NOT A MATTER OF PRAYERS

 Heaven helps those who help themselves, writes Cosmas Odoemena

It’s election time again and we have started receiving chain prayers for Nigeria to be passed around without breaking them. In religious houses, different prayers are being said for Nigeria towards the election. In one of the orthodox churches, the prayer for a distressed Nigeria is said now more fervently. Is it not a familiar ring? In other words, have we not gone through all this before? Where are we today? 

It was Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah who captured our laughable strategy for building a prosperous nation when he said, “After independence, in order to build a great nation, each country went to work. But in Nigeria, after independence, our people went to pray and fast.

“So, while we were praying, Malaysia came here and took our palm seedlings and built a great factory of it.

“While we were praying, Singapore went into investment in technology.

“While we were praying, India went into ICT.

“While we were praying, China went to massive industrialization.

“While we were shouting Allah Alakuba! (sic) UAE went into massive infrastructural development.

“While we were binding and casting Lucifer, Japan went into technological development.

“While we were speaking in tongues, Denmark went into education of her citizens.

“While we were mounting big speakers in our places of worship, USA was mounting man on the moon.

“After our prayers, God, being a wise God decided to reward us according to our labour.” Today we know where those countries are in their ventures and we know where Nigeria is with our prayers. 

Instead of propagating a message that enlightens people about democracy and elections and our roles in it we are back to spreading prayers. And if you ask some of those composing the chain prayers if they have voter’s card they will be speechless. They are not ready to be part of the electoral process. But they believe their prayers can influence the few who are.

Even the clergyman who has been rallying worshippers for prayers for Nigeria’s election does not have his own voter’s card either. Neither do many of his followers. Even among those who have many are not ready to go to polling booths to vote. To them having a voter’s card is just one of those processes the government has made them do. One said, “Ha, you know tomorrow they might use voter’s cards as a requirement for our children to be enrolled in government schools.” Another sees it as a means of identification.

Some have already given up entirely and nothing can change their mind. To them, their votes won’t count. The election winner has already been predetermined. Another reason for others is that ballot boxes may be snatched. So theirs is to stay at home and use prayers to “counteract” it. But we are only deceiving ourselves. 

Don’t get me wrong. Prayers do work. But heaven helps those who help themselves. Someone said as powerful as God is, he cannot multiply zero. This means we have to bring something forward for him to multiply. That was why when Jesus asked his disciples about how to feed the five thousand people, the disciples didn’t tell him that they should offer only prayers to feed them. He asked them to bring what they had. And they brought five loaves of bread and two fish. These were then multiplied. 

There is no magic to a virile democracy than for us to bring something—and ourselves forward. We can also come out to be elected. In other words, we must take ownership of it. We must play an active part in it and hold our leaders accountable. Our destiny and that of our children are in our hands. 

In many developed countries, they don’t even believe in religion. Some are atheists yet they are continually developing and seeing to the betterment of their country. It’s what those who probably don’t believe in God produce that those who say they believe in God depend on. Does it then mean there is no God or that he does not answer our prayers? Far from that. It was Jesus himself who said that the children of this world are smarter than the children of the kingdom. This means that our fixation on having Abraham as our father has made us laid-back. It is part of what has kept us from using our God-given talent. That is why someone who has not written even a CV or sent one job application out goes to a prayer vigil in the hope that God will give them a job. That’s why a student who should sit down to study will do prayer and fasting in the belief that that is the way to pass their exam. Some even come fasting in the exam hall. And when they faint from low blood sugar, they accuse their “village people” of being responsible. 

God does answer prayers. And he has long answered Nigeria’s. That is why the country still exists today! But he does not need to be bothered when he has given us all we need as humans to succeed. He has given us a brain to think wisely and to vote wisely. But instead of using our brain some of us use our stomach. That’s why some of us can be easily bought over by one cup of garri and end up mortgaging our future, that of our children and that of our unborn children.

Can God be blamed if we decide to be stupid in a matter as serious as that of those who will lead us? Anyone who shows apathy to Nigeria’s election does not mean well for the country. Anyone who does not take action and decides to pray away their time is only foolish. 

Is reciting prayers the answer to our inability to have a stable power supply? Is prayer a strategy to tackle our insecurity challenges? Will prayers build infrastructure? Will prayers make food affordable? Will the growing number of out-of-school children reduce when we spend all our nights in night vigils? Fiddlesticks! Who will wake us up to reality? 

Yet we don’t know how powerful we are as the electorate. We must realize that our vote does count. And that is why a politician will pull out all the stops to get that vote. 

This is the time for us to own the democratic process. This is the time to know that we are in charge of what happens to our country. This is the time to remove sentiments. This is the time to look beyond tribe and affiliations. This is the time not to be selfish. This is the time to think about the future. 

The upcoming elections are not a matter of prayers. Resorting to prayers alone cannot engineer a successful democracy that leads to a prosperous nation. We need to work at it. Democracy is participatory and we must embrace it in its fullness. 

Dr Odoemena is medical practitioner in Lagos