Just My 2kobo: Between Religion and Spirituality.

By Ogba Nicole Abah
So this is a topic that a lot of people are beginning to focus on. What does it mean to be spiritual and what does it mean to be religious. Religion as defined by the Oxford dictionary is “The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods; a particular system of faith and worship; a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion”. Spiritual as defined by the Oxford dictionary is “Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material and physical things; having a relationship based on a profound level of mental or emotional communion; not concerned with material values or pursuits”.

Now how is religion killing Nigeria? In my opinion, it’s simply because we do not tie it to spirituality and practice it. I come from a Christian background and I am a witness to this trend. People think it is just okay to go to church on Sundays without studying God’s word daily and looking deeper or applying what has been learnt to their daily living. Also, I spent most of my life in the North of Nigeria and I know a bit about Islam. Nigeria is a very ‘religious’ nation but I have concluded that majority of the people do not have a relationship with God whom they serve. Why do I say so? Look around you, in the Church, the Mosque, the government. What do you see? Even in God’s house, there is corruption and competition. If the churches and mosques are doing their jobs, we would not have the sort of minds we have roaming the streets, in the government and everywhere. Of course, there are exceptions. We all know this but the few different ones are the ones people hurriedly reject and criticise.

England as a country in the United Kingdom is doing well even though they are facing a recession. From knowledge I have gathered over the years, Christianity came to Africa from Europe. England has had its share of wars between the Catholics and Protestants but today they are mostly Atheist and Agnostic. I remember in a class one evening, we were talking about the cosmos (universe) and somehow, a discussion about religion came up. A British lady said “I do not believe in God or any deity up there. I am spiritual and I believe in nature and what is”. I was stunned. What I am getting at is why not practice religion as it should be and use it constructively to make our country a better place? People are using religion wrongly and it is becoming some poison that infects people.

The clashes/crises in some parts of Nigeria are a good example of this. Many people always run up and say it is ethnic and political but why does it always turn out as Muslims and Christians at war, killing each other? Religion should teach us that we are one, teach us to be better. I frankly hate it when people differentiate themselves as Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Pentecostal, Methodist, etc within Christianity. We are all one; Muslims, Christians, Traditional worshippers, Atheists, whatever religion or belief. We can all have our different beliefs and still exist peacefully and channel the energy towards building our country into something greater. We should not lose hope and faith in Nigeria. If we all start change from ourselves, our homes, our places of worship, what we put in our children’s’ heads from the beginning, I believe that we will start to see things turning around. Let us help ourselves and stop blaming each other for all that is going wrong and together we can turn Nigeria into the giant it ought to be.

Nicole Abah is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. She is a believer in a greater Nigeria and stands by this belief.