XPost: alt.christian.religion, alt.religion, soc.culture.nigeria
XPost: alt.religion.christianity
UNN: Scholars dissect contributions of religion to Nigeria’s devt
25th August 2019
The issue of religion and how it has affected the development and
unity of Nigerians and Africans was the subject of heated debate among
scholars at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Prof Chibueze Udeani, the Chair of Missiology and Dialogue of
Religions, Catholic Theology Faculty, Julius Maximillian University,
Germany, provoked the debate through his lecture entitled, “Religion:
the Core African Epidemic of the 21st Century”, presented at a Public
Lecture organised by the Council for the Development of Social Science
Research in Africa, (CODESRIA) in collaboration with the Department of
Social Work, University of Nigeria.
Udeani said that although Karl Max described religion as the opium of
the masses, the concept has a more devastating effect on Nigerians
than the opium.
“Religion is the main epidemic that has balkanised African unity and
retards our development”, he said while stressing that the problem
started as a result of Nigerians adoption of foreign religions in
their search for God.
Such adoption, according to him, robed Nigerians and Africans of the
unique experience of encountering the ultimate reality through their
culture and tradition. He said that every religion is an elective
shadow of a particular people, which could corrupt the belief of
others when exported outside its place of origin.
“Africans have made mistake of applying other people’s experience of ultimate reality in solving our own problems, why can’t we have our
own unique experience?” the religion scholar queried.
He suggested that Africans should develop the courage to be Africans
in other to face other races. “We need to burn what we are adoring and
adore what we have burnt,” Udeani said.
Prof Damian Opata, an adherent of Igbo traditional religion said that
his religion does not condole fundamentalism, which is a common
characteristic that had pitched one religion against the other in
Nigeria and the rest of the world.
The Associate Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of
Nigeria, Prof Njoku differed by stating that there was nothing wrong
with most religions practised in Nigeria. “The problem is the
irreligious in our religion”, Njoku, who is also a Catholic priest,
said.
Chairman of the event, Prof Romanus Ezeokonkwo lamented that the
proliferation of many religion organisations in Nigeria had added to
the confusion of the people on the best way to worship God, adding
that the lecture had awakened people’s consciousness on the need to interrogate the contribution of religion to Africa’s development.
Source:
https://t.co/Q1UsBs1Y11?amp=1
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