BY CHARLES KUMOLU

•Stop preaching prosperity and breakthroughs
LIFE in Lagos for Mrs. Ngozi Onyeme and her husband, Chike has mostly been characterized by tumbles and falls until three years ago when fate smiled upon them.

The breakthrough which came as a result of successes recorded in the husband’s Freight Forwarding business at Tin Can Island Port saw the family of seven slightly pulling out of the extreme poverty belt.

This change in fortunes was so real that Ngozi, who was into petty trading was given a new car by her hubby, while their five children started attending one of the leading private schools in FESTAC Town.

The lady, who was also visiting offices to sell anything she laid her hands on, stopped the trade, given that the husband had set up a thriving mini supermarket for her in FESTAC.

With these, the Onyemes stopped living the life of penury that nearly turned Ngozi to a corporate beggar.

However, this quantum leap out of poverty only lasted for a little over two years, as Mr. Onyeme’s business reverted to its hitherto difficult state-no thanks to the decrease in commercial activities at the Tincan Island port and other ports in Lagos.

Our enemies are at work

As you are reading this piece, the family is speedily going back to square one, a development that has left them distraught.

However, the Onyemes did not consider the turn of events a fallout of the drop in economic activities in the maritime industry.

The fact that the volatility in exchange rate drastically reduced the rate of importation into the country, made no sense to them.

“Our enemies are after my husband’s business again,” Ngozi told Saturday Vanguard.

Her exclamation was followed by a narrative of how far the family had gone in seeking solutions to the setback they are experiencing.

In a tone revealing the family’s belief that what they are experiencing is a spiritual attack, she revealed that they had visited some churches to seek a solution and inquire why their fortunes suddenly changed.

‘’You know that my husband started doing well but things are changing now again. I don’t know the person we offended. We are back to where we were in the past. Even my business is failing because there is no money to restock. We have visited so many churches where we were told that what is happening to us is not normal,” she noted.

Like the Onyemes, who believed their plight was the handiwork of invisible enemies in the spiritual realm, an Apapa-based expatriate medical doctor told Saturday Vanguard a similar story.

The medical doctor, who pleaded anonymity said thus: ‘’Most patients, who we diagnose with end-stage ailments especially heart diseases and others that are hypertension-related illness, often tell us that their pastors told them earlier that their problem was a spiritual attack.   From that moment, they start going to different churches while the ailment deteriorates. When they eventually come for diagnosis, their cases would have deteriorated. Some of them even debate the result of the diagnosis by saying it is juju or spiritual attack.”

Church members rolling in muddy water

Another scenario, which left many surprised, was a video on the social media which contained images of members of the Lord Chosen Charismatic Church rolling and dancing in the mud during a church crusade.

In the video, which was mostly termed embarrassing, members of the church were singing and dancing at a scene in Lagos. At a point, a woman started walking in the mud on the dirty street. She was later joined by a man who had earlier knelt down to pray but started rolling until he got into the muddy water, got out and continued singing.

So embarrassing and disgusting was the sight that Nigerians took to the social media to lambast the church and its leadership for creating the conditions that made their members to embrace such act.

While these were ongoing, other members were singing and cheering them.

These narratives which are not in isolation bring to the fore, the obsession of Nigerians with religion.

Whether many would agree or not, the word, obsession best represents the attitude of Nigerians to religion.

Saturday Vanguard can authoritatively state that adherents of all the religions in the country are so overwhelmed by the doctrines and practices of their religion at the expense of logic and wisdom.

Followers were found to have become blinded by religious creeds in manners that made religion a limitation to them.

It is not uncommon to see people exclaiming thus, ‘’it is not my portion, I reject it, my pastor said it is an attack,” in the face of challenges that demand logic.

The manner religious affiliations and teachings influence the life of Nigerians is such that got observers arguing that the country would have been a perfect case study for Karl Marx, who described religion as the opium of the masses.  The truth is that the way Nigerians practice religion is destroying them.

The eighteenth-century philosopher had in his work: A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, argued that religion had certain practical functions in society that were similar to the function of opium in a sick or injured person.

In his thinking, religion reduces people’s immediate suffering and gives them pleasant illusions.

Through that process, he argued, their energy and willingness to confront the oppressive, heartless, and soulless reality are reduced.

“Religious suffering is at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness,” he noted.

Capacity of most Nigerians

Saturday Vanguard found this Marxist postulation to have a nexus with the current role religion is playing in the lives of most Nigerians.

These days the capacity of most Nigerians to apply logic, establish and verify facts when confronted by any kind of challenge has been undermined by the obsession with religion.

Unfortunately, this growing culture has left many people and even organizations with sour tales.

The case of Lawrence Agada, an Assistant Pastor, who used his capacity as the cashier of Sheraton Hotel and Towers to donate cash and gifts totaling N39 million to a popular pentecostal church, is a quick reference point.

Agada, who apparently was motivated to steal his employer’s money by his church’s prosperity preaching, was commended by the church thus: ‘’May God, who gives seed to the sower and bread for eating, multiply your seeds in Jesus name.”

On the heels of that,   Mr. Gbenga Keinde, who is a member of the same church and also an Assistant Manager of defunct Eko Bank, stole N40 million from his employers and donated N10 million to the church.

The continuous reverence of the convicted General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo a.k.a. Rev. King, by his supporters in the face of the crime he committed in God’s name, clearly depicts how religion has become an obsession for Nigerians.

In God’s name

Further investigation by Saturday Vanguard, showed that till date, King still commands followership in detention.

In Sokoto prisons where he is currently being detained, it was learnt that people flock around him for deliverance and breakthrough prayers.

In an encounter with Saturday Vanguard in Sokoto during a funeral service,   a middle-aged woman, whose friend died, said had the deceased heeded her advice to visit Rev King, she would not have passed on.

“Aunty does not listen to advice. I told her when she was complaining of leg and chest pains to visit King at the prison close to Marina. But she refused. She would have received healing there. When I visited him, he prayed for me and since then, my business has started booming again. Before then, whenever I go to my restaurant I immediately fall asleep. And at the end, we will not make substantial sales. Now, things are better. The man even gives people money to start businesses. I know someone he gave N30, 000.”

Prosperity measures

While the penchant of pastors for preaching prosperity instead of salvation often comes to the mind whenever this subject is debated, Saturday Vanguard found the absence of basic necessities of life in Nigeria a major factor.

However, some religious leaders, who spoke to Vanguard hardly, agreed that the current type of religious practices and beliefs were doing more harm than good to Nigerians.

President Pentecostal Vineyard Assembly, Rev Martin Azubuike, said the extent of hardship in the country would have been very oblivious without the influence of religious leaders on their followers.

‘’I laugh when people say that Pastors are misleading Nigerians. That is not true because, without pastors, the world would have seen the actual rate of poverty in Nigeria. Do they know what we do to assist the poor? Without our counseling, Nigeria would have been rated the worst country to reside in on earth.   Religion is not responsible for the collapse of our value system neither is it responsible for the insecurity in the land. So, why are they blaming religion?” he noted.

Why are they blaming religion?

Toeing the same line, Evangelist Raphael Okon of Believers Fellowship Accord, said:”It is unfair for anyone to say that religion is making people engage in vices. What do we preach in our churches? Is it to tell people to engage in corrupt and immoral practices? Our message is of the kingdom and not of the world. People go through some peculiar challenges in Nigeria that require peculiar prayers and responses. I am sure that was why you talked about strange things people claim their pastors ask them to do. The place of religion in the life of Nigerians is not negotiable, else Nigerians will perish.”

However, a Catholic Priest at Saint Agnes Parish, Ichida, Rev. Fr Boniface Ezeoke disagreed with the duo.

‘’Our messages of instant gratification have created a generation of people who only want to see instant results, immediate relief, and a painless profit. This is not the natural course of nature or a better way of doing things,” he declared.

Continuing, he said: ‘’Instead of messages that   only promise blessings, miracles, breakthroughs, and wonders, let us replace these messages with preaching on virtues such as hard work, creativity, dedication, commitment, perseverance, diligence, and responsibility. These, produce a responsible society. The scripture says that “by the labour of your hand, you shall eat, happiness and prosperity will be yours.” Therefore, prosperity, breakthroughs will never emanate from idleness and laziness. This gullibility must change and it must stem from our pulpits. We must show our hearers the proper way to wealth. Let us start immediately by using correct words of encouragement by telling them that to work hard.”

Corroborating Ezeoke’s position, a foremost Life Coach, Lanre Olusola, maintained that religion is now a limitation for Nigerians.

Olusola told Saturday Vanguard that: “Nigerians are very deep in religion. Whatever is it they serve, whether they go to herbalists, they are Christians or Muslims, I found that religion in itself is a limitation for Nigerians. We don’t really understand the concept of separating spirituality from religion. So, we hook line and sinker follow religion to our own detriment. And our religion is intertwined with our tradition and our culture. That in itself becomes our shackle, handcuff, restraint, and constraint instead of us sitting down to think intelligently and ask if the culture and tradition that we are about to subscribe to or have subscribed to are still relevant in the 21 century. We should also ask if certain doctrines that are being taught are still relevant to people in this century, does it hinder people. How does it help people to progress? Historically, if people had done it in the last 10 years, what value has it added?”

In addition, he said: “These questions are relevant because what never gets measured can never be improved. The black man does not think like that because he started it, his father did it, his pastor said he should do it and he continues to do it even though it is never working. Nigerians have stopped thinking.”