By Charles Dickson
“Ora et Labora” – Pray and Work (St. Benedict)
Nigeria, a nation brimming with vibrant cultures and traditions, is also known for its deep religiosity. Faith plays a central role in the lives of many Nigerians, influencing everything from daily routines to political discourse. But is there a line between genuine devotion and being “over-religious”?
The signs are often debated: public displays of piety, fervent pronouncements, and a tendency to attribute both success and failure to divine intervention. Critics argue this fosters a culture of blind faith, stifling critical thinking and enabling exploitation by religious leaders. They point to the proliferation of prosperity gospel churches and the rise in religiously motivated violence as evidence of faith gone astray.
However, proponents argue that faith provides a moral compass, community support, and hope in a challenging environment. They see expressions of faith as a natural outpouring of deep-seated beliefs and a source of strength in the face of adversity.
The reality is likely more nuanced. Nigeria’s religious landscape is diverse, with Christianity, Islam, and traditional beliefs coexisting, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in tension. While some may indeed use religion for personal gain or to justify harmful actions, many others find solace, guidance, and a sense of belonging in their faith.
So, in 2016, I originally wrote this essay titled…When we ate rice once in a while
Over the week my friend Ohonusi Samuel shared the story for which forms my admonition for this week…he tells a narrative about his friend…I have made a few additions
My CEO friend runs a successful Nigerian mining concern, and operates a quarry in a remote part of Ogun State, Nigeria. He had taken me there in the early phases of prospecting and investment analysis. The site was motorable up to a point. Along the way, we saw primary schools that had been established by the late visionary, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, way back… Give it to him, Awolowo did try for his people! (In those days, they all tried for their people, whether it was Ahmadu Bello, or Azikwe…the question still remain till date where did we get it wrong, or maybe we were never right…but I recall very well then we ate rice only during Christmas, and special occasions)
We parked his SUV up to the motorable limits and waded through thick tropical brushes, bamboo forests and rough slopes to the project site. We were dressed for the occasion.
I took time to give you this detail because you cannot describe my disbelief to get there to find a Chinese Company operating a massive quarry in that extrasolar environment! They worked and sweated 24/7. There were heaps of finished stones waiting to be evacuated to customer sites. The Chinese, by design, have abnormal testosterone levels!
As we made it back to the bustling city of Lagos, we stopped by a ‘mamaput’ restaurant close to the massive Redeemed Camp, a religious camping facility stretching several kilometers length and breadth. Nothing yet invented by man compares to a hot-pounded yam with egusi soup decorated with assorted ‘obstacles,’ after a bush trip.
In between swallows, I said to my colleague, “I still haven’t gotten over the shock of seeing the Chinese in those god-forsaken bushes!”
That was when he blurted out a marble-worthy quote I won’t forget in my entrepreneurial lifetime.
Said he, “While the Chinese and Lebanese are in our bushes picking millions of dollars every day, fellow Nigerians are in religious camps shouting, ‘Oluwa dide, Oluwa gbo, Oluwa gba ogo!’Meaning: God arise…God listen…
And I wondered which “god” we were talking about, is it the god on the Plateau that we keep fighting for and on behalf of while the same stones are moved out of the Wase axis of the state by the same Chinese.
We are a nation where the government has to explain the rationale of giving or not giving concessions to persons going to pray to “their gods” and citizens are bothered that if it was done for faith A, then why the noise of faith B.
This is the country of plenty parties, the sweet life, loud music, order in disorder, we cry at the about of dollars that is expended on getting us rice to eat, like that is the only staple or cheapest food…alas the truth remains that while wealth abounds all around us, we are either Boko-ing ourselves or avenging some haram done to the Niger Delta Region.
Things were better when we ate rice with those eye-popping beef on Sallah, it was the era when Christians could not wait for the Eid to come because we would see the Ram-fights, and partake of the ‘kaza’ (meat). They were the good times, no one thought or was afraid of Islamization. I dare remind us that then China was a pariah nation.
We suddenly started killing ourselves, we got it all messed up, or maybe we never even got it right, the years rolled by, and Nigeria, the nation where the problem wasn’t the money but how to spend it, could not even produce a light bulb, was importing pencils and pens with which her leaders stole them dry in all sort of manners.
It was the days of Nigerian Airways, the good old Nigerian Railways that owed salaries only compared to it’s equally old Daily Times, then we ate rice only once in a while but what happened, the Chinese came and if they were not repairing or building new railroads for us, they were now bringing made by prisoners in China ‘adire’ (Yoruba Fabric) for us.
We even started teaching Chinese in some of our schools, everyone was and is leaving Nigeria and we are still shouting Allahu Akbar and asking God to arise and let His enemies to scatter when indeed we are our enemies, we are the same people denying ourselves greatness by both our actions and inaction.
We have taken religion to a new nauseating high, while we are people bent on self-destruction, and ever-increasing hate ratio. We are only united by our mutual desire for rice, and ‘god’, but divided on who wants to work for it, who should work, whether we should be working.
We still are dependent on everyone but ourselves for everything and most things, the sad reality is we remain the goldmine; we remain the great potential that could have been great. We remain unsure what we want whether regionalism, tax reforms, restructuring, we do not know whether state and religion are one and the same of differently the same, when stealing is not corruption, padding is neither, we keep soldiering on, praying with the same lips we lie with, until we know that there is no food for lazy man and resort to working out the true Nigerian spirit, will prayers without work achieve anything—Only time will tell, and may Nigeria work, may Nigeria win.
Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D. is the Team Lead, The Tattaaunawa Roundtable Initiative (TRICentre).
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