IF MONEY DID NOT SOLVE NIGERIA’S PROBLEMS, PRAYERS WILL NOT SOLVE THEM EITHER!
An erstwhile general and naive Nigerian ruler (unelected) at 31 years has been spearheading a prayer group to cleanse Nigeria of its demons. These demons or Devils if you prefer, include kwaraption, influenceable shamelessness, unabashed nepotism, deplorable roads, poor or nonexistent communications, no electricity, lack of potable water, lack of toilet facilities, open drains and sewers, collapsible buildings and bridges, flying coffins, hunger, underequipped educational facilities, primitive military hardware, etc. have plagued Nigeria since Independence.
Aha! Nigeria become a major oil producer starting in the 1970’s, especially after the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict and the subsequent Arab oil embargo. As oil revenues flowed into the nation’s coffers, the young paper general (never fought any war) declared that: “The problem of Nigeria is not money but what to do with it.” One would have thought that he then proceeded to exorcise the nation’s demons by using the oil windfall to upgrade her infrastructure. No, the oil money was spent on festivals, ludicrous salary awards that fueled inflation, paying salaries of other nation’s striking workers, and left to gather dust in the central bank’s vaults after some of the money wondered into private bank accounts through inflated contracts.
God who gave Nigeria all these monies to develop herself was quite angry with the naive, inept, and clueless Nigerian leadership. God tried to counsel General Gowon through President Richard Nixon, but he declined an invitation to visit America because he was too busy counting Nigeria’s oil money! If he had visited America, he would have seen what money can do to a country’s infrastructure. Now, he has been leading a prayer group called “Nigeria Prays” that would exorcize Nigeria’s demonic corruption and infrastructural problems through prayers. As the group prays, and has been praying for 20 years, Nigeria’s economic, financial, infrastructural, environmental, cultural, and moral problems have worsened. If the time spent in praying had been spent in real work trying to address some of Nigeria’s problems, the result might have been different. Prayers not followed by good deeds for the public good is like praying for peace and stockpiling weapons of war including weapons of mass destruction (WMD). WMD in Nigeria are poverty, religion, and ignorance. The strong genetic components to these ailments mean that they may fester for thousands of years until mutation or gene mixing solves the problem.
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