By Tessy Igata

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. This statement by the renowned philosopher Karl Marx was paraphrased thus, “religion is the opium of the masses” and this has become a popular maxim. Can there be  truth to this statement?

In the face of man’s sufferings and ordeals man takes solace in the fact that there is hope to every man who believes in his creator which is the basis of every religion on  the face of the earth.

But just as religion is the opium of the masses, man is also by nature a political animal according to Aristotle. This fact cannot be disputed as in every sphere of man’s life politics is depicted; partisan or everyday politics in our homes, places of worship etc. Can religion and politics be separated? If man finds solace in his religious inclination why then should there be religious crisis in the world even among people of the same faith?

Crisis resulting from religion has over the years been a source of concern to many, in a world where one is supposed to be free to belong to or practise any religion of his/her choice. Thousands of lives have been lost over the years and there seems to be no end in sight to this.

When the Boko Haram insurgency started, Nigerians thought it was a religious crisis but sooner than later the crisis took a new dimension and could no longer be determined whether it is a religiously or politically motivated crisis.  Issues surrounding politics and religion cannot be over looked and for any nation to be economically stable and developed there has to be political and religious stability, therefore the relationship between politics, religion, national security and how these affect the economic development of the nation is critical.

This was among issues brought to the front burner for discussion at the 2013 annual AELEX lecture in Lagos with theme: In God’s name politics, religion and economic development. Timothy Shah, Associate Director, Religious Freedom Project Georgetown University, United States, a guest lecturer at the event posited that religious freedom can be directly tied to political security and economic development, giving a link between the outbreaks of religious violence and rising expectations among religious groups, which are then denied through restrictions on religious freedom. He added that these denied rising expectations in turn can spark up religious conflicts, which create insecurity and prevent economic development. “Religious freedom is essential to the creation of security and stability, without which economic development cannot be sustained”, he said.

For Rt. Reverend George Bako (retired bishop of Lokoja, the Anglican Communion) “when we look at the Western world; we see another feature; a feature that is trying to rival religion in terms of liberalism, the civil partnership law when it comes to being will affect the way people see humanity. The law makes it imperative for a priest to do what is against his conviction or perhaps the religion he practises, and when you’re now compelled to go against what you think is right then there has to be some amount of reaction to such repression”.

Bako added that anything which impinges the freedom of worship, especially to practise one’s own religion can create a lot of problem and the Nigeria situation is a good case in point where we have democracy which is not being applied in the way that the average man will be comfortable rather he said, it appears the application of democracy is being done for the rich to be richer and the poor, poorer and this leads to a situation where sooner or later something will have to pave the way.

“The constitution says yes I can practise my religion but we have the religion and the constitution and my loyalty is more for the religion than any other thing meaning that if I push the application of my religion beyond an extent I will have a lot of conflict within the constitution but how do we try to balance these two aspects?

The Boko Haram insurgency has brought together in some way the generality of Christians and Muslims (Nigeria Inter religious Council) to solve the problems resulting from the  uprising.

“If that council is sufficiently organised in a positive way it can go a long way to show the Boko Haram people that what they’re doing is extremist and will not bring peace, but rather it will tear the country apart. If that is done in positive ways they will know that no religion can survive as to pre dominate other religions in a way that it can run this country as a religious one. And if each religion realises its limits then extremists will gradually fade away.

He said education is key in this regard . According to him “most of our religious leaders are not imparting the truth of the religions, rather they are misinterpreting it for their own personal gains and selfish interests and that is why most of the time we talk about politicians causing the trouble, this is because even though they belong to one religion or the other they don’t practise the core of what that religion imparts.

“I want to warn against using our churches and mosques as political platforms. Instead of going to worship God with reverence politicians seize the slightest opportunities to make political statements. I think it’s because each religion as it were tries to overshadow the other”.

In lending his voice Soji Awogbade, Aelex managing partner said politics and religion are two aspects of every country’s life including part of our daily life. He added that it is not possible to keep people away from one another, even as some countries have tried to separate both (politics and religion) and have witnessed serious friction and social upheavals. “We are living witnesses to the negative effects of politics and religion on our country; ill-advised policy-making has contributed to our economic backwardness while the religious crisis in certain parts of the country has succeeded in discouraging foreign investment. So, yes, these three are interwoven. Countries that have recorded significant development are those who have found a positive blend between politics, religion and the national aspiration for development”.

He further reiterated that Nigeria’s problems are as a result of the policies and actions that have been taken. “The argument cannot be made that our problems are due to our historical and political background because there are countries with similar background and those countries are now highly advanced countries. However, we have remained where we are. The problem must therefore be us and not our past. The problem is the endemic corruption in the system. The present crisis in the country can be traced to the corruption and mismanagement of the national resources by the leaders over the years.

In our own little way, we have tried to highlight this problem so that attention can be focused on it and not be misplaced on our historical past. Our annual lecture topic for 2011 was “Corruption: The thief in Broad Daylight”. At that lecture, we identified corruption as public enemy number one which has to be urgently addressed if the country is to achieve the dreams of its founding fathers”, he said in an interview.

President-Goodluck-Jonathan