Religious Revivals in Nigeria: Marxist Critique

Introduction

Within the last twenty years, Nigeria is experiencing an upsurge in religious revivals among Christian churches. These revivals which usually attract thousands of people from across the country, offer non-Christians an opportunity for conversion, or to be born again as the popular expression goes. There are also an opportunity for Christians to recommit their lives to Christ and come to a fuller understanding of Him as their personal Lord and Savior. These revivals have become so popular in the country that there is never a weekend that goes by without numerous revivals taking place. Apart from the laudable experience of conversion and re-commitment mentioned above, these revivals have also come to be characterized by sermons of prosperity, hereafter referred in this paper as prosperity gospel.

Religious revivals in this paper shall mean any Christian event opened to the public in which the purpose is to reawaken Christian faith, and generally characterized by praise-worship songs, testimonies, and passionate sermons; and emphasis placed on miracles, financial prosperity, and anointing. These events are usually promoted with the modern means of communication available and people are promised ahead of time of miracles they will receive. As Pastor Adeboye, a former mathematics professor, now turned pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God some years ago said about a revival he was organizing called "Holy Ghost festival." He said, "The entire purpose is to win souls for Christ. I expect heaven to come down to earth and also to let people know that Jesus Christ is still the miracle worker."

In this paper, we shall first make an analysis of the social problems in Nigeria. Because of the vastness of these problems, only the problems of poverty, corruption, and disease would be treated. This would form the background for the Marxist critique of the Nigerian religiosity characterized by revivals. When this is done, we shall take a general look at these revivals and centering principally on their messages of prosperity. We will also focus on the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke, the most popular revivalist in Nigeria. Thereafter, we shall discuss Karl Marx theory of religion and attempt to use it to interpret the Nigerian situation.

Nigeria's Social-Political Problems

To understand the social problems in Nigeria, one has to have some general understanding of the history of Nigeria. In 1914, Lord Lugard, the British Governor of Nigeria amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates and called them the colony of Nigeria, Nigeria being the name suggested by his mistress. The consequences of this was that two regions that had nothing in common, both culturally and religiously were merged together and this is the foundation of the religious and ethnic clashes and violence that Nigerians will experience after independence. Six years after Nigeria's independence in 1960, a civil war broke out between the Igbo South and the rest of the country. The reason for the War is ethnic, geographic and cultural differences. Major Abubakar writes, "This situation had its genesis in the geography, history, culture and demography of Nigeria. The immediate cause of the civil war itself may be identified as the coup and counter coup of 1966 which altered the political equation and destroyed the trust existing among the major ethnic groups." Following the civil war were military dictatorships and failed democracies. Throughout the years of military dictatorships and failed democracies, the country became so corrupt that the leaders never paid attention to the social needs of the people. The people had their own fate in their hands, while they looked into the future without hope.

If a research was ever taken to find the most used word in Nigeria, poverty would make it top in the list. Nigerians have known poverty and feel what it is to be poor. In a country with abundant of resources, workers go for months without salaries or compensations. Making the matters worst is the level of unemployment. Though there are no recent government published data on unemployment in the country, the office of statistics estimated the national unemployment rate to be 7.0% in 1987 and urban joblessness to be 9.8% in the same year. Estimates today may triple those in 1987 reasons being that the population has increased, the number of enrollments in higher institutions has increased, but the economy has not improved, retrogressing and forcing many people out of business. Studies have shown that while only 125,000 students were enrolled in tertiary institutions in 1985, by 1990, there was an estimated enrollment of about 150,000 to 200,000 students, representing an increase of 75,000 students within five years. Even if we take conservative estimate of only about 25,000 increase every five years, the estimated enrollment in 2005 would be 250,000. The World Bank report on poverty in Nigeria says between 1985 - 1986, 34.1% of Nigerians lived below the poverty level and by 1996, those living below the poverty line were 56%. Their report also shows that 60% of rural dwellers and almost 48% of urban dwellers live in poverty. In their general analysis, Nigeria ranked the 12th poorest nation in the world.

One of the important question asked is, why poverty in a country with so much natural resources and crude oil? The biggest problem for Nigeria has been corruption. The Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria captures it thus,

Corruption is responsible in large measure for the broken promises, the dashed hopes and the shallow dreams that have characterized the existence of the multitude of Nigerians in the last few decades. The choice before us is clear: We either go to war against corruption in all its ramifications or we shall soon be totally consumed by this hydra-headed dragon.

That corruption is the biggest problem with Nigeria is not a secret. Transparency International, a watchdog for corrupt governments in the world rated Nigeria last year as the sixth most corrupt country in the world. The President, Olusegun Obasanjo in his inauguration speech as the democratically elected president of the country in 1999 insisted that they would be no sacred cows in his bid to fight corruption in the country. His attempts to fight corruption through his anti-corruption commissions have not changed the sorry situation of corruption in Nigeria. As Tayo Odunlami reports, "In Nigeria, corruption remains a way of life, especially in government and business." This is position can be easily substantiated with reports from Transparency International. In its study, about 11% of Nigerian households interviewed said they had given a bribe in 2004 to gain a favor from government or business. Though 11% may look as a very small