Religious Education and Societal Development: The Nigerian Context

Abstract

The present writer is drawn to write on this topic based on the realization that the Nigerian society seems to be onethat is bereft of the practicalisation of the ideal standards of virtues. There is apparent lack of objective measures ofrightness and wrongness of actions, especially in the present dispensation, irrespective of the so much toutedreligiosity of Nigerians. A particular action is regarded (by implication and praxis) as right when performed bypersons of a particular religion, tribe and party affiliation, but as an abomination when performed by some otherpersons. This beats one’s imagination to the core, especially given the fact that the religio-tribal considerationsappear to be the major driving force. This paper is therefore interested in the contents of the religious education ofthe various major religious types and how these contents that are imbibed by their adherents aid or mar thedevelopment of the Nigerian society. It was discovered, through personal observations and through the tools ofanalytical and deductive reasoning via library research methodology, that certain aspects of certain religiousteachings have great positive impact on societal cohesion which leads to development in the Nigerian society whilesome others rather sow the seed of discord, injustice, hate and rancor that have led to killings, oppressions andupsurges that have characterized the Nigerian social space for decades on end and have drastically militated againstsocial development of Nigeria. Recommendations include: religious education must consider the virtue of justice, itmust adhere to the demands of rationality, it must be universalizable and not myopic, it must be dynamic, and it mustbe morally honest and must proceed from right conscience rather than a sick conscience.