Prayer gurus in N4bn looting spree? By Duro Onabule

When would they have their date in court? That is the beneficiaries of the whopping sum of four billion naira allegedly spent on prayers, out of the diverted money which should have been spent on buying arms for helpless Nigerian soldiers sent to the battle front to neutralize the Boko Haram insurgents. By the way, does the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or indeed the Federal Government have the guts to try the untouchables of Nigerian society- bishops, pastors, imams and sheiks who might have collected the stolen funds?

At least, one former state governor, among others, is on trial for distributing, or at least, found from official documents to have been saddled with the responsibility of the “welfare” of the prayer warriors. And these saints, so elevated by the government and society, could always claim that whatever amount involved was government’s voluntary expression of thanks for the prayers/services they rendered to the erstwhile desperate big guns in government to enable them to  remain in power.

That should not be as smart as it may appear. The Muslim and Christian prayer mercenaries were not paid by the Federal Government but by the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which diverted government money to political purposes.

Similarly, some other Nigerians collected part of the loot for publicity purposes and cementing of political alliances. They could easily have claimed that their share of the loot was government’s/PDP’s voluntary expression of thanks for the services they rendered in either case. Yet, these fellows are either standing trial in law courts or, at the most lenient, have been advised to return their loot and stay free, perhaps only for now, in view of earlier pledge by President Muhammadu Buhari, to prosecute anybody involved.

Why then are the religious leaders who collected an estimated four billion naira for prayers being treated more like a special group, untouchable? Even if these bogus saints have refunded their loot, they still must be exposed. After all, non-religious leaders who refunded their share of the loot were still exposed to the public. There is  this recurring problem of handling national issues with deliberate or unconscious pampering, if not partisanship. Ironically, these same religious leaders are back at their hypocrisy of pontificating on how government should handle corruption. That these fellows are not themselves corrupt or even now are unaware that some Nigerians (obviously religious leaders) were paid for the services of offering prayers?

Since the past few decades, religious leadership in Nigeria mostly corrupt and exploitative of both government and the desperate in society who wallow in poverty while their religious leaders live like superstars with insatiable acquisitive tendencies never witnessed in this country.

Yet, Nigeria was once the same country where religious leadership was well-respected and self-respecting with the sole aim of a society with high moral standard. Those were the days of genuine religious leadership on both sides. Archbishop Vinning, Archbishop Leo Taylor, Archbishiop C. J. Patterson, Father Slattery, Bishop Howells, Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Archdeacon B. A. Adelaja, Bishop Adegbite, Cardinal Arinze, Canon Alayande, Sultan Abubakar, Alhaji M.K. Ekemode, Alhaji Jubril Martins, Alhaji Animasaun, Alhaji Y.P.O. Sodeinde and Sheikh Gumi.

They were all men of modest conduct and desire reorganised for humanitarian and peaceful purposes. Can we say the same of today’s religious leaders whose stock-in-trade is to infiltrate government and business circles for various dubious purposes? The more stupid government is making itself vulnerable like prayer sessions, the more the religious leaders exploit the situation and enrich themselves. At least in those days, religious leaders had no private jets or unlimited business enterprises.

The more these religious leaders infiltrate government, the more they entrench themselves for evil, greedy and criminal purposes. Or how do we classify the four billion naira or even any amount at all, distributed among the so-called religious leaders? Were Jesus and Prophet Muhammed being paid for prayers offered? There is only one choice for President Buhari, who is already being accused wrongly or alleged one-sidedness in his battle against corruption. Wrongly accused? Only if we                                                                                                                                 join in creepingly forgetting or pretending to forget religious leaders among looters of the money earmarked for arms.

Nobody should be afraid as even genuine religious leaders have no supernatural power, being mere fellow human beings. No serious nation hands over its survival prospects to a gang of liars exploiting God’s  name to enrich themselves. Do they pay taxes? Rather, they employ divide and rule for selfish purposes. And if the identity of those who collected five million naira or even one hundred million naira or twenty-five million was disclosed to Nigerians after the various sums had been refunded, why should EFCC fail to disclose the various identities of those religious leaders who collectively collected over four billion naira?

Worse still, how fair is it to withhold the identities of culprit religious leaders if their contemporaries among politicians and armed forces personnel had been disgraced among Nigerians. In the past few decades, religious cabals on both sides had been causing and heightening tension in the country by manipulating teachings of the Bible and the  Quran to suit their purposes, confuse public office holders and garnering millions of naira in the process. That is apart from exploiting the ignorance and fears of a desperate citizenry in seeking solutions to their perceived problems.

So intimidated and traumatized had ordinary Nigerians been into believing his salvation lies with religious leaders falsely credited with the power of life and death. Various strategies had been concocted to defraud not just ordinary citizens but also gullible states and the nation. Through blackmail, intimidation, religious kingpins claim to drive out evil spirits from their followers either by bogusly “commanding” or   “slapping” their victims, who are thereby  hypnotised. Hypnotised? Yes. Otherwise, what would make a normal Nigerian citizen lose his self-confidence.

Without shame or conscience, in matters of looting public funds, bishops, pastors, imams and sheikhs descended so low to partake under the spurious guise of offering prayers and collected millions and millions of naira into the bargain. If any prayer ever took place, such must have been to enrich themselves from the national till. As a measure of wickedness and godlessness, the normally confrontational two groups, forgot their difference and collected money without realizing that they would be exposed. Otherwise, both groups routinely poisoned the minds of their respective congregation leading them to mutual violence, in some cases, through arson and murder.

Why is it that just anybody establishes a religious house or group anywhere and at any time? Even the jobless suddenly turns to preaching as a Christian or a Muslim, the easiest way of making cheap money without paying taxes.

Despite the hundreds of millions or even billions of naira made by these religious groups from weekly or daily services in the form of contributions or offerings by the members, religious leaders are chronic tax evaders surprisingly, in contemptuous breach of the admonition in the Bible(and presumably in the Quran too) to “Give unto Ceaser what is Ceasar’s and give unto God, what is God’s,) religious leaders refuse to discharge their civic obligation. They bamboozle and intimidate government to have their way on this issue. If religious leaders will not pay tax to government, why must worshippers at church and mosques make offerings?

Government was not helping the situation by pampering religious groups with waivers of import duties. The idea of waivers is that the beneficiaries would pay no import duties on whatever luxury item is their fancy to bring into the country. Hence, private jets is their mode of travelling from north to south and east to west and of course abroad. To  issue such waivers, government is blackmailed and intimidated to cave in by granting the  concessions.

Meanwhile, the poor in society are further weakened by the same government with ever rising taxes the latest of which is the almost fifty per cent rise in electricity tariff.

So lucrative is religious business that at the rate more groups are springing up (guaranteed by the constitution), Nigeria will eventually have more churches than the number in Britain and United States combined as well as more mosques than the combined number of mosques in Saudi ARabia and Indonesia.

Rather than religion, prayer has become, on both sides, more of indoctrination for Nigerian adherents. Instead of seeking medical treatment, an average patient would rather risk death while taking prayers from  his pastor or imam. Even worse for females in urgent need of Ceasarian operation, many often resort to religious interference rather than medical treatment and consequently died while relying on prayers.  It just does not make sense. Medical treatment is the average cure for illness and only trained doctors and nurses are capable of offering hope.

President Buhari has the duty to take the challenge of the same religious leaders that he is not even-handed in the fight against corruption. In any case, if those who obeyed instructions to release state funds and whose who helped in distributing the toot are on trial with the prospects of going to jail, how fair is it that those who received the stolen funds are begin shielded merely because they are religious leaders?

And the arrogance as well as blackmail of the same religious leaders that government must not devote its entire tenure to combating corruption?

Imagine this. With the era of proliferation of universities in Nigeria, religious groups ask established universities in the full knowledge that adherents, rather fanatically would prefer the university of their faith. Quite laudable. But how about the exploitation? The fees are the highest in the country. But exploitation of poor intending students of these new universities is from the beginning. Application form is not less than five thousand naira and up to one hundred thousand applicants will vie for placement in the university. None of the new universities can take more than ten thousand freshers .

The remaining ninety thousand unsuccessful applicants at five thousand naira each in these new universities of religious faith?

Fela Anikulapo Kuti summarized it all succinctly in one of his songs: “Imam na gbaladun. Pope na enjoyment.”

SUN

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