My late grandmother Sabina invokes a lot of memories in me — aside her generous spirit, she had a very remarkable collection of folktales and proverbs. One of her favorite admonition is this adage Ori bibe ko ni ogun orififo which in English translation means “Beheading is not a cure for headache”. I say this as a response to those clamoring for the deconstruction of Politics mainly to dislodge from it the influence of religion. I think the likes of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Mr Raji Fashola and all other leaders who hold dear that school of thought came rather too late. Religion is already a part of our lives.
Perhaps it became much inevitable when our leaders failed us and we needed something to hold on to, to hope for… It became an “Opium” as Marx described it but it turned out to be a blessing for our souls. Like fire, Religion does only good if we use it well. That is my argument.
In fact, most of humanity found morality in religion and there wouldn’t have been any good reason to form a government, live in
ordered society and show love to one another if our religious doctrines had not modeled such archetypes. The likes of Fashola,
El-Rufai , etc didn’t gain their sense of morality from right reason devoid of their religious orientation, I want to assume. If they did, maybe they were angels-or very special. Quite unfortunately, this is earth and we are humans. There’s nothing much we can change about that.
In History, the only society without religion I heard about was Ancient China and even that society flourished using Philosophy as a sub for religion. If I get a response (or rejoinder) suggesting my misperception of the anti-religio-political school of thought based on my categorization then it is fine. At least my work would have achieved something. The opportunity for leaders whom we hold in high esteem- who lobbied for the endorsements of religious leaders to get elected- to clarify their views and positions and it would have helped shed more light on why religion if practiced properly would have created a better society not just for our country alone but also for the entire world.
If not, the people will have to decide whether to lose their identity because of the mishaps of some fake leaders, accidental or planted by the devil or whether with religion we can teach our growing population how to be great leaders as religious Christians or Muslims, etc in positions of Authority.
With all sense of responsibility, let me assert that no religion grooms his followers to loot the treasury, or to over burden the
citizenry with straining taxes, and so on. We know where that teaching came from, definitely not from God.
According to the Philosophy of Religion, what is important in this discourse is religious pluralism. Even the institutions of familyhood have issues .Does that mean we should despise Marriage or Family? So why disrespect or belittle religion in choosing something as crucial and important as leadership? There is no free zone in spirituality, you are either for God or the ‘other side’ and all religions of the world respect that tenet. Thus if you take God out of the equation of politics it means ‘Somebeing’ else comes in by default. What then is the basis of your morality? What does your character rests on?
If you tell us to scratch deeper in order to find genuine people that is understandable. Even Apostle Paul in the bible asked Christians to test all spirits. The problem, therefore, is not religion; it is the wolves in sheep’s clothing deceiving the people in the name of religion just to win elections. And the problem is the party system and platform who falter in bringing credible candidates on board. We vote parties not candidates, that is our political system. How is that our fault?
More so, a good criterion should be their religious orientation. Imagine if there are no strong religious institutions in Nigeria. One
day, you may get to your church or mosque on the worship day and discover that the government has ceded the property to maybe a Chinese company who will pay higher taxes so that the government would be rich enough to service their vanities. I mean some governors would do that without thinking twice. They would concede (toll) the road leading to your house, if possible. So the government can be richer, the people poorer. Who cares?
The Holy Scriptures would not support that but Capitalism will back it because IGR will increase and it will attract more Economic
Investments. And our leaders who were broke before getting into Office would become embarrassingly rich owning Private Jets, Big Hotels and numerous Real Estate properties –sky scrapers everywhere including Hell.
Please join me to advise our politicians to search within the system to fish out impostors and stop pointing accusing fingers to any
Religion or Religious Institution. The door of worship centres are always open for all and sundry. Every man is free to join any
association or religion of choice!
** Showunmi Rex — (@remirex on Twitter)
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