There is an emerging consensus among believing Nigerians of diverse persuasions that "only God can save Nigeria." Overwhelmed by the realities of a shameful past, a confused present and an uncertain future, benighted Nigerians seem to have suddenly stumbled on Psalm 121 which says that "I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." True, many Nigerians have always known that it is only God that has held us together as a nation. In spite of the wickedness and mischief of many individual Nigerians, and the sustained injustice and manipulation of corporate entities, many of us always believed that it is God that has preserved us as one nation. We believe that if Nigeria has not collapsed to this day, it is not because of the hard work, honesty and patriotism of the majority of its citizens, nor because of the sense of vision, credibility and efficiency of its government. We believe that it is by the mystery of God's abundant love, mercy and compassion that we have been saved from the traumas of another civil war, and spared the sordid experience in recent times of Somalia, Bosnia, Burundi, Rwanda and Liberia.
Our nation approaches the twenty first century utterly blindfolded. For at the threshold of the great millennium, while the rest of the world is competing in digital technology, Nigeria remains on the level of hoe and cutlass technology. At the threshold of the twenty-first century, while the rest of the world is flying high at jet speed in business and economics, Nigeria is crawling behind, weighed down as it were by superstition, and now some Nigerians are allegedly seeking economic prosperity via the crude, barbaric and magical means of slaughtering human beings and manipulating dead human cells and organs. At the threshold of the twenty first century while many countries have reached a very high level in the provision of quality education and social infrastructure for their citizens, the Nigerian educational system has virtually collapsed due to criminal neglect of infrastructures and senseless disregard for intellectualism. At the threshold of the twenty first century, while the rest of the world is making spectacular advances in the appreciation and application of democratic principles, and in the recognition and respect for the rights and dignity of every human person, Nigeria still groans under the awesome burden of military dictatorship with the attendant violation of fundamental human rights and the extreme militarisation of society. Our country faces the dire prospects of being side-tracked or left on the margins of twenty-first century human civilisation.
It is within this context that more and more Nigerians are today calling for fasting and prayer for our country. Churches are organising prayers vigils, individuals and organisations are staging regional or national prayer sessions. Even governments are said to be hiring pastors and imams to organise prayers for Nigeria, since only God can save Nigeria. It is a good thing that at times of crisis such as this, Nigerians know that they should turn to God, for as the Psalmist says, "unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build; and unless the Lord watches over a city, the sentries watch in vain." Jesus taught his disciples that with God "all things are possible," and so he challenged them to turn to God in prayer when they are in great need.
However, in spite of our belief in the efficacy of prayer and in the truth that only God can save our land, we remain highly suspicious of the ongoing clarion call for prayer in Nigeria. We suspect that some of our country men and women are manipulating the logic of "only God can save Nigeria," to a ridiculous extent that tantamount to magic. They are using the logic of "only God can save Nigeria" to promote a feeling of utter helplessness in the face of an otherwise contrived evil, and justify the now widespread disposition of indifference, inertia, inaction and apathy in the people of Nigeria. Once again, religion is being utilised to keep the people quiet while sustaining the status quo of injustice, oppression, human degradation and abuse. This is the type of religion that was identified as the opium of the people, one that lends itself to manipulation by oppressive forces in society to sustain the structures of injustice.
It is true that only God can save Nigeria. Yet God will not save Nigeria without Nigerians! God does not impose himself on anyone. The Christian God that we worship does not save human beings against their will. Persons who are beneficiaries of His salvific acts are never treated as helpless objects. They are always seen as participating agents in the process of their own salvation. God indeed does not save anyone without his or her cooperation. In the same way He will not save Nigeria without Nigerians. Those who are calling on Christians to pray for God to save Nigeria must recognise that within the context of a society that stinks with sin, Christian prayer is only efficacious when it is preceded by true repentance and conversion. Nigerians must recognise that at the root of our nation's multiple ailments is sin, individual as well as social sin. This sin manifests itself by way of primordial greed and avarice, exaggerated selfishness and crass individualism, ethnic bigotry and religious intolerance.
God will not save Nigeria if Nigerians continue business as usual; if they continue to cover one lie with another, and erect one unjust structure upon another. God will not save Nigeria if Nigerians individually and collectively do not adjust their corrupt, greedy and avaricious lifestyle. God will not save Nigeria if Nigerians as individuals and as corporate entities do not make the necessary change of behaviour and attitude that will make for peace and prosperity. God will not save Nigeria if the structures of injustice that are at the root of our multiple crises remain in place. Yes, God will not save Nigeria until Nigerians repent of their individual and social sins, and acquire the spiritual vision and the moral virtues, the socio-economic values, and the political attitudes and disposition that are the foundation of peace.
A genuine call for prayer is not an invitation to indolence and apathy. Rather it is a call to action by way of repentance and conversion which are always a painful experience. It is a call to action by way of the mutual forgiveness of past hurt. Those who are calling for prayer must be ready to face squarely the truth of our national existence, and where necessary summon the moral courage and political will to redress the long-standing injustices that have bred so much resentment in the land. Since the God we serve is the God of truth, prayer to Him is most efficacious when truth ascends the throne in the lives of the supplicants. Those calling for prayer must be committed to truth. They must not only live the truth, but courageously proclaim the truth in season and out of season. In this way our prayers shall be efficacious, and God will indeed save our land, for in Second Chronicles the Lord promised that "if the people who bear my name humble themselves, pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, I myself will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their land." I believe that only God can save Nigeria, but not without some striving on the part of Nigerians. God has in fact already offered His recipe for salvation. What we need today from Nigerians are gestures of acceptation. May we be ready to make the necessary sacrifices that will constitute the much needed gestures of acceptation of God's salvation.
