NaijaPositive.com

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5399

What are Our Churches, Mosques and Schools Teaching?

It is time to turn away from prosperity and miracles to Morality, Salvation, Fear of God and Accountability.

The proliferation of Nigerian religious institutions and organizations with incessant sermons about how men of God prosper from nothing to something which has been the reigning theme for quite some years now has hardened the hearts of many to morality, while softening it to financial self-gain at any cost, so they too can be counted as having prospered.

Prosperity is a blessing, but if man has not been blessed with other blessings, such as salvation, morality, wisdom, fear of God, contentment, good work ethics, spirit of gratitude, attitude of charity, etc, then of what use is it to say one has indeed been blessed, if all one can show for it is wealth ill-gained or in fleeting instances through hard work.

Many claim to be rich, but do not realize they are not wealthy by any standards. Having money without wisdom, knowledge, understanding, morality, fear of God, honesty, an attitude of gratitude and most especially a charitable attitude of giving back to society, be it the less-privileged; motherless babies; accident victims; disabled; children that cannot afford to pay for their own education; helpless elderly; people who cannot afford dental, mental or healthcare; adults needing education or simply for scientific research and the cure of diseases; etc, is a waste.

There are many needy people with various urgent and pressing needs in society, yet most of the small enclave of our so-called super-rich, many of whom the sources of wealth are extremely questionable REFUSE to help the majority who are mostly squabbling in abject poverty.

We have all read stories about some of our super-rich who have gotten what they assume to be wealth by stealing from the government purses, through unfulfilled contracts, political appointments or special favours; illegal bunkering of our nation's oil; selling classified government documents; self-enrichment through drug-trafficking, 419 activities, ritual rites, kidnapping; stealing and self-enrichment from unsuspecting church congregations, now that church and politics have become the 2 most profitable businesses.

Other questionable sources of wealth are proceeds from robbing families of undue inheritances; defrauding banks; stealing of prime federal, state or family lands and properties that should have been allocated to the general public or unsuspecting, less-privileged family members, simply because they have been entrusted to hold such by virtue of their positions in government land and housing ministries, or as heads of families; sponsoring the kidnapping of bank, oil and other pertinent workers and other robberies; as well as other nefarious activities.

Despite the questionable sources of their riches, not many of them can boast of giving back to society. Instead they mostly boast or are paraded in rag magazines boasting about how many houses, cars, boats, jets, mansions and billions they have, most of which are stashed in foreign accounts where they do not benefit Nigeria or Nigerians. These countries despite knowing that such funds are ill-gained keep moot because of the interest they gain from such money and the use of the huge capital deposited in such accounts.

Most of our leaders in both military and civilian times have so oppressed the majority and their failure to provide the infrastructure that would support the growing population of graduates, has contributed to the desperation of our youth to enrich themselves, causing some of them to turn to yahoo-yahoo business , while they struggle to survive. Even while still in university, students sometimes have been perverted into prostitution, gigolo and ‘aristo’ activities at the same time they were supposed to be obtaining their education.

The open and uncensored ritualistic nature of some politicians and get-rich quick power players, the availability of spiritualists with get-rich quick claims, plus the fact that criminals are celebrated rather than punished and disgraced, have corrupted the morality of the youth; whereby many have succumbed to cults on and off-campuses, and are willing to be drug-mules, yahoo-yahoo boys, homosexual errand boys for foreign expatriates and any other immoral activities that will yield them instant and quick riches.

NEPA as we all call it has not only led to the fall of many business industries, factories, manufacturers and businesses, further worsening the unemployment situation of the country. With more mouths to feed, desperation has led many into all kinds of nefarious and immoral activities, greatly contributing to the growing moral decay of society.

What then are the Nigeria churches, mosques, and even schools teaching? That rather than becoming morally upright and fearing God, people are becoming self-centered, immoral citizens, desperate, unconcerned and unperturbed by their willingness to partake in any activity, regardless of how negative, illegal, immoral, disheartening or disgraceful, in order to enrich themselves at any cost; only to announce and pronounce themselves as having prospered.

It is time Nigerians in all institutions, religious, educational and business, begin to excavate the decay that has morally bankrupted our nation, and instead begin to instill and build up morally sound individuals who will stand up as patriotic, public-serving, God-fearing citizens who will build a new attitude, name and reputation for our country and motherland Nigeria.

It is time to return to the drawing board and reinstitute the morals, values and culture that once made us a morally strong, respectable and enviable nation.

There is no point in Nigeria being considered the most religious nation, when we are presently spiritually inept, and do not fear God enough to respect and practice His commandments, laws and testaments.

We have seen what taking God out of a country has done to the United States’ morality, and its major contributions to the greed fueled global crisis. We have also seen how Europe has become stagnant through the conscious choice to relegate God to the back. Here in Nigeria, we profess God, but do not fear or respect Him enough to abide by His words and tenets.

It is therefore time for our religious, educational and business institutes to begin to teach, exercise and sustain moral values rather than self-enrichment, prosperity at all cost, power and fame at all cost; the love of our nation rather than just ourselves and sometimes our immediate families.

The media, both print and television can also play a very significant role in assuring that the goal of reinstituting morality in our nation is accomplished rather than derailed. Our government and legislators can also help by fairly judging, persecuting and punishing culprits to make them examples that will deter such immoral and illegal acts; instead of simply slapping them on the wrists and making them undeserved heroes who instead deserve shame.

Our government should also duly persecute foreigners who circumvent and break our rules of law, and those who help institutionalize corruption by bribing our government and political officials. This way they will realize that Nigeria and Nigerians can no longer be bought by the highest bidder.

Most importantly, parents need to instill good moral values in their children and lead greatly by example, instead of mouth service, when their actions greatly contradict their spoken words. We should also return to our cultural practice of having the village (community) raise our children, instead of leaving them to be raised as latch-key children, who learn mostly wrong values from uncensored media, print and internet sources that corrupt their value systems and enforce negative morals that had previously been foreign and unacceptable in our society.

The religious and educational institutions wherein most of us pass through at some stage of our lives, are therefore empowered to have the greatest impact outside our family homes, and they need to re-orientate the Nigerian minds and attitudes to a positive level where they can be sustained by our business and government institutions.

Cxsm
14th March ‘09

© Cxsm 2009 All Rights Reserved

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

tayo agunbiade · Newbie Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Location: nigeria

the article certainly tells it as it is. there is no sense of morality in our nation anymore. what is so bad is that the get-rich-quick are obscenely and consistently hailed by the media. they are on the pages of our magazines and they ultimately used their wealth to get into power. who is asking questions? not the churches nor the mosques either. the greatest culprits in this whole mess is the media.

i really do not see that our churches in particular can preach morality and clean wealth as some of them are culpable too. look around and see the wealth several of the pastors are splashing about and no one is saying anything.

the truth is that the youth have no real role models to emulate. so they want to get rich fast and do not want to labour. the so called nolly wood does not show good examples either. their themes mostly depict all that is negative about nigerian men and women. we see deviousness, duplicity, dishonesty etc at its highest in many of these films.

yet all is not lost. i love my country and believe so much in her. i still think that there are good and honest people out there that understand the real values of hard work and honesty and do not worship wealth. i pray that some sections of the media begin to do a self-audit and realise that alot depends of them.
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TA

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5399

God bless you for this. We need to change our mindset and core values.

Nike Okeowo
12th Aug. '09