By Busuyi Mekusi

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Religion remains an instrument to make a society better, through the engraving of acceptable norms, constructive beliefs, and rejection of elements considered antithetical to socio-cultural formations. However, over the years, religions have been used to; limit one’s scope, circumscribe people’s independence and sustain individual and collective gullibility. Émile Durkheim might be right that ‘religion provides social cohesion and social control to maintain society in social solidarity’ he, nonetheless, posited that religion is the product of human activity, and not divine intervention.

Traditional sociological approach to literary appreciation does not only focus on the societal and contextual influence of a people on the literature produced there-from but locates religion as one of the agencies that people in power use to preach and ensure submission to authority. While the Bible is explicit about the need to submit to every authority, as they have inevitably been put in place by God, Muslims are wont to arrogate every development to Allah, even when it has to do with human irresponsibility and carelessness. Religion has since moved from the domain of private initiative to the level of collective pigeonholing and ascriptions. Furthermore, because of the inextricable relationship religion has with politics, politicians, particularly in Nigeria, have found a veritable instrument in religion, for the purpose of cajoling, manipulating and enslaving the adherents who sometimes see their religious leaders as infallible. The religious and political leaders in turn do like to align with the warped opinions of the masses, for which they always make political capital.

From linkages and supports to bandits, traditional leaders in Zamfara State have been in the eye of the storm, with the latest turbaning of a bandit kingpin, Ada Aleru, as the Sarkin Fulani by the Emir of Yandoto, Alhaji Garba Marafa. The conferment of the title was seen as a rapprochement with the bandit leader to ensure the return of peace and uninterrupted access to the farms by villagers. Even though the Zamfara State government has since suspended the Emir, one may not blame him for thinking out of the box to ensure protection for his people, when constitutional governments so charged with the responsibility have failed woefully. The conflagration caused by the heats generated by non-state actors is more worrisome than that precipitated by heat waves across Europe.

With the sumptuous attractions of political offices in Nigeria, the country continues to stand out as one of the nations, globally, where political actors desperately grab the reigns of governance. The high stakes in political offices usually attract money-bags who have monies got through questionable means to throw around. Both States and National Assemblies are increasingly being populated by suspected internet fraudsters and drug barons. Beyond the ordinary attraction by juicy political offices, their desires are driven by the need to legitimise their social status through a crooked political ascendancy. The political and economic powers of these misfits would help them consolidate on the malleable influence they have on institutions and agencies.

The ongoing trial of a former super cop, Abba Kyari, for links with hard drugs peddlers, after his unresolved questionable dealings with Ramon Abbas, Hushpuppy, who is undergoing trials in the United States for massive internet frauds, clearly shows how criminals have undermined very critical sectors in the country. In present-day Nigeria, criminals are kings, as vices are celebrated and virtues are repudiated!

One amusing nature of some Nigerian politicians is their peculiar use of religion, by referencing ‘god’ to ply their political trade. In the recent past, the controversial Pastor, Chris Okotie, of the then Fresh Party told Nigerians that god wanted him to be the president of Nigeria. In this dispensation, David Umahi, in the build-up to the APC presidential primary entertained Nigerians with how he prayed and got inspired by god to seek the number one seat. Pastor Tunde Bakare similarly prophetically spoke around the fact that god wanted him to be the 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with PMB being the 15th. Bakare did not just fail in the primary, but he had no vote. The governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, following the disenchantment he expressed after his candidate, Nyesom Wike, failed to emerge the running mate to Atiku, told Nigerians he was going to pray to receive the next direction from god. The most recent is the reference made by Abdullahi Adamu, the national chairman of the ruling APC that the Muslim-Muslim ticket of his party is the work and will of god. All the foregoing must be a god with small ‘g’!   

To complement the inconsistencies of these politicians that normally drag the Supreme God to their failed bids are political prophets that make mere political extrapolations about possible outcomes of elections, with most of the prophecies going off mark. These political guess-works are either adopted or rejected by supporters of politicians who like to do picking and choosing, as found in most critical matters, as typified by the acceptance of ethnic considerations in political sharing and rejecting religion in another breath. They lament poor infrastructures and palpable backwardness in the economy and politics but hail to the high heavens their political icons that have violated their governed spaces at one time or another in the past. I have always decried the fact that most Nigerians are Chichidodo!

The Yoruba traditional ontology of spirituality and engagements between human and transcendental beings has a veritable place for ‘ebo’, which is the sacrifice prescribed after an enquiry into a process through divination. Sacrifice, in all religions, is a religious rite in which an object is offered to a divinity for the sake of establishing, maintaining or restoring a desirable relationship between human agency and sacred order. From Biblical and Quranic Abraham that offered a ram in place of Isaac, the only son of his, to the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross for remission of sins and redemption, societies globally still resort to one form of ritualised sacrifice or another, as part of the general commitments to enlist the support of supernatural forces to sway physical situations in their favour, very remotely and spiritually. The potency of sacrifices is best understood today against the backdrop of oblations that litter T-junctions and roundabouts, underpinning the religious hypocrisy of Muslims and Christians who still patronise traditional priests.

Not all challenges would require a sacrifice; depending on what is required for appeasing the gods, and securing the needed intervention. To a very large extent, the constituent elements, the time and place of the sacrifice are specifically prescribed during the divination or consultations with the super beings. However, either in part or whole, the diviner could vary the specifics, for the purpose of personal benefits, analogous to the profiteering judges enjoy under technicalities.

Political processes in Nigeria have been bogged down by the indiscretions of politicians who would devise every means possible to undermine the genuine efforts of electoral umpires. From the periods of multiple voting to that of ballot stuffing, the 2022 Electoral Act has sufficiently empowered INEC to organise and preside over free, fair and credible elections in the country. With sustained advocacies made by Civil Society Organisations, voters enrolments have increased, and a remarkable surge witnessed in the collection of PVC. The isolated governorship elections held in Ekiti and Osun have positively characterised INEC, as both local and international observers identified vote buying as the only snag in the elections.

Vote buying got popularised during the regime of the former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, when the cliché “Edìbò Esebè” (vote and cook soup) was used to exploit the pauperised electorate. With the improvement in the electoral processes through technology (BVAS), money remains the ‘ebo’ (sacrifice) politicians offered voters in order to obtain their votes. Even though the voters are a set of oppressed people, they are made to, by default, assume the place of a ‘super being’, momentarily, in order to earn the support that would permanently enslave them. Unlike the sacrifices at cross-roads, which are not necessarily eaten by spirit beings but by deranged minds, the sacrifice of financial or material inducement would not portend the giver as naturally inclined to giving, but a desperado poised to grab votes.

As religion continues to be an amorphous albatross in the hands of Nigerian politicians, it is expedient that political offices should be made less monetarily attractive, to dissuade monetisation or religionisation of electoral processes. The electorate must be sufficiently educated to discern the tricks of political merchandise, riding on the horses of impoverishment and religion. INEC should design a better placement for the mobile voting booth to discourage the display of ballot papers after thumbprinting, with the ultimate aim being how to deploy electronic voting for faster and more reliable process, since the new Electoral Act has adequately empowered it.

No doubt, the gods of Nigerian politicians are as unstable as them, and the political-induced prophecies that raise unnecessary hopes in desperate politicians would be popular as long as bigotry thrives. Electoral ‘eboism’ must stop, for the sake of our democracy!