The world’s poorest nations are also some of its most religious. This is a well-known fact worldwide although it doesn’t apply to all religious nations like the United Arab Emirates and China when it comes to most African countries especially Nigeria, one can be able to agree that Organised Religion doesn’t just cut it when it comes to development.
Development comes with the ability to innovate, to think and to apply common intuition and science to solve common life problems. Organised Religion, on the other hand, is based on a system of faith or beliefs that revolve around the worship of a Supreme Being or Beings.
Over the years, Organised Religion has played a great role in the evolvement of mankind, but one cannot deny that the limiting factors attached to Organised Religion sometimes do more harm than good but when it comes to most African countries especially Nigeria, one can completely agree that Organised Religion doesn’t just cut it when it comes to development.
Science and Arts are valuable. Thanks to science and arts, there are hearing aids, there are heart transplants, there are cervical cancer vaccines, breast scans, and other medical sciences that save peoples lives. Thanks to Science, humans can now predict what their actions can do to the earth, they can predict life-altering events like comets, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes. Thanks to Arts, there are better laws protecting Humans, there are now numerous outlets, methods and media to disperse knowledge faster and easier than before. Before the coming of Science and Arts, Organised Religion had a purpose; it provided society with structure, however, Religion has been a hindrance, by retarding the culmination of knowledge. Further, Organised Religion promotes intellectual laziness and dishonesty; in Christianity, for example, the unquestioning, simultaneous belief of contradicting Biblical passages is not only encouraged, but expected. Finally, unchecked religious faith has great destructive potential. The ceaseless calamity of the ISIS in the middle-east countries and the Boko Haram and the ISWAP Sect in some parts of Nigeria illustrate this tragically.
While it is hard to convince most Africans to be more proactive and pragmatic in solving issues than praying, it’s equally important to know that that Organised Religion, especially Christianity and Islam, through a form of colonialism and conquering, have wrecked a lot of what should be obvious and logical.
It is agreeable that Organised Religion has had more influence on people than science. Not all Organised Religion is bad but unfortunately, mostly it has had a negative effect on societies. History has a long list of Religious crimes like burning people for heresy, crusades, blocking scientific progress or education for masses. There were wars between Catholics and Protestants. Two greatest wars were blessed by priests. Then there is the high rise of the number of sexual crimes committed by Christian priests. Beheadings, hangings, decapitation of limbs and other atrocious acts supported by the Islamic Religion adds to this heinous list of the disadvantages of Religion to the society. In all of the above, Religion was more or less contributing factor. Science was not really involved. If anything it also suffered in some way.
Organised Religion has a huge impact on people because is a part of an ideology, like democracy or capitalism, that makes up politics. Science is more like a tool that can be used by ideology. Scientists often say they just observe and explain the workings of nature. They don’t do ideology. They don’t make big decisions. Politicians do, ideology does. Organised Religion as a part of ideology or propaganda often has influenced or supported terrible policies and brought a lot of harm to many people. Organised Religion could be a good influence but it chose for the most part not to be.
When it comes to most countries in Africa, Organised Religion is the major backbone that people live by; Christianity and Islam are the two major religions in Africa and Christianity and Islam are the two major Organised Religions in Africa. Most Africans live and breathe Organised Religion literally, take a country like Nigeria for more emphasis. Religious buildings in Nigeria outnumber school buildings 12 to 1. There are Churches and Mosques littered in every single street corner and avenue. When it comes to main religious headquarters, some mega-churches have been known to comfortably accommodate a good 50,000 people at a go. The pastor’s books are bestsellers in a society that is frequently accused of having a poor reading culture. And in a country that lays claim to a huge percentage of Africa’s most acclaimed moguls, entertainment personalities and intellectuals, the Facebook and Twitter pages with some of the highest number of followers are those of these pastors and owners of megachurches. Nigerian Heads of State and other top government officials seek audiences with prominent clerics – referred to as ‘men of God’, most times circulating photographs of these encounters possibly as evidence of divine validation. Hawkers peddle pirated DVDs of their sermons alongside Hollywood blockbusters and the massively popular Nollywood films. Telecommunications companies offer ringtones in the form of prayers recorded in their voices. At one time or another, some pastors have taken steps to distance themselves from bulk text messages sent out in their names. Text message instructions from renowned clerics are usually taken seriously in Nigeria, often going viral. They could be anything from a call to communal prayer at a specific time or an injunction against retaliatory violence. This is how important Nigerians and most African countries take Organised Religion.
But has Organised Religion done anything to help the African continent when compared to their Western counterparts?
In 2019, Sub-Saharan Africa was home to 27 of the world’s 28 poorest countries and had more extremely poor people than in the rest of the world combined. While the average poverty rate for other regions was below 13% as of 2019, it stood at about 41% in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, 22 of 24 nations identified as having ‘Low Human Development’ on the United Nations’ (UN) Human Development Index were in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2016, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries were in Africa. In many nations, GDP per capita is less than US$5200 per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less (according to World Bank data, by 2019 the island nation of Seychelles was the only African country with a GDP per capita above US$10,000 per year). In addition, Africa’s share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty times what the average African does.
Over $800 billion (USD) has been sent to African nations in the form of direct aid. The consensus is that the money has had little long-term effects. In addition, most African nations have owed substantial sums of money. However, a large percentage of the money was either invested in weapons (money that was spent back in developed nations, and provided little or no benefit to the native population) or was directly misappropriated by corrupt governments. As such, many newly democratic nations in Africa are saddled with debt run up by totalitarian regimes. Large debts usually result in little being spent on social services, such as education, pensions, or medical care. In addition, most of the debt currently owed (approximately $500 billion (USD) in 2009) represents only the interest portion on the debt and far exceeds the amounts that were actually borrowed (although this is true of large debts in developed nations as well).
Most African nations are pushing for debt relief, as they are effectively unable to maintain payments on debt without extending the debt payments indefinitely. However, most plans to forgive debt affect only the smallest nations, and large debtor nations, like Nigeria, are often excluded from such plans. What large sums of money that are in Africa are often used to develop mega-projects when the need is for smaller-scale projects. For example, Ghana was the richest country in Africa when it obtained independence. However, a few years later, it had no foreign reserves of any consequence. The money was spent on large projects that turned out to be a waste of resources/ Corruption is also a major problem in the region, although it is certainly not universal or limited to Africa. Many native groups in Africa prioritize family relationships over national identity, so people in authority often use nepotism and bribery for the benefit of their extended family group at the expense of their nations.
In recent years, religious conflicts have also increased, with Islamistic paramilitary terrorist groups like Boko Haram (Nigeria) and Al-Shabaab (Somalia) having committed many brutal, deadly terrorist acts that further decrease safety and prospects of development in the concerned regions. Despite a lack of basic social services or even the basic necessities of life, military forces are often well-financed and well-equipped. Acts of war and terrorism further harm the chances of development in the regions concerned as they do not only cause economic downturns but also cause severe damage to the often already underdeveloped infrastructure as well as government shutdowns, further worsen the often already tense safety situation and cause large numbers of refugees.
As a result, Africa is full of refugees, who are often deliberately displaced by military forces during a conflict, rather than just having fled from war-torn areas. Although many refugees emigrate to open countries such as Germany, Canada, and the United States, the ones who do emigrate are often the most educated and skilled. The remainder often becomes a burden on neighbouring African nations that, while peaceful, are generally unable to deal with the logistical problems refugees pose as these nations are often already barely capable of fulfilling the needs of their own population.
In fulfilment of religious obligations, Nigeria has spent an estimated total of 1.6 Trillion Naira from 2008 to 2019 on pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia and Israel, especially Mecca and Jerusalem. Of this amount, the Muslim annual pilgrimage cost the country a total ₦998.7073 billion, while that of Christians cost the national economy ₦720.8 billion. Figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the federal and states pilgrims boards showed that in October 2008, a total 84,878 Nigerians went to Mecca to perform the annual hajj obligations in which a total ₦29.7073 billion was spent on a total package of ₦550,000 per person. Tickets for the airlift of the Muslim pilgrims amounted to ₦24. 275 billion. This has been the estimated amount spent on individuals in subsequent years with that of 2019 being the highest in the margin with an estimated ₦1,800,000 to ₦2,000,000 per pilgrim from Nigeria with each state producing at least 500 pilgrims.
Nigeria has more Catholic Knights than Italy. Nigeria has more Anglican Knights than England. Nigeria has more Alhajis than all Arab countries combined. This is not entirely bad. Ironically, this our religiosity does not reflect in the religious and moral fabric of the nation! Each year, Nigerians budget billions of naira sending our people on pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem to pray. They pray for development, they pray for long life and good health, they pray against sudden death, they pray against the accident of any kind, they pray for employment and they pray for peace. In 2018, the Nigerian Government blew a whole 250 Billion Naira to sponsor pilgrims to pray for the development of Nigeria, among others. 250 billion Naira that could build 250 model schools or 100 modern health centres or even 250 brand-new roads. 250 billion Naira that could build 1000 new housing estates or create 100,000 new jobs.
Organised Religion may not be the main problem of Africa, but any right-thinking person would not deny the fact that Organised Religion has done little or nothing in the upliftment and emancipation of Africa. A country like Nigeria that is utterly religious is completely nothing to write home about. Science has helped to eradicate diseases. Organised Religion has had next to no contribution in increasing the life expectancy of people. Science has provided wonderful medicines and tonics. Organised Religion has even gone to the extent of stopping professional hospital treatment and resorting to prayers which most times proves to be very fatal and disastrous. Science has helped to create new technology and advance human civilisation. We didn’t pray our way into mobile phones, laptops, lasers, rockets, satellites, robots, AI and the internet. These are all results of research and development. The way a person, on any point on Earth, can communicate with a person even diametrically opposite on the planet’s surface, would have clearly been unfathomable if it were just Organised Religion alone. It is high time Africans stop praying and start thinking innovatively if they want to escape the impending economic doom on the continent.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
