It would be too easy and even lazy to blame religion for many of the problems convulsing Nigeria at the moment, but it cannot be taken away that religion is partly responsible for so many of the the problems rippling through Nigeria at the moment. At the root of many of those problems is the fact that many of those who consider themselves religious in Nigeria just wear the garb of religion without any serious attempt at living by the dictates of whatever it is their religion says.
So, for many years, the problem has been that those who presume to practice religion in Nigeria do not bring their all to it. Many of them only conveniently invest as much as enables them to weaponize religion so that they can take their turns in lashing out at those who they consider enemies of their religion. It was only in May that Ms. Deborah Samuel, a 22-year-old student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto met her grisly end at the hands of criminal religious fanatics which had claimed that she had blasphemed religion.
She was burnt beyond recognition before the law could take its course. That about five months later, substantial progress has not been made in the prosecution of the criminals indicts the entirety of Nigeria`s criminal justice system. It is noteworthy that at about the time Ms. Deborah was lynched, there were other lynching or attempted lynching in other parts of the country.
Many parts of Nigeria have been rocked in the past by violent conflicts issuing from disputes that started as religious disagreements. Yet, it is very few Nigerians that think that religion should be checked in public life in Nigeria. Many Nigerian establishments have quite a history of religion interfering with the rules meant to bring a semblance of law and order to the work place. Because in Nigeria, religion plays an inordinate role in shaping life and living, so many things have had to give way to it. A commercial bank, Polaris Bank, recently walked into a storm when one of its staff appeared to ask other staff to refrain from attending prayers or any other religious activity while at work.
The staff was said to have issued an email noting the absence of staff from their work desks at certain times of the day while citing their terms of employment to warn them to desist therefrom. The directive immediately caused an uproar both from within and outside the bank causing the bank take to the pages of national dailies to issue an apology. The brouhaha has also seen some customers of the bank visit the bank to close their accounts.Religion remains such a touchy issue in Nigeria. In many ways, it continues to play an inordinately influential role in life in Nigeria, providing in the process fuel for the fire which many claim is burning up Nigeria. The time is now for Nigerians to know when and where to draw the line and to do so clearly.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter:@kenobiezu
