The Business of Hope and the Economics of Religion in Nigeria

If you have been on (Nigerian) Facebook long enough, you’ve probably seen this post more times than you’d like:

Religion is one concept deeply woven into the warp and weft of the Nigerian social fabric, so much so it is almost impossible to go a day without hearing a reference to God. Due to this, religious leaders, in addition to being conferred with god status and being more or less untouchable, are fast becoming an indispensable sector of the Nigerian population.

You see religious leaders deal on one commodity: hope. A commodity that is more addictive than cocaine. Thanks to the reality we live in, hope has become such a rarity. The minute you are born, hope is taken from you and crushed even before the umbilical cord is cut. The first lesson every Nigerian learns is that the government doesn’t care. The average Nigerian provides his own electricity and security most of the time and struggles to encounter running water. The government is a frenemy that only remembers you once in four years.

The second lesson is: everything is out to get you; from government and banks down to network service providers, house agents and the power company. These are realities most Nigerians have come to accept; some quietly and others grudgingly.

I once got into a conversation with a friend about religion in the Nigerian climate. From drinking all manner of concoctions and sleeping with the said religious leaders to deliverances that are more or less an episode of Friday Night Raw, he was so confused that people could be so gullible.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this is not gullibility. These are actions and inactions of souls deprived of hope. I’ll never forget what one of my lecturers said in my final year as an undergraduate. To paraphrase his words, for a lot of us, religion is a trade by barter. You do good and give enough offerings and hope God smiles down on you but it doesn’t always work that way, does it? He was smiling so affably, a lot of people chuckled without noting the seriousness in his eyes.

Neurosis is an individual religiosity and religion, with its repetitive rituals is a universal obsessive neurosis
Sigmund Freud

Religion here is largely transactional. We give, tolerate and give again because of hope; the hope of reception and a better future. Just like Sigmund Freud posited, people cling convulsively to the idea of God- and do unspeakable things in his name- because of that infantile and instinctive need for protection, provision and hope which they- to some extent- cannot give themselves.

Gullibility is not what makes a man scrape all his meagre savings and give to his pastor, hope is.
Gullibility is not what makes people go to church each crossover night and shout “(insert year) is my year” and “Amen” till their voices are hoarse each time the pastor makes a prophetic declaration on marriage, prosperity and all-round success; hope is.
Gullibility is not what makes people do atrocious things in the name of god; hope- for a heavenly reward- is.
Gullibility is not what makes throngs of people swarm to the altar each time a religious leader says, “I see somebody here getting richer/a child/ a spouse/ government contract/ a visa/a scholarship/ an appointment..” even though they know the possibility of that happening to them is 1 in one million; hope is. In everyone’s minds, they are God’s favourite child; more deserving of favour, with his grace manifesting more in their life than in the lives of others.

“In a desperate attempt to give meaning to life, many turn to religion, because a struggle in the name of faith is always a justification for some grand action that could transform the world. “We are doing God’s work,” they tell themselves. And they become devout followers, then evangelists, and finally fanatics. They don’t understand that religion was created to share the mystery and worship, not to oppress and convert others. The greatest manifestation of the miracle of God is life..."
Paulo Coelho

Religion, according to Sigmund Freud, with its repetitive rituals, is a universal, obsessive neurosis. This is why people cling convulsively to God and the hope he brings even when the core of their beliefs is threatened. “God will not allow XYZ to win the elections,” they say, “Affliction cannot rise a second time!” When XYZ does win, in a cognitively dissonant turn of events, they argue that God let XYZ win because of their sins or to teach them something important and pivotal.
Do I think religion is bad? Not necessarily. Frankly, religion in itself can be a neutral concept and can be used for good.
Do I think people should stop frequenting places of worship? Far from it. I believe the Nigerian society will fall apart at the seams if religion is raptured out of the societal equation.
So what exactly is the problem?

Recently, I watched a Bollywood movie that I feel beautifully encapsulates the commercial nature of religion in our current clime. This movie aside from being an atheist’s (and an agnostic’s) wet dream really gets you thinking. In the movie, titled P.K. (2014), Tapasvi Ji, a Hindu priest, while speaking on the need to preserve religion and the idea of an omniscient and omnipotent God says:

“Do you know how many people kill themselves every day? Wrists cut, hang their neck on a fan. Why? Because they do not have hope. If God come forward, put tikka on their forehead and put some thread around their hand, giving them some hope to live, who are you to deny this hope from them? And if you really want to snatch God from those people’s lives, tell me, what do you want to give them instead?”

The main character, P.K., after agreeing with his point of view, states that because of people like him (men of the god), the idea of God has been split in 2:

•A god that created the universe and all things therein
•The god that these religious leaders have created and are trying their darnedest to maintain; a god that lies, pretends to act, giving false promises, meets rich people quicker, neglects the poor etc.

Tapasvi Ji angrily assures P.K. they’d do everything to protect their God no matter what. Things get interesting as P.K. refutes this thus:

“You can protect God? You? (chuckles). This world is very small compared to the whole universe. And you, sitting in this little world, in this little place, in this little street, saying you want to protect the God who created all these universes? He doesn’t need your protection. He can protect himself. Today, one of my friends died trying to help me. I was left only his shoe. Stop trying to defend God. Or else in this world, people will not only be leaving shoes...”

In this economics of hope provided by religion, things go terribly wrong when this thirst for hope is exploited and fear of eternal inferno and punishment is used to keep people shackled, effectively demonizing God. Like all good marketers, most of these people of the cloth know when the audience is becoming desensitized to their methods. Thus, they utilize subtle, persistent and judicious fear mongering to keep the audience coming back for more. When your thirst for hope fizzles out, they create new service gaps, new fears, that one would hope to conquer. A carefully timed “Sister/Brother I saw you involved in an accident and dying. We need to do intensive prayers to cancel this revelation” is all it takes to get you hooked again on hope-caine and foster a reverent gratitude that most followers feel for their religious leaders. This commercialization and weaponization of religion is as old as time and has been practiced by most religious groups. John 2: 13-17 tells us Jesus drove away people selling doves, sheep and cattle and those changing money. Jesus is quoted as saying, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Today, in a metaphorical sense, the Church is a market. Religious leaders, in a bid to get your money and attention, sell hope and exchange a steady dose of fear for undying loyalty. Things have even degenerated to a point where most of these leaders are deified and miracles and successes attributed to them.

I agree that putting faith in God, one can find hope difficulties will go away and courage will come. But I have one question, which god should I believe in?
P.K. (Culled from the 2014 Bollywood movie, P.K.)

I am not in a position to judge where people source their hope and peace of mind from especially with the perilous realities we have to navigate. However, I feel it is progressively better to emphasize more on true spirituality and less on religion. While they both give us hope, spirituality unlike religion is more intrinsic and therefore cannot be commercialized. When you are religious, it is easy to lose your mind, morals and convictions in the pursuit of hope. With spirituality, hope is not a chase but rather, a calm realization that everything always falls in place.

To conclude, I’ll leave you with a story I feel reinforces the need to emphasize on spirituality and the internal and how the divine and hope can be accessed sans religious ceremonies. I hope it convinces you that the divine dwells in you and not in a building or in the ceremonies carried out therein. This is the story of the Rabbis in Paulo Coelho’s page turner, “The Manuscript Found in Accra” and it goes thus:

When a great Rabbi saw that the Jews were being mistreated, he went into the forest, a secret fire and said a special prayer asking God to protect his people. And God sent him a miracles. Later, his disciples went into the same part of the forest and said: "Master of the universe, I do not know how to light the sacred fire, but I do know the special prayer; please, hear me!” And the miracle happened again.

A generation passed and another Rabbi seeing how these people were being persecuted went into the forest and said: "I do not know how to light the sacred fire, nor do I know the secret prayer, but I still remember the place. Help us oh lord!" And the Lord helped him.

Fifty years later, another Rabbi, who was crippled, spoke to God saying: "I do not know how to light the sacred fire nor do I know the special prayer and I can’t even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story and hope that God will hear me. "And again, the miracle occurred. Go forth then and tell the story of this evening…”