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As Nigeria celebrates the anniversary of its independence today, Charles Onyeabor; a Nigerian-born singer based in Italy and son of legendary musician William Onyeabor, shared an interesting piece on things the country can do to move forward.
Speaking to his Instagram page, he highlighted how religion is pushing the country back and wrote about the lessons Nigeria can learn from Italy, a country, despite being the seat of the Vatican, does not count too much about religion to get things done.
Read his full article below….
“It’s time we called a spade a spade, our dear country is 61 years old, but unfortunately religion is killing Nigeria. In fact, it’s one of the main things that brings us back as a nation. I used to believe that since the Vatican is in Rome, Italy, it would be a “holy” country where everyone would pray in the streets, but when I came here over 20 years ago, this opened my eyes. The majority of them don’t even go to a church or a mosque, they just work towards whatever their goal is with a plan and they make it happen.
Their roads were not built with a Bible or a Koran. Great minds came together with ideas, had a plan, and implemented it. However, Nigeria is the only country where a Christain is seen pleading with God to help him win the lottery when he hasn’t even played the lottery. We have to be realistic because most things are not spiritual, but everything is spiritual for us in Nigeria
It’s so bad that in Nigeria religion is even a competition. Christians think their religion is superior to Muslims or any other religion while Muslims think theirs is far superior to others. But in Italy your religion doesn’t even matter. I have seen Muslims go to churches with their Christian friends and Christians attend Muslim events. It’s all about love and together they can accomplish a lot together.
It is not, however, entirely the fault of religion, the government, starting with the presidency, must realize its basic duties and responsibilities. As in this Covid-19 pandemic, the Italian government ensured that all of its citizens got money for groceries and they even went so far as to help several people pay their rents and supported the landlords. companies with money to get back on their feet. Immigrants were not left out either, they all received some kind of support from the government.
Human rights are fundamental. Italians have the right to express themselves as they wish without being attacked by the government or anyone else. Unlike Nigeria, this is neither practical nor available. You cannot express yourself freely without getting into trouble.
I hope we can take this day and this moment to reflect on the fundamental issues that affect us as humans and see how we can best move forward without going wrong.
God bless Nigeria. “
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