One of the very first things you may
notice if you walk into any place of worship or a crusade ground today is that
they are getting filled up more than before. Yes, many more Nigerians are
turning to God. In the face of persistent economic hardship and hunger in the
land, many who hitherto felt they had no use for religion have been compelled
to seek the face of God.
A recent poll conducted by NOIPolls
in collaboration with BusinessDay shows that apart from cutting down on
expenses and adjusting their feeding patterns, a lot more Nigerians are
resorting to prayers to cushion the effects of the worsening economic situation
in the country.
Indeed, if not God, if not some form
of miracle, how would people survive this economy where hunger has become the
new normal? Think about the massive job losses, shrinking of household incomes
and a corresponding exponential increase in prices of goods and services
worsened by a government that is confused about exactly what to do with the
economy! How would a man with a minimum wage of N18,000 feed his wife and three
children when the price of a bag of rice is higher than his monthly take-home?
So, true, the places of worship are
still bursting at the seams; true, the crusade grounds are filling up now more
than ever before. The irony, however, is that the offering boxes are not
filling up as much as the pews. A lot of people are no longer able to give
offering, while many have cut down on the amount they give, and I think that’s
a measure of how bad things have got in this country; that’s a clear sign that
this economy has hit rock bottom.
To be clear, Nigerians are cheerful
givers. A Nigerian Christian, for instance, does not need all those Bible
quotations about how God so loves a cheerful giver or how the measure you give
out will be returned to you or how givers never lack. When it comes to tithing,
he does not need to be ‘threatened’ that refusal to pay tithes amounts to
robbing God; he pays willingly even on money he receives as ‘dash’. No, he does
not need to be prompted.
But all this has changed in the last
couple of months, no thanks to the excruciating hardship brought upon Nigerians
by this inept government that has continued to shift the goalpost in the middle
of the game, this government that has adopted lame excuses, abdication of
responsibility and blame game as its trademarks, this government that has moved
from promise of change to change of promise. Even right now, we neither have
the promised change nor the changed promise. We have all become like hapless,
helpless seafarers in a sinking ship with a slumbering captain.
This is the season of the annual
harvest thanksgiving and bazaar, for instance, and many churches have kicked
off programmes for this year’s harvest. Building for God is not an easy task,
and so every stage of the harvest is usually used to generate funds for the
work of God, and the faithful have always been known to donate freely and
generously.
These days, however, many who go to
seek the face of God seem to have learnt to hold tight to their pockets, most
of which, in any case, are virtually empty. They may be moved by the preachers’
words that sometimes make them feel guilty; their conscience may be pricked;
their souls may be lifted by the chorus that says, “Give, and it will come back
to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over”, but all
that will be like water poured in a basket. They are unable to give because, as
they say in Latin, nemo dat quod non habet (no one gives what he does not
have).
A few Sundays ago I was in a church.
The church was launching one of the items for its 2016 harvest. Usually, the
presiding priest would make altar calls, beginning with those who want to give
God N1 million or sometimes N500,000, then N200,000, N100,000, N50,000,
N20,000, N10,000, and lastly, N5,000, and you would always see people eagerly
trooping to the altar. That very Sunday, however, the story was different. Even
though the priest began with the maximum of N50,000 instead of N1 million or
N500,000, only four people came out to answer the altar call, and they must have
ruminated well over it before coming out considering how long it took. Though
the number increased gradually as the amount went down – N20,000, N10,000,
N5,000, N3,000, N2,000, and lastly, N1,000 – it was easy to see the difference
between then and now.
Times are really hard, there is
hunger (even famine) in the land, and everybody is feeling the pangs. It’s
everywhere. People are dying. Many families barely feed. Workers are walking a
tight rope, scraping from one payday to the next. Go to the markets and see
things for yourself. Many traders just open their shops and sleep or play cards
till closing time. Buyers are a rare commodity these days. Who still has money
to buy anything?
But when the thing enters the place
of worship and people can no longer find money for offering, wallahi, the handshake has crossed the
elbow.
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