I have often read many people blame the ongoing socioeconomic and political regression in Nigeria on the failure of religion. It sounds logical when one reads them; at least it provides me and those who think like me, a reason why the country has refused to grow. I am one of those who has refused to believe religion has as one of its duties to be the voice of the masses.
What I believe and which I have been unable to frame into a concise intellectual catchphrase, is that organised religion and politics are two mutually reinforcing tools employed by privileged people to undermine fellow human beings.
I needed validation for what was forming in my mind, for about 36 hours, I immersed myself in a lot of research and readings. It did not take time before I came across an article titled, ‘Despotism, or the Corruption of the Prophet’s Ideals’ published in March 2018 by Syrian intellectual, Abd al-Rahmān al-Kawākibī.
In the article, al-Kawākibī says: “Most historians of religions agree that political despotism stems from religious despotism. Others say that, if one does not stem from the other, the two are at least brothers, having abuse of power as their father and supremacy as their mother, or, rather, twins, being united by the need to collaborate in order to subjugate men. The likeness between them consists in the fact that both exercise a form of power, one in the kingdom of bodies and the other in the world of souls”.
Bringing it closer home to Nigeria, a researcher, Ibrahim Nureni, in a thesis titled, ‘Religious Bigotry and Miliary Despotism’, published in the Global Journal of Sociology Current Issues, argued that “religious and political/military despotism is considered to go hand in hand since their ideologies formulate part of the hegemonic, determinist superstructures that push the masses to be at the corner of receiving end”.
Those who follow my writings will agree that starting off with these sorts of backgrounds is not my style. My approach is usually the direct form, but the sensitivity of religion and the manner in which it has over the years been woven into the culture, lifestyles, and belief systems of the people prescribed for me a different approach that I guessed would prepare the mind for what many would consider a rebellious, non-conformist approach to the issue I am about to address.
The demolition of markets, motor parks, a school, and a motherless babies’ home in Nsukka and two major transport hubs in the state capital, by agents of the state government has reignited the debate regarding the mutually reinforcing roles organised religion and politics play in subjugating the people. While the people of Enugu State were weeping, wailing, mourning, and gnashing their teeth as they counted their losses in the exercise, the loud, banging silence from the usually vociferous clergy in the state deafened everyone.
Enugu is blessed with vocal charismatic priests and pastors whose proclamations and liturgical teachings make great headlines in both the traditional and social media of information.
Who in Nigeria does not know the track record of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, the fiery priest known for his fearless engagements with political leaders? Mbaka became who he is today on the back of his fight with former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani. His fight against Nnamani became public following the ban the former governor had placed on certain categories of motorcycles used for transportation in the state. Mbaka held that the then-governor was taking away people’s means of livelihood. He used his pulpit at his Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria to ostensibly incite the hoi polloi and place curses on the governor. Matters came to a head when on 7 March 2002, 14 people died following a stampede at Mbaka’s adoration night. The priest accused former governor Nnamani of responsibility and went on to allege an attempt on his life, an allegation that eventually became the theme for a song, O ji Bible ghoro mgbo m that sold millions of copies.
Mbaka has grown from hero to villain in the eyes of many critical observers, what with his endorsement of the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari (whose administration has been blamed for the country’s economic woes of the past nine years), the open solicitation of money from Peter Obi and his embracement of many unpopular politicians who purportedly won his support with cash exchange. His rebellion against his supervising Bishop between 2020 and 2021 was also indicative of a man given to disobedience, even when his vocation, preachings, teachings, and leanings call for one.
Interestingly, Fr. Mbaka, who wrestled Nnamani in those days has not made any of his usual Homiletical pronouncements since Governor Peter Mbah began his demolitions that have rendered thousands displaced.
The question is a simple, yet foreboding, WHY?
Further north in Nsukka, another vocal member of the clergy has also maintained a disturbing silence towards Mbah’s unpopular actions. Bishop Godfrey Igwebuike Onah is the presiding prelate of the Nsukka Catholic Diocese, who has utilised his cathedra to carve the image of an intellectual cleric for himself. His Homilies are intentional; recorded and edited by experts, and distributed globally through the vehicles of YouTube and other social media channels.
In the Nigerian Catholic community, Bishop Onah is seen as the next, if not the present Bishop Matthew Kukah. Those who followed the exploits of Fr. Kukah when he served as the Secretary of the Catholic Diocese of Lagos would attest to his powerful presence in the media, defending the church and engaging the government on behalf of the people.
Bishop Onah is doing this and more. Not too long ago, his strong position against Omabe, the native masquerade of the Nsukka people gained a lot of traction, especially his position that the tradition has outlived its usefulness and should be discarded, particularly because, as he put it, the Igala people that brought Omabe has gone and Omabe should go too.
Bishop Onah
When I came across the statement, I thought of reminding the Bishop that the white men who brought Christianity to us are no longer here, and as a result, their religion should not linger. I will return to this in an article I promise to write later so we do not mix the issues.
The point I need to make is that nothing has been heard from and of this revered bishop since the government bulldozers were trained like deadly snipers’ guns at the means of livelihood of the people. Nsukka is more than 90 percent Catholic. Even those of us whose spirit left the church during a trying period when this same bishop kept what was a conspiratorial silence as a priest in his diocese attempted to take a swathe of land belonging to my community, still subscribe to the faith in one way or another.
The silence of Fr. Mbaka and Bishop Onah is loud. But you see, these men of God will be better understood with a visit to history and its infinite library of memories. During the elections which brought Peter Mbah to power, the Catholic clergy in Nsukka mobilised their support for Mbah, said to be a Catholic, against Chijioke Edeoga, an Anglican. It was so bad that priests were summoned to meetings where representations were made for the pulpit to be used to mobilise support for Mbah.
I knew this for a fact because some priests in the Nsukka Diocese called to inform me of what was going on and it was the concerns of these priests that inspired the article I wrote during the period, titled, Just Before They Mislead Our Chief Evangelist: An Open Letter to Bishop Godfrey Onah.
The last election unravelled the ends to which the leadership of the Catholic Church wanted to make of their numerical superiority in Enugu State. Just like Mbaka, who would willingly give a stamp of Divine endorsement to anyone he cajoles into making financial donations to his Umu Ikuku Ministry, the Catholic order showed they’d be willing to give anyone who attends their church and takes their Communion, even if the fellow has character flaws worth deprecating.
Over the years, proselytization has passed off religion as the hope of the masses. But the more you examine its roles in the ugly things that happen in many parts of the world, the more you agree that religion has always been willing to conspire with the state to undermine the people. Whether you are speaking of Islam where religion appears to be fused with the sovereign authority, or in Christianity where the dividing lines are illusorily obvious but collaborations active, the reality of organised religion being anti-people has always been undeniable.
You cannot but remember Karl Marx when you listen to the sanctimonious preachings and teachings of most of our religious leaders today. Marx, in one of his most popular works, describes religion’s role in the lives of people as a metaphysical balm for the real suffering in the universe and society. By this, he meant that religion solves no problems but rather, soothes the hurt so you have reason to endure the hurt, even when you remain in the hole.
“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”, Marx philosophised.
The aim of religion is the capture of state power either directly or by remote control. That is why, in every election cycle, there is a contest of which religious group or denomination would win the votes. In the southeast, the cancer of Catholics versus Anglicans has consumed the opportunities of many a good candidate who wanted to put in place the real government of the people.
For many, if not most religious leaders, bad political leadership can only exist to the extent of its perpetration by someone other than one of their own. That is the same way corruption is evil, and those responsible for it, hell-bound, provided the names being mentioned are of other religions and denominations.
According to Catholic hamartiology, a branch of Catholic thought that studies transgressions, sin is an “utterance, deed, or desire that offends God, reason, truth, and conscience.” This is what is built into the opium that is fed to the people. In reality, there are qualifications to these, just as was the case in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Concerning the Ogige Nsukka market which was recently demolished, many of us agree that the area was already too congested and should be expanded, or some of the businesses there relocated. In the past, the timber and building materials sections of the market were taken elsewhere, the mechanics, who were operating mostly along Enugu Road, were also moved and recently, Ikpa Market was created to take care of the abattoir and the perishable goods sections of the market.
The government did not destroy any person’s livelihood to make these happen.
I know that there are many educated people among the silent clergy in Enugu State. Bishop Onah, Bishop Onaga, and many of them are PhDs. But the fact that they, and perhaps the other intelligentsia in Enugu have refused to point out the constitutional violations in what Governor Mbah is doing says a lot about the conspiracy.
In the 4th Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution, the powers of the local government areas are enunciated, and they exclusively include, as provided for in paragraph (e), the “establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughterhouses, slaughter slab, markets, motor parks, and public conveniences.
Couldn’t our priests and the superfluous intellectual class have been bold enough to remind Governor Mbah of this constitutional provision, and by that token, make him realise (if he was not aware) that he was violating the constitution by usurping the powers of local councils?
Did they know but chose to keep the partnership working by keeping quiet? Your guess is as good as mine, but I know our people are beginning to realise the enemy which organised religion is, and I also know that for liberation to happen; for the people to fruitfully engage the state, the veil obfuscating the people’s eyes and minds has to drop.
And this will happen.
