t not much came through.
Take the example of power. Paradoxically,
most people were unable
to watch the president’s Independence
Day speech due to power outage
and those who did paid dearly
for it, literally, as the light was gone
soon after never to return till the
next day, if at all. For power, it’s
all contracts, contracts and more
contracts-even as we hope the water
levels do not recede ultimately
to show PHCN for what it truly is.
As far as I know, the Roman
Catholic Church has been saying
the “Prayer for Nigeria in Distress”
for over two decades; yet, neither
the leaders nor the followers have
changed. Former head of state,
Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) has led
a prayer project called “Nigeria
Prays” for over 10 years and nothing
seems to have changed. It is
possible that quite a few of the new
fangled churches take some time
off their busy schedule (of praying
for prosperity and such matters) to
say a prayer or two for the country.
There are several hours of video
footage and press clippings showing
several politicians, especially
the Christians, visiting one religious
leader or another seeking divine
guidance or so it seems. Others
have also been known to have
visited some notorious shrines in
the more seedy and dingy enclaves.
But even so, and in spite of all of
these, things haven’t got any better.
My second point is the rather
wrong impression created by the
president (by the way I didn’t say our
president lied) by claiming that the
United States of America made it to
greatness through prayers. I reckon
Mrs. Hilary Clinton didn’t bother
to listen to the speeches, otherwise
the Americans would have been protesting
such glaring misinformation.
Brothers and sisters, the US was
built on hard work, passion, vision
and an overwhelming quest to be the
best. If at all, they must have prayed
for longer days than nights so they
could get more nation-building work
done!
At this point, I pause to remember
an anecdote about a protest by
world leaders to God over His seeming
preferential treatment of Nigerians
by blessing them with good
weather conditions and abundant
natural resources. As the story goes,
God smiled at the angry protesters
and asked them to go back home
and wait to see the kind of leaders
He would send to Nigeria. Fabulous
as this story may sound, Nigeria has
had a rough ride with leadership
since independence, but for one exception
(Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s
era) but even so, not much was
achieved while seeking to correct
past mistakes.
As a country, we have so much
natural resources and brilliant and
hardworking people, but we don’t
seem capable of feeding ourselves
(less than 20 percent of the population
of India) much less maintain a
100km road leading from Lagos to
Ibadan! And the president wants us
to pray?
Today, Nigerians are wracked by the
menace of terrorism, armed robbery,
kidnapping and now flooding. What
exactly has the government done to
deal with these core aspects of their
Key Results Areas, aside inexplicable
budgetary allocations and platitudes
in the media? Yes, these may
be inevitable with the gripping high
unemployment figures, but what is
the government doing to complement
the effort of the few surviving
private sector companies? Flooding
may be a natural disaster, but didn’t
we get warned by the Meteorological
Agencies even as we all rue Global
Warming? Yet, we allow the floods to
wreak so much havoc, with the death
toll rising from across the affected
parts of the country and billions of
naira worth of property damaged.
President Jonathan says we should
pray, yet he’s not even been to any
of the flooded zones, like George
Bush of the same US did during Katrina
and Obama has been doing all
through the year as the elements
ravaged the US.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t
said that Nigerians should not pray.
As a matter of fact, I am a firm believer
in the efficacy of prayers. The
only difference between me and
some folks is that they believe that
prayer answers all problems. Hell
no! For goodness sakes, pray if you
want to pray, but do something. So,
those who want to pray for 10 years
can get on with it, if that’s what they
have elected to do but they must realise
that there are at least two clear
risks in going that route. One, if we
sheepishly get down on our knees
and pray with our eyes closed, in a
manner of speaking, those we have
sent to represent us will prey on us
(pardon the pun). Secondly, the natural
resources we have were fortuitously
granted by divine providence.
I can admit so much.
However, we have to turn those
raw materials into finished, profitably
marketable goods, to make good
sense of them. There is no amount
of prayer that can turn water to
wine in Nigeria of today. Even that
was then, and in far away Galilee. If
we can’t build or maintain our refineries,
we will continue to export
cheap crude and import expensive
by-products, regardless of how long
and how hard we pray.
So, I am totally not on this one with
the president. I suggest he says just
a little prayer to God for dependable,
serious-minded and effective
lieutenants who will help him take
the country out of the dark woods
where it is currently languishing
clueless. In the meantime, I will say
a prayer to God to grant our president
the wisdom to see through the
sycophancy of many of his assistants
and acolytes and immediately
appoint men and women of knowledge
and passion who will help him
make the difference rather than
worry about their personal comfort
and 2015.
I believe there are too many people
telling the president only what
he wants to hear and playing politics
with the lives of Nigerians and
the future of the country. President
Jonathan can still make history, for
all the right reasons, if he can hearken
to the voices crying so bitterly
and loudly in the Nigerian wilderness.
Prayers won’t change Nigeria;
affirmative and honest actions will.
Emeka Oparah wrote in from Lagos
In their famously controversial
book, The Communist
Manifesto, Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels described
religion as the opium of
the people which when taken in
right dosage, benumbs the body
and soul to suffering, shame and
sin. The church, especially in Nigeria,
has been so emblematic of
the Marxian prognostication and
turned otherwise educated men
and women into robotic wimps
manipulated by pastors, prophets
and prophetesses and recounting
sometimes meaningless supplications
to a creator whose methods
they hardly comprehend.
The same goes for other religions
which have tended to follow a certain
pattern that thoroughly negates
all the principles of mutual
and peaceful co-existence.
Just a few days ago, a friend
complained that Nigeria is one of
those third world countries where
people worship all kinds of supernatural
personalities and pray
harder than they work, yet criminals
pervade the land and people
perpetrate all kinds of heinous
crimes even in the most sanctimonious
of places and the country is
retarded in growth. Meanwhile,
some European countries where
less than 15 percent of the population
recognise the existence of
any gods and never bother to go to
any place of worship, be it Sunday
or Friday, are doing good, showing
love and prospering as a people.
It is this conundrum which got
so flagrantly played up in some
of the media reports credited to
President Goodluck Jonathan this
week that has prompted this intervention.
Among all the stuff he was said
to have said during the Independence
Day celebrations, Mr. President
reportedly declared a one
year prayer session upon which
we must now hinge the future and
prosperity of Nigeria. First of all,
I don’t understand why the president
would make such a proposition
to the hapless and long-suffering
people of Nigeria on such
an occasion. Some of us were dying
to know how he intends to
deal with some of the more pressing
challenges facing the country,
Why prayer alone will not
change
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Why prayer alone will not change Nigeria
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