As politicians jostle for visibility and recognition for 2019 elections that are ordinarily presented as consultations with ‘stakeholders’ (read political big men- source of many political criminalities). The unfortunate recurring decimal is that nothing has really changed in terms of identifying the real issues in the leadership vacuum given the country’s experiences over the years and perhaps the level of political awareness in the system.
The expectations would have been that there are certain attitudes that ought to drive the process that would begin to give the signs that there might be light at the end of the tunnel or at least a likely shift in leadership characterisation in a pre and post 2019 political climate.
The things that have consistently held the system down and negatively impacted on informed choices are still there and the system is still under the vice grips of these individuals that have always manipulated the political processes to the advantage of the least qualified in the society.
In the absence of institutional frameworks and structures that can accept or reject individuals who aspire to leadership positions as done in other viable democracies, the Nigerian people are left at the mercy of merchants that set up political Marts where oftentimes the wrong persons access power either through monetary inducements or violent means.
The merchants in the political system who trade the welfare of the people for personal gains are dominant in political party leadership who often manipulate party primaries by fielding and assisting their often incompetent cronies and the highest bidders in certain circumstances to access power.
Other groups can be found in traditional institutional heads, Labour Unions, market men and women organisation leaderships, drivers’ unions, some Civil Society groups and other sundry groups all of which work with party leadership for a fee to coerce their members to vote for their sponsors.
However, of all the merchants in the country’s dysfunctional political space, the religious leadership is sadly as potent as they are effective tools in the hands of the politicians in using their pulpits to work for financial gains for the highest bidders. Make no mistake about it, there are religious leaders who still have some integrity and honour left and seem like the lone voices in the wilderness but often blackmailed by the politicians whose proxies act as attack dogs on those leaders.
These merchants hiding under religion across Christianity, Islam and Traditional institutions seem to be the main betrayers of the people as they prey on the religiosity of the people especially when the adherents believe they speak the mind of God. More often than not, these religious leaders understand very well the mental slavery associated with religion in a third world country.
With a mindset propped to look up to God for even works that humans are supposed to do, the religious merchants seize the moment, fleece the politicians and market them in turn to their followers.
We have observed lots of these religious leaders ‘anoint’ and act as unofficial mouthpieces for the politicians who in turn make them very comfortable financially. These religious leaders act with crass dubiety in carrying out their missions. They often claim to have heard or seen visions through which God had revealed to them the politician that would take the people to the fabled El Dorado.
These religious leaders are nothing but false prophets who ply their political trades in the name of God. They lie to themselves, lie to the politicians, lie to their members and lie to God. They treat the politicians like royalty and they in turn pay the requisite financial component of the transactions. More often than not the membership of the religious organisation is a remarkable pointer to how much the leader gets because it often translates to the number of voters in instances where votes count or in its stead, the number for manipulatable electoral votes during elections.
The question now is, how can the political process be sanitised when the supposed moral barometers of the society have turned out the biggest tools of devious manipulation? The people are deceived and system shortchanged. Until Nigerians begin to realise where religious obligations start and end and where civic responsibility should take off they would continue to be mugu in the hands of religious merchants.
If not for taking this nefarious trade too far, how come that the same God that never lies would be endorsing different politicians speaking through the mouths of these so called religious leaders?
As I write, some politicians are now perennial front pew occupiers in religious houses. The politicians often share the microphone in these places and are now being called for all manner of launchings for new church buildings, priests’ or pastors’ houses, cars or even pilgrimage expenses etc. How can such religious leaders guide the adherents objectively in leadership choices when they feel indebted to these politicians? Stretched further, how can discerning members of such religious institutions reject such a politician when he shares podium with their leader in God’s sanctum?
A sense of closeness confers some level of infallibility on them. It is almost akin to the symbolic Judas’ kiss on Jesus. Most of the religious leaders are in it for profit and they actually live on such filthy lucre from one election to the other. Is it not time we stop them in their tracks?
The hypocrisy then is not the marketing and supposedly ‘anointing’ of these politicians for the financial again, it is in the desertion of the people once the aim of election is achieved. They never keep tab or remind the elected to remember the promises they made in the presence of God, because there is usually no altruism in the whole transaction.
Religiosity devoid of piety is a huge problem in the socio-political environment in Nigeria. With more Churches, Mosques and Shrines in the country than factories and industries, the expectation is that we would have enthroned a moral society where justice, fairness and accountability reign but this is far from the reality.
Soulless religion accounts for the inertia in the system thereby exposing the people to deprivation, poverty and illiteracy.
Are we too religious for development?
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