My wife lately started protesting against the progressive decline she has observed in the frequency of my Church attendance. At about the same time, I brought home a newspaper with an article on the plan by Kenyan women to protest the progressive deterioration of the Kenyan political space arising from the actions and inactions of the randy male folks by withholding a vital component of their male counterpart’s nuptial and to large extent pre-nuptial entitlements. As my wife unusually concentrated on this newspaper, I suspiciously peeped over her shoulder to know the object or article of unusual interest. It was then that it dawned on me that I may have stoked in my home a fire that may consume me. The next Sunday, I woke up before her, prepared for Church before her and followed her to our church even if sheepishly. I prevented her from even considering the application of the Kenyan women option in an attempt to make me go to church by going to church. That was how my problem relapsed for in the church, I noticed I was the mist of immaculate and gorgeously dressed people.

Now, here is the thing! Many of those people are on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for sundry financial crimes against the state. Some on the wanted list of the police for murder while many more are on the wanted list of NDLEA for drug trafficking related offences. I think the same situation obtains also in the mosques.

As a child from a humble Christian family, the church always represented a sacrosanct institution. It was never a place to go as a form of a weekly social obligation. It was and still remains the house of God where men and women in a state of grace as good old Catholics would say go to seek the face of God in humility and supplication. But here, I was confronted by the reality of being sandwiched right in the church of God in a pool of men every God fearing family will take a stick to their wards hide for daring to associate with in a secular setting. Men who have ordered the demolition of villages, the raping of women. Men who by deliberate mismanagement of public fund have caused death of many and prevented the provision of life expectancy enhancing infrastructures for the common wealth. Men who in their right senses should declare themselves unfit to enter the house of God. My greatest problem lay in the fact that the church is in the know of these people yet they are accorded unmitigated right of front seats and in essence recognition in the house of God.

I accept before proceeding further that I do not have the right to judge anybody as most of Christians reading this article may prematurely conclude. I also know that Jesus Christ once proclaimed that he came to the world for sinners and as a matter of fact died to procure salvation on our communal behalf yet, we  can only  access  this entitlement by accepting his clear terms of believing and accepting him as our Lord and personal savoir .As abundant as there are verses in the bible to justify hobnobbing with everybody, it must be noted that the only point where Jesus Christ almost got violent was when he felt that the temple of God was being turned into a den of thieves . What he did is there in the bible for all to see.

Perhaps; the lowest point of that fear of my wife inspired church attendance was the time of offertory and thanks giving. The officiating man of God not only invented  but as well executed all techniques to ensure what will pass as one of the greatest multiple taxing of all times. Those who loved their mother, those who loved their wives, men who could achieve errection, those who are scared of HIV infection where all expected to file out in different groups to give offering to God.

As fellow Nigerians continued to stand up time after time to give offering, what they were guaranteed to go home with was the promises of miracles in their finances and sick functionless brains.

My breathrens, I recon that if miracles were  easy to come by, no organisation would have been more eminently qualified than the churches of God  to obtain one and  then the churches  will not need you and I to give offerings  before we can embark on Projects. We will simply synergise our faith as Christians and am sure it will amount up to a grain of mustard seed. We will then call forth whatever wish we have and it will come to be like the Children of Israel pulled down the wall of Jericho with prayers, yet this is hardly the point I seek to make.

At the terminal end of the service, the families who have booked thanksgiving where called out to come to the altar of God with their presents supported by their well whishers.Sudenly, the congregation resolved into groups of well wishers, one group following families thanking God for giving them the strength to play a big role in electoral malpractices, the others with the family thanking God for the appointment of one of their own into an office from where they can loot the treasury. The other for using the court to restrain the EFCC from as much as looking at them. Then the choir made up of young men and women perpetually in search of employment and at the same time waiting for miracles that will make them attract the favour of one person that will pull them up into the echelon of the group God helps to plunder the public till went into a frenzy of rapturous thanksgiving songs. As these families glamorously gyrated to the alter with their offerings, the officiating man of God stood highly impressed , appotionining out God’s blessing to the  satisfaction of all participants. Here in lies my dilemma.Are Nigerian Churches winning souls for God or are they truly living up to the potency of the opium of the masses?

As a matter of candid personal opinion and I am willing to defend it wherever am summoned, I hold Churches in Nigeria largely responsible for our civic inertia; for they have all through the promises of heaven and threat of hell turned us all into perennial infants, fascinated by mysteries and miracles but frightened by reality . We have become an uncritical lot before which any man who self proclaims himself a man of God become anointed and should neither be touched or done no harm-yes while they should neither be touched nor done no harm, it is high time we suspected and  also appraised  them as a matter of obligation. I say this because the same men of God who pray for God to save Nigeria turn around the next minute to pray for good health and long life of those who professionally endanger Nigeria. How can true well meaning men probate and reprobate at the same time?

Truth is that given the immense trust Nigerians have in churches, they play a huge role in our attitudinal dynamics and therefore, they seem now the only institution that can mobilize the people into a formidable civic force. At the height of the reign of the former Governor of Enugu State when no man dared criticise much more March openly in protest, Rev Fr. Mbaka was able to encourage adherents to the catholic doctrine to protest openly against the Governor’s perceived arbitrariness. If the churches can avoid the temptation of profiting from stolen monies by patronising those seeking to legitimatise their loot by associating and contributing to it, it can help the hopeful mass of adherents to certainly benefit from the stupendous resources of their fatherland rather than leading them into waiting in uncertainty for Miracles.

Robot  # 1 | 27.06.2009 09:16

As a matter ofcandid personal opinion and I am willing to defend it wherever am summoned, I hold Churches in Nigeria largely responsible for our civic inertia; for they have all through the promises of heaven and threat of hell turnedus allinto perennial infants, fascinated by mysteries and miracles but frightened by reality . ...Read the full article.

eleniyan  # 2 | 27.06.2009 11:08

well said!

Dapxin  # 3 | 27.06.2009 16:15

//this money making organisations......In the name of almighty god...aamen // heavunus, inspirituns...aaala kwaba.... ----------- sums it up. oh! miss Fela dearly. The moment, we stop to critically question ourselves, our minds open up to the boundless freedom that we truly own. I am circulating this amongst those of my folks who still doesn't see the con in Nigeria's churches & mosques. Your bolded paragraph holds true too, for me. thought provoking essay.

Suleimana  # 4 | 27.06.2009 18:45

..and you can add my vote to that. When people 'steal' elections and the people are advised by the 'spiritual leaders' to accept 'the will of God', they do more than encourage our collective inertia, they kill our spirit of self-determination and condemn us to slavery. Enough! Maybe we can take a page from Kenyan women and deny our churches offering until democracy and good governance returns to our country

M. Akosa  # 5 | 27.06.2009 22:35

One of the major obstacles to Nigeria’s progress is organized religion, as in Christianity and Islam. They are shamelessly taking advantage of the poverty, ignorance and under development among the Nigerian folks. The overzealous followers of those religion are very dangerous for humanity. Many Nigerian churches needs to be regulated, their activities monitored by the state, as their practices are nothing but really destructive for individuals and familes, also very retarding to the Nigerian society.

johnteddy  # 6 | 28.06.2009 03:05

A brilliant piece! well done Emeke!more !

Suleimana  # 7 | 28.06.2009 05:59

=M. Akosa;367430>One of the major obstacles to Nigeria’s progress is organized religion, as in Christianity and Islam. They are shamelessly taking advantage of the poverty, ignorance and under development among the Nigerian folks. The overzealous followers of those religion are very dangerous for humanity. Many Nigerian churches needs to be regulated, their activities monitored by the state, as their practices are nothing but really destructive for individuals and familes, also very retarding to the Nigerian society. You missed the point! The State is the single largest beneficiary of organized religion (sounds like organized crime to me). They will continue to support these groups to ensure that we don't seek for our 'rewards on earth' because that will mean fighting our corrupt leaders and unsitting them. The military, the politicians and organized religion have constituted an evil triangle.

M. Akosa  # 8 | 28.06.2009 19:22

Thank you my dear brother Suleimana. The Nigerian leadership knows everything. They are capable and very conscious of what is going on among their population. Given the government's preference to continue subjecting their citizens to hardship, poverty, hunger in the sea of plenty, blindness and ignorance. How then can they be expected to unchain the greater majority of Nigerians who binded by the foolishness of organized religion, as their faith in God is the only hope on earth???