Religious Practices and National Development

Abstract

Nigeria is a multi-religious society. These religions can be grouped under three principal and dominant types which are Christianity, Islam and Traditional African Religion. Religion is held with utmost passion, devotion, reference and sacredness in Nigeria, so much so that it has become a veritable tool in the hands of both political and non political leaders for the psychic and emotional manipulations of adherents. No wonder Marx sees religion as mere illusion, a way of rationalizing man’s frustrations, an opium that sedates and placates the pains of exploitation and oppression by the nuveaux riché, whereas Durkheim saw it as a social institution that serves to give meaning to man's existential predicaments. Nigeria today is one of the most religious societies in the world, but these various beliefs and teachings have not changed to any appreciable extent the lives of the adherents and the nation as a whole. What is witnessed instead is one form of religious crisis or another leading to; maiming, looting, massacre and horrendous bloodshed of innocent and unprotected citizens. Every religion in Nigeria plays the blame game, to an extent that the practice of the same teachings of love, peace, unity and brotherhood each religion claims to instruct becomes a dirge and mirage. This study is therefore set to investigate religious practices in Nigeria and the effect on the development of the society using exploratory method. Though religion could be a source of social unity and cohesion in a social setting, it was discovered that over the years in Nigeria, religion has merely led to persecution, torture, wanton bloodbath and destruction of social and economic materials.