression in our economic, social and political lives?  Can they ever be bold enough to tell the politicians to sit up and cut down the luxurious price of governance in the country? Would the fear of God ever come to their mind to advise the various organs of government on the need to cut down spending on free pilgrimages for them and their cronies? How many of them have stood up in support of the N18,000 minimum wage and other better entitlements for the Nigerian workers?

Again,what have our religious leaders done towards addressing the outrageous cost of pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem and how have they tackled our selfish politicians on the current hijacking of the pilgrimage seats for their cronies and their sycophantic followers? Is it not a mortification that ordinary Nigerians are finding it difficult these days to travel to these holy land?  Are these sincerely not part of the hot issues they are expected to be wrangling about?

 These are questions for our bickering and cheap fighting religious leaders who have been at loggerheads over simple issues, which include the sighting of churches, mosques, banks, universities and other religious institutions anywhere that goes against their interest, as if they now own the land that every right thinking human knows belong to none but God the almighty, the creator and owner of every drop of particle in this vanity world.

The truth is, none among our hypocritical religious leaders might see the light of heaven at the end of the day, because some of them preach darkness and falsehood among the people and instigate them against each other, taking advantage of their spiritual inclination to dismantle the natural community of one people under one sky; created by God Who undoubtedly is watching all their hypocrisy and atrocities.

NEW  NIGERIAN  ON  SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 ,  2011