Religion and the search for a new social order
Emmanuel Ojeifo
After 17 years since the end of military rule and the inauguration of democratic selfgovernance, Nigeria still continues to wobble on a trajectory of uncertainty and distress. Daily orgies of violence, bloodbath, savage brutality and barbarous inhumanity have become our lot as a nation. Respect for the sacredness and inviolability of human life has reached its lowest ebb. From rampaging squads of “kill and go” herdsmen who sack, pillage and burn down entire villages, restive and bloodthirsty youth-turned-religiouszealots who harp on a distorted monotheism to claim a divine warrant for murder by hacking to death anyone suspected of blaspheming their faith, roving armies of armed-to-the-teeth kidnappers and robbers who systematically liquidate human life in broad daylight, irate mob who preside over the dispensation of jungle justice with a petrol-soaked tyre jammed round the neck of their alleged offenders, to insurgents who continue to amuse themselves with the blood of hapless citizens, Nigeria remains an expansive theatre of blood and death.
On a daily basis on social media, we are inundated per second with harrowing images and heart-wrenching videos of violent brutality taking place in different parts of our nation. These orgies of human barbarity and savagery, which defy every rational explanation, have facilitated the speedy descent of our country into the league of the top ten Africa’s most dangerous trouble spots. The impression is fast spreading today that Nigeria is a country where human life, like in the Hobbesian state of nature, is solitary, poor, brutal, nasty, and short. With the monumental loss of human lives in instalments, it would appear that we are already on the battlefield of a quiet civil war.
What is it about the psyche of a people that can make them descend to such an abysmal level of bestiality? Modern psychology has discovered that when a person loses the sense of meaning or purpose in life, he is susceptible to the infection of thinking that the lives of other people do not matter too. Sadly, on account of the collapse of values and the broken state of our society, an epidemic of hopelessness, helplessness and meaninglessness continues to blight the lives of millions of young people, making them willing tools and combustible materials for social explosion. When the children of our nation are planning their funerals instead of their future, it is a sure sign that as a society we have missed our way.
As a nation we have had a long history of being a violent society. The pattern of violence is all too clear from the crisis that plagued the immediate post-independence era of our nation: the bloody military coups and counter-coups, and the daredevil daylight robberies of the 1980s and 1990s that met with the superior firepower of police might. Condemned criminals were executed by firing squads in brutal ways that were regularly beamed from the bar beach to the heart of our living rooms. All of these made us susceptible and exposed to the psychopathologies of a violent society that made a plaything out of human lives. Does anyone wonder why the first generation of Nollywood movies focused on this violent characterisation of our life?
In his Facebook post of November 22, 2016, Dr Eddie Iroh put a brilliant spin on these dark spots of our society. According to him, “Nigeria is an intrinsically violent society. We are getting to know a bit more of it because of social media. In the dark recesses of urban homes and in villages, seven-year-olds and younger die in their dozens through deliberate maltreatment as house-helps or even through physical abuse by their own families. Spousal physical abuse is rampant. Ask any wife who is tired of suffering in silence. And you only need to watch a Nigerian movie - art imitating life - to see for yourself that domestic slavery is alive and thriving in Nigeria with its attendant brutality and inhumanity. Even among families, children are subjected to physical abuse and violence unacceptable in many civilised societies. Even in public and inside the church houses Nigerian parents correct the misbehaviour of their kids invariably with physical abuse a slap, a ‘conk’ on the bare skull, etc. Never a word of admonition! The kids grow up knowing no better and accustomed to physical violence.”
He concluded that Nigeria is “a broken society that refuses to recognise that it is broken; that it is littered with petals of blood. It also signals the breakdown of the social contract between the state and the citizen. When society cannot expect protection from law enforcement and justice from the courts; when people believe the police can be owned for a pittance and justice can be bought by the highest bidder, the rich and powerful, then the mob takes over the dispensation of justice; in the jungle fashion that often happens in Nigeria.” The saddest part of the bargain is that our leaders do not seem to care. Like them, we the citizens are also losing our humanity to the daily occurrences of violence and bloodshed. We have reached that point of un-shockability where people become less likely to feel disturbed or outraged at scenes of cruelty or suffering by overexposure to such images. We unlock our phones, watch “the show” on social media gleefully, and move on. It doesn’t occur to us that each time we do that we lose a part of our humanity, a part of ourselves. We participate in the dinner of a vampire society that feeds on the blood of its innocent children.
How can we salvage the situation? In every age, good politics and good religion offer the best possible hope for human social redemption. Politics, as a tool for the organisation of society, is concerned with the promotion of peace and justice. In The City of God, one of the seminal works of Western political philosophy, St Augustine defined peace as tranquillitas ordinis - “the tranquillity of order.” This was not just any “order.” Rather, what Augustine sought was an “order” rooted in justice: an “order” in which men and women could live out their responsibility to promote the common good; an “order” that made possible virtue in public life.Religion also has an important role to play in the realisation of this tranquillity of order. Sadly, the bastardisation of religion in Nigeria has deprived it of playing its key role in the search for a new social order.
In Nigeria, we live in a nation that is almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians. This has made Nigeria the greatest IslamoChristian country in the world, with 80 million Muslims living side by side with 80 million Christians. This is not something to be taken for granted. Both religions have an important role to play to promote peace and maintain harmony. There must be a conscious effort to build interfaith goodwill that will positively impact on the Nigerian population. The basic message of peace, love and solidarity, which is common to both religions, can help to build a just and equitable society where people are free to realize their full potentials irrespective of where they live, work and worship. Despite the diversity of our tenets and traditions, cultures and customs, religions have an invaluable and indispensable contribution to make towards building peace.
Having witnessed too often how religions have been misused as an excuse for violence, religious leaders must work hard to close ranks, forge alliances and work together in the bid to promote peace and religious harmony. When properly mobilized and equipped, religious communities can effectively use their spiritual, moral and social assets to work for peace. In a society where religion is often seen as a cause of disorder and conflict, we need to do all we can to prevent religion in its true colour as worship of God from being transformed into an instrument of hate. This attitude is greatly helped by a recognition that all human beings belong to one family, that we have one creator and a single origin, that human nature is the same in all people and that we all aspire towards the same goals in life.