March 14, 2014

OF CONTRADICTIONS

Things are falling apart. Everywhere. No, no Okonkwo’s. No Chinua Achebe’s. No Wole Soyinka’s. And no, no Man Died. At least not yet. But the embers are being fanned; the sign of an end. No, not the end of the world. Not yet. Rather, the end of a wonderful association and not so wonderful phase.

Associations and identities can both be exhilarating and dangerous. Exhilarating because it defines your circle of wider relevance and inner subsistence. Dangerous because once misunderstood, one can hardly go back to make correctives. It becomes who you are. That pretty lovey-dovey girl can turn out to be prejudiced. That white color could be a “dirty” shade of grey. EL James is such a badass. No I haven’t read #50 shades of Grey. I don’t think I would.

However, I have somewhat dangled between the grey areas of the contorted continuum called religion. From believer to agnostic to atheistic (hardly however) and then back to believer. The kind of books I read of course didn’t help matters. The God Delusions by Richard Dawkins of The Selfish Gene fame is a befitting example. Bitter scientific truths in there though.

Tolani, the banker lady would seize one of my classic books; claiming that’s what made me agnostic. She never returned it. Another friend would almost label me an atheist as of my association with Wole Soyinka and went ahead to buy me Open Heavens; a daily devotional by the revered Pastor Adeboye.

This I read with a moderate but impressive effort of a new recruit; convert if you like. The range is getting shorter. The intricate questions still remain unanswered however. By the way, Wole Soyinka isn’t an atheist. He’s a proud worshipper of Ogun. That doesn’t qualify as atheism. But that’s besides the point.

Religion, its inherent contradictions and convolutions isn’t new. It would remain so till the end of time as it was from the beginning of time. Things are changing however. They are getting worse. And the world isn’t getting any better. We are more religious but our world isn’t any better for it. Self evident contradictions.

My biggest problem with religion has always been the sheer hypocrisy, fanaticism and intolerance that often come along with it. I have always believed the world might be a better place to live in without the complications of religion. I still believe so. To a fair extent.

It was with utter disdain and shock that I read the misguided missive by a Wendell Simlin aka Mr. Reno Omokri linking Lamido Sanusi with the Boko Haram uprising. It’s more disdainful to find out Omokri tried to catfish using a fabricated profile of a Wendell Simlin. A typical Nigerian letter scam we are popularly known for in the western circles. Such a shame.

Furthermore, Mr. Omokri proved and supported his allegations with purported fake documents. And these are yet to be disproved or otherwise. Such a shame. Again.

In this circle, in this Nigerian circle of ours, religion is a well versed political tool. One we have allowed to be used against us, the citizenry, time and time again. Political calculations and promulgations are made along that faint and feeble line of religion. Because when it comes to religion, we are zombies. Honestly, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has got to be the greatest philosopher out of Nigeria.

Come 2015, we the zombies will likely be played along that line of religion, politics and ethnicity once again. Let’s hope we will be merely played and not raped.

Foye.

Ps 1. Sadiq Abacha, son of late General Abacha needs to shut up. His supposed sanctimonious salvos only worsened his plight to make a hero out of his father. His bestial father was the second worst thing that happened to Nigeria. The first was the amalgamation and the subsequent creation of Nigeria as it is.

Ps 2. I’ve got to salute Madam “Due process” Ezekwezelli. Her remarkable speech at a recent APC congress needs be hugely complimented. It was well researched and delivered with absolute candor. That’s rare these days.

Ps 3. So I made a huge blunder in assessing someone’s character. A curious case of that clichéd expression: Never judge a book by its cover. I gave too much credit for what wasn’t even there. Contradictions. Again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Even religion has it's merits. We simple minded pple av a need to believe in sometin bigger dan us, it helps us cope wit d awful world, saves us from thinking deeply and helps us hold on to a semblance of sanity. Imagine how desolate life will be without faith and religion. While devotionals have some good merits, they can also be limiting, try reading the bible on your own, not necessarily as a religious book but perhaps as a philosophical one, never rely on another person's interpretation.
Men will always be manipulative pricks, religion is such a prefect tool in der hands, n it is certainly not d only tin dat turns people into zombies.
I can understand your issues with the belief in and existence of God, it seems a far fetched idea at d best of times, yet somehow I always still find Him true for me.
P.S. Pls do not bother reading 50 shades of grey, I made d mistake of reading it, a 10yr old could have written it better. I'm amazed at d hype over such a horribly written, silly and unoriginal book.