by Chika Odunze; Email: odunzec@gmail.com
It is sad to see Nigeria going up in flames. Very disheartening to see how religion is destroying Nigeria. My question is, can one live a moral life with religion? If yes, why the ongoing chaos around the world in name of religion? If no, why bother with it. In my opinion morality has nothing to do with religion. In the civilised world today the peace they enjoy comes from law and order as against the religion that we embrace in the developing world. These days its embarrassing that when you meet people after few lines of introduction, the next question that pops up usually is ‘where do you worship?’ Woe unto you if you do not give good answer to this question. You are turned to devil instantly with a serious warning of calamities that would befall you unless you chose one. At worst you will be bundled to a ‘man of God’ for deliverance. Is God that wicked and mean?
What has religion done for Nigeria? Well, some will say if not for religion there would have been Armageddon in Nigeria. I disagree with that; religion breeds hatred, pitched neighbours against each.
Religion has caused us many pains than good. You can trace the genesis of Nigeria/Biafra war, countless of mayhems in Jos and other Northern part of Nigeria to religion. Is it not time for us to revalue our inclination to this cult (religion)? Is it not time for us to stop hiding under the veil of religion to commit heinous crime? Is it not time we embrace the honest truth that religion brings sorrow than peace to our land.
All religions are evil; they never offer the world their promises (Peace). Let us imagine a Nigeria without ‘I’m a Christian, Muslim, sango and Amadi-oha worshiper. A Nigeria with no religion segregation, there will be great peace in the land. Religion does not bring the morality we hoped for. Most conflicts in world today are caused by religion in the name of soul winning. It creates division among people even within the Muslims and Christian communities. I subscribe to the quote of Thomas Paine “My Country is my World, my religion is to do good” Let us embrace this mantra and make Nigeria great. Let us see Nigeria as our world and let doing good to our fellow Nigerians be our religion. Let us stop killing one another in the name of God that is based on imported ideologies.
My greatest fear is that we are busy passing these crazy ideologies to our young minds. How do we justify showing kids horror movie or enticing them with sexual gratification at early age. But these are what both the Christians and Muslims do, covertly or overtly. At very early age, Christians will start terrorising young minds with horror picture of hell fire while their Muslim counterparts are also busy promising young minds virgin. But in real world these events are most like to cause uproar and at best classified 18 and above. Where is the morality? We should allow the young minds to flourish with no fear rather than compelling them to embrace these crazy ideologies. Let us do away with religion all together, being Christian, Muslim or whatever, and practice godliness and live as good neighbours. We can attain this without attaching any sentiment to any prophet or deity.
Religion is a man made event, which was concocted out of greed based on mind control (stopping us from being free). Government all the world love this. It sedates people with false hope. Let us see ourselves as Nigeria and not as Christians and Muslims, and build a great nation and make a better place to be proud of. Let us channel this energy for the development of Nigeria. Let us become Nigeria Development Fanatics. We should not allow this monster (religion) to derail Nigeria and destroy us. It is never late to rescue our beloved country from the clutches of this monster. Let me rephrase Gandhi here “Be The Change You Want To See In Nigeria.
God bless Nigeria.
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Chika Odunze Email: odunzec@gmail.com
