by Grace Efezokhae

 Imagine a grown man believing God for a job and for 15 of the 24 hours in a day, he is in church conducting deliverance and all sorts of dry fast which might stretch for days.

I am certain Karl Marx had the present day Nigeria in mind when he stated that “Religion is the opium of the people”. Religion is probably one of the most controversial topics that can never be handled objectively. Every nook and cranny of our beloved country is filled with churches, mosques and the likes, yet, corruption and other evils are on the increase. The things I have recently heard and read about suggest that people are either using religion as a disguise for their ignorance.

I vividly recall an incident that happened while I was in secondary school that still beats my imagination till date. It happened that someone spotted a scorpion and a “spirikoko* someborie’’, let me name her Sisi Oyo was called on to kill the scorpion. She was certainly not a pro scorpion killer, we only knew her as a “pro spirikoko prayer warrior”. The amazing thing was that she went to the spot where the scorpion was allegedly spotted with just a Bible in her hand and was “kabashing”*. The cheer leaders were behind her about 300 meters away cheering her on. I have tried to look for a word or phrase to caption this incident but apparently English failed me.

Many times, we look at all the mishaps happening around us and we put the blame on the devil. All we say are “It is well”, “E go better”, “God dey” and the likes. Prayer and fasting alone will not solve our issues, we have misconstrued this fact. Many people run to prayer houses and as a result many false prophets have arisen to cash in on helpless and lazy Nigerians. A case study of the EBOLA VIRUS outbreak that has been flying around, rather than study the facts and be well informed, people now get religious about it.

We Nigerians have to understand that God will not come down and solve our problems. He has given us brains to make life better for us. What we make of it is our sole decision.

Do we think God will come down from Heaven and drag us away from collecting rice from Politicians?

Do we think that God will come down to tell us to vote a right and credible leader?

We have a responsibility to do things right ourselves to make lives better.

If you like pray more than Prophet Elijah and cry more than a town crier; if you don’t make efforts to make things work out, you may just be wasting your time. Imagine a grown man believing God for a job and for 15 of the 24 hours in a day, he is in church conducting deliverance and all sorts of dry fast which might stretch for days. God blesses the labour of our hands couples coupled with whatever prayer and fasting we may want to embark on. Left to me, it’s just a sign of laziness and first class level of ignorance.

I am sure God is astonished at all that is been happening now. Prayers/fast/faith without works is dead. Nigerians have developed a strong nature of looking for quick fixes without the hard work. We can’t keep waiting for God Himself to put a stop to man-made problems. Do we expect God to come down and fix our problems? God has given us the brains to solve them, yet we still hide under the pretence of religion.
What do we say about the man who tried to emulate the biblical Daniel by jumping into the Lion’s den at the University of Ibadan a few years ago? He ended up feeding his brains to the lions.

God is not a “show show” God #Rogerthat

What can we say about a certain Reverend who allegedly poured gasoline on one of his members amongst other evils? Despite the fact that he remains in prison till date, he still has a number of staunch followers who are ready to break a leg and an arm for his sake. They even likened him to Christ….haba! Cursed be the man who makes a mockery of the Name of God for what he might gain.

I am not an atheist and I believe in the Supremacy of God Almighty. I am just sick and tired of all these religious fanatics. Strive to develop a personal relationship with God, our Maker.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

SHINE YOUR EYES O….FALSE PROPHETS ARE ON THE LOOSE

*Kabashing is a slang for intense prayers

*A spirikoko is someone who is seen to be highly spiritual

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Grace Efezokhae blogs at www.graciemama.com 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.