NOTWITHSTANDING the unprecedented growth recorded in the telecommunications sector in the country, based on the evolution of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), it is yet to surpass the growth of religion.
Parish priest, St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja, Rt. Rev. Monsignor John K.A. Aniagwu, said that religion is the fastest growing business and not GSM, in the country as at today.
Delivering a paper as a guest speaker at the annual St. Jude’s Catholic Church, Mafoluku, Oshodi-Lagos, on a ‘Day for the Nation’ in a paper titled “A Nation of God’s People,” the priest said, that a recent survey by a clergy in Lagos State only, showed that in the Mushin suburb, he counted 56 churches in a street.
“Religion is the fastest growing business and not GSM,” he asserted.
Explaining further, he said, that the trend was because religion is a risk-free business unlike crime, which is risky.
Msgr Aniagwu, also said that Nigerians are religious but not godly.
Nigerians, he said, see religion as a tool or means that could be used or manipulated to meet their private needs.
Religion, the priest said, is acknowledging the reality of God.
“We expect God to serve us rather than serving God,” he said.
Throwing more light on the proliferation of churches, he said, that was why focus has been on financial break-through.
He described the setting up of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as an act of God and prayed that the commission should be able to cleanse the nation of bad eggs before the next general election in 2007.
“EFCC is an accident, the people who established it did not know it would turn out this way,” Rev. Aniagwu said, stressing that it was actually as a result of prayers by churches in the country “Against bribery and corruption.”
Recalling the prayer for Nigeria in distress by the church in 1993 that resulted in the peaceful resolution of the then political impasse owing to the annulment of the 1993 general election, which was rated as the fairest and freest election Nigeria ever had. Nigerians, he further said, are religious but not God-fearing, this he attributed to poverty and ignorance.
“Poverty and ignorance of what religion clearly means” he declared.
He also proffered some solutions saying that there should be enlightenment and education of the populace.
“We must cultivate the culture that rewards only virtue,” he advocated.
Nigerians, he said, need to be reminded of the flimsiness of life on earth, wondering the sanity of Nigerians who go about acquiring wealth that could last for generations to come, despite the fact that man’s days on earth are numbered.
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