By Stephanie Shakaa

There are more churches than factories in Nigeria. More mosques than research centres. More loudspeakers calling men to prayer than alarms waking them to purpose. For a country soaked in prayer, Nigeria remains curiously abandoned by progress. And we must now ask the uncomfortable question. Is religion helping us or holding us hostage?

This country wakes up with “Praise the Lord!” and sleeps to “Allahu Akbar,” but nothing between dawn and dusk suggests God is truly with us. Why? Because we’ve turned religion into a performance, not a principle. A drug, not a discipline.
We pray for jobs in buildings built by exploited laborers. We fast for peace while funding tribal violence. We speak in tongues but keep silent on injustice. Our pulpits and minbars have become the loudest places in the country yet say the least when it matters most.

Nigeria’s paradox, most religious yet among the worst in development

According to a 2023 Pew Research study, Nigeria ranks among the top 5 most religious countries in the world. Yet, the UN Human Development Index places Nigeria at 163 out of 191 countries behind war-torn nations like Syria and Yemen. At the same time, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index(2023) ranks Nigeria 145th out of 180, painting a nation drowning in prayer but gasping for ethics.

This may sting, but it must be said. Nigeria is perhaps the most religiously dysfunctional country on earth. We rank among the most religious nations globally, yet also among the most corrupt, most impoverished, and most insecure. How does one reconcile that?

We have turned religion into a performance. A social status. A cash cow. It is no longer a moral compass it’s a cultural costume, a political tool, and in many cases, an economic enterprise. We measure spiritual success not by how we treat the vulnerable, but by how many cars are parked outside the church. We no longer ask if our faith is changing society only if our general overseer has built another branch in Dubai.

Churches, mosques but no schools,no jobs

A 2021 study by SBM Intelligence revealed that in some Nigerian states, there are more churches than functioning primary healthcare centers. In Lagos alone, the number of registered churches outnumbers secondary schools. In the North, thousands of unregulated Islamiyya schools operate with no standardized curriculum or oversight, leaving millions of children vulnerable to indoctrination and lifelong illiteracy.

The price of faith. A billion-dollar industry

The Nigerian religious industry is worth over $10 billion, yet it is untaxed and unregulated. Mega-churches own private jets, estates, and universities some of which charge fees unaffordable to their own congregants. Meanwhile, the same worshippers give their last N500 during “sowing time,” only to walk home under the weight of poverty and guilt.

We bow before God but kneel before politicians. We pray for good governance while voting for thieves, sometimes simply because they share our religion. We tithe faithfully to men who live like kings while widows in our pews die in silence. We fast and pray for national healing, but in the same breath, we spread hate along tribal and religious lines.

Clerics and complicity in politics

In 2015, a renowned Man of God openly endorsed Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo. In 2023, some Imams declared “it is haram to vote for a Christian.” Religious endorsements routinely shape election outcomes not on merit, but on tribe and faith, deepening division and undermining democracy.

Our problem is not that we believe in God it’s that we’ve stopped believing in thinking.

Faith in Nigeria has become fatalistic. It demands no responsibility, only rituals. “God will provide,” we say, while refusing to plan. “God will fight for us,” we chant, while bandits storm villages. We don’t innovate, we anoint. We don’t build, we bind and cast. We don’t interrogate our reality we spiritualize our dysfunction.We say it is well,what is well though?

You dare not question the workings of the church or mosque you will either be labeled a rebel, a demon, a heretic or an infidel.

The silencing of reason

When Dr. Chika Okeke a respected academic gave a lecture in 2022 arguing for secular reforms in public policy, he was threatened, labelled anti-Christ, and forced to retract his position. In some religions, sermons against innovation and Western education are still common in some Northern communities, fostering suspicion against science, vaccination, and gender equality.

Meanwhile, other nations are praying less but thinking more and building countries where power doesn’t go off during surgeries, where schools work, and where justice is not a luxury. They design the airplanes we lay hands on before boarding. They make the medications we gulp after night vigils. They build the universities we send our children to, even while we call them godless.

Let me be clear. This is not an attack on God. God is not the problem. But our version of religion is. The noisy, shallow, manipulative version that equates suffering with sainthood, and critical thinking with rebellion. We silence bold voices in churches and mosques, yet celebrate charlatans who sell holy water for $100. We build mega auditoriums but fail to build human beings with conscience, courage, and creativity.

Ask yourself this, Where are the Nigerian religious leaders during policy debates? Why do they rarely challenge systemic injustice? Why do they bless politicians without asking questions? Why are our religious spaces silent when students are kidnapped or when public funds are looted? Why do we separate our so-called spirituality from the moral demands of nation-building?

What’s even more tragic is that we have exported this spiritual confusion across Africa. Nigerian-style Pentecostalism, with its obsession with miracles, money, and mantles, now shapes the mindset of millions. It teaches people to “sow seeds” into the lives of already-rich pastors, while ignoring the very communities that Jesus said we should love. The poor, the imprisoned, the sick, the marginalized.

Religion in Nigeria has become an escape from accountability. It gives people an excuse to remain passive in the face of evil. It discourages dissent. It mocks intelligence. It rewards emotionalism over empathy, fear over freedom, hierarchy over humility.

Nigeria Is Not a Country,It’s a Religion
They bow. They kneel. They chant “It is well” even when nothing is. In Nigeria, everything is a matter of faith from the price of tomatoes to the outcome of elections. In fact, Nigeria may be the only country where more people fast over a failed job interview than file a complaint. Prayer points have become policy. And God? A perpetual emergency contact for a nation that refuses to read the manual of common sense.

This is not a country. It’s a congregation. Its streets are lined with more churches and mosques than factories or libraries. Its airwaves echo with sermons, not science. And when crisis hits ,be it cholera or coups , no one reaches for reform. They reach for anointing oil.

We pray instead of plan. Speak in tongues instead of speaking truth to power. And when we die from failed health systems or collapsing infrastructure, we are told it is “God’s time.”

This divine outsourcing is not harmless

It is lethal. While we chant “God will do it,” leaders loot without shame ,often with clerical endorsement. Our spiritual leaders wine and dine with presidents and bless thieves in agbadas. Spiritual warfare has replaced civic duty, and congregants have become casualties.

A woman once cried on TV that her son was killed by bandits despite her fasting for 90 days. I remembered when I lost my son and the pastor said he died because I did not pay my tithe.

Is it God that failed us or have we made faith an accomplice to foolishness?

It’s time to separate the sacred from the scam. To stop confusing endurance with virtue. To realize that prayers don’t build roads, and incense can’t fix inflation.

Nigeria will rise when faith fuels ethics not excuses

If we truly want change in Nigeria, we must confront this sacred cow. We must ask our pastors and imams tough questions. We must stop romanticizing poverty as a spiritual virtue. We must raise a generation that can pray in the morning and protest by afternoon. That can fast for 40 days and still think for themselves. That can go to church on Sunday but vote with their brain on Monday.

Religion, stripped of ethics and inflated with ego, is not a blessing ,it’s a blinder. Nigeria’s salvation will not come from louder prayers, but from braver minds.

Until then, we will remain a nation that kneels to God but stands still before progress.

And perhaps one day, God tired of being blamed for our foolishness ,will stop listening altogether.
Until then, we remain a nation of devout dysfunction.

Stephanie Shaakaa
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08034861434