One striking visual of Nigeria is the predominance of religion in public life. I was in the Christian area, so it was Christianity everywhere. Churches – big churches, entire TV channels devoted to Christian programming, greetings and farewells peppered with reference to God, Christian bookstores everywhere, business names that reference Jesus or God in some way.
If God were to spread his blessing around on the basis of rhetoric and show, Nigeria would surpass Canada by so much, WE’D be the ones in poverty, and Nigerians would by flying here to help us out of our impoverished hand-to-mouth existence.
One of my favorites, and there’s a picture of it, is the ‘Divine Link Restaurant’ in Jos. How could you NOT stop in for lunch at this apparently full service establishment? I can think of many fruitful topics of conversation over lunch with the Divine.
A walk through several of the bookstores I came across revealed an interesting focus for Nigerian spirituality – success through proper Christian living. Or, as it is known in Canada, the ‘prosperity gospel’. One book made no bones about its message, ‘Name it and Claim it’ is the title.
In the picture (at the Jos airport) you see ‘The Road to Success’, ‘Muscular Christianity’ (about the successful and proper relationship between religion and sports in America), another is ‘Know your Limits – then Ignore Them’, by the same author who wrote ‘An Enemy called ‘Average’. A quick look at the back covers and contents reveals that this success and overcoming of limits comes through a proper understanding of one’s place in God’s plans, and acting on that.
Either Nigerians aren’t reading these books, or there’s a problem with the message. I’m going with the latter.
If God were to spread his blessing around on the basis of rhetoric and show, Nigeria would surpass Canada by so much, WE’D be the ones in poverty, and Nigerians would by flying here to help us out of our impoverished hand-to-mouth existence.
One of my favorites, and there’s a picture of it, is the ‘Divine Link Restaurant’ in Jos. How could you NOT stop in for lunch at this apparently full service establishment? I can think of many fruitful topics of conversation over lunch with the Divine.
A walk through several of the bookstores I came across revealed an interesting focus for Nigerian spirituality – success through proper Christian living. Or, as it is known in Canada, the ‘prosperity gospel’. One book made no bones about its message, ‘Name it and Claim it’ is the title.
In the picture (at the Jos airport) you see ‘The Road to Success’, ‘Muscular Christianity’ (about the successful and proper relationship between religion and sports in America), another is ‘Know your Limits – then Ignore Them’, by the same author who wrote ‘An Enemy called ‘Average’. A quick look at the back covers and contents reveals that this success and overcoming of limits comes through a proper understanding of one’s place in God’s plans, and acting on that.
Either Nigerians aren’t reading these books, or there’s a problem with the message. I’m going with the latter.
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