DURING one of my visits to the Holy land on pilgrimage, one of our tour guides told us that Nigerians pray a lot and that the citizens are known for praying over everything. This was some years back and today that assertion has now been confirmed by researchers.
Recent report said that Nigeria has been ranked the second most prayerful country on earth. According to the Pew Research Centre, Afghanistan ranked the first with a 96 percent prayer rate, while Nigeria is second with a 95 percent prayer rate. The Pew report is a non- partisan American think-tank based in Washington DC.
The list of the most prayerful nations on earth are: Afghanistan 96 percent, Nigeria 95 percent, Algeria 88 percent, Djibouti 85 percent, Iran 87 percent, Indonesia 84 percent. The likes of China, one percent, the United Kingdom, six percent, Switzerland, eight percent), Australia, eight percent, Chekeslovakia (nine percent), Germany nine percent while Estoria and France, among others are the least prayerful countries.
Yes, from empirical evidence, that Nigeria prays a lot is not in doubt. The researchers may be right. In Nigeria, there is no street without more than one church or Mosques and many people have taken to praying as full time business. Certainly, when people go to work on Monday mornings, some others are going to the Churches or Mosques to pray. What of those in the markets and motor parks praying for those buying and selling as well as those travelling.
There are also those that have been fully commercialized and in the payroll of their masters. In such situations, the pastors and other key officials are paid at the end of the month. And in situations like these, one expects to see a much saner and stable society with less crimes and criminality.
One begins to wonder whether the prayer reflects in the body politics of the high ranking countries in terms of development and other indices of growth of a nation. Does the prayer rating reflect on the health, roads, water, power and the provisions of other basic necessities of a nation?
A critical look at the list show that the least developed nations of the World pray more while the high developed and industrialized nations work more and pray less. How then can one reconcile this -that more prayer for less developed nation and less prayerful nations developed more.
Ordinarily the high rating of Nigeria among the prayerful nations should have attracted praises, but the question that comes to mind is “What has Nigeria gained from the high rating in the prayer world.
No doubt, prayer helps to develop a relationship with God just like parents on earth, the Heavenly Father wants to hear from you and talk to you. When you pray, He listens and processes your prayers for your good in form of spiritual feelings and development.
Likewise, nations pray as the people are dependent on God for peace, security and good governance through good and righteous leaders. When you pray for your nation, God will change things and change your life in a way that would touch your country positively.
Prayer is therefore, your conversation with God and how you can develop a personal meaningful relationship with God of the Universe. It is thus, an excellent way of getting closer to the creator.
Proponent of the Christian faith and even Muslims have come to accept that prayer is addition to coming closer to God; prayer reduces anxiety and you experience calm, increase gratitude and thankfulness and help to hear from God. Also it puts off temptations, bring about miracles, makes people gain wisdom (James 1:5) and helps one to focus more and stay hopeful in dark times.
Despite these benefits, there are some inherent dangers to consider. For example, there are some people who may rely on prayers without doing any other thing to back up their prayers or take necessary steps to solve a personal challenge.
To those who are vast in the teachings of Christian and Moslem faith still believe that prayer alone without more work is not always effective when there are problems to solve.
When Lifestyle talked to people on this issue, one Dickson Nwachukwu, of the Christian Faith, said that there is nothing wrong praying for health, money and good fortune, but relying on prayers to achieve our desires including those that God has given us talent to accomplish is missing the mark. He said that Nigerians usually attribute everything they achieve to God and prayers, adding that Nigerians equally pray for food and medicine altogether.
Nwachukwu noted that in Nigeria, it is common to see people who go about hawking prayers in printed forms on the streets. Do you blame them when every other thing else has failed including the government and leadership?
According to him, “ whether we like it or not, we cannot pray into existence of good roads, hospitals, qualitative education, quality health care system, qualitative universities and credible leaders. We have to work for them as it is wishful thinking that they will just come our ways as we have in Europe, America and Asia.”
These are what we can produce with our efforts. “we cannot pray into the existence the production of palm oil, rice, yam, cocoa and other exportable crops. We can only produce them. Good enough, God has given us enough land, saying that the obsession with most Nigerians with prayers can be said to be cultural and religious in that the indigenous African religion, Christianity and Islam, lay emphasis on prayers than hardworking. But it would appear that things are changing and people are choosing the easier path of intense praying and less work.
Obviously, our nation cannot develop with just prayers without hard work. This is just what the present situation demands. Our prayers must be backed and accompanied with more hard work for us to get the results work, the man said it is a firm if prayer in action, “he stressed.
Another respondent Geogeth Oghenemaro, said that that daily prayer can bless you, your family and those you pray for. According to her, “ praying invites more peace into your life and help you learn more about God.”
She said that there is no limit on the number of times or how long one can pray each day, noting that there is no quota of how many needs one wish. She also said that this is probably why in Nigeria there are more Churches and mosques than industries.
She said that, “for a nation to progress, the citizens should do more work to fix the health system because a healthy nation is a wealthy nation and we should fix all sectors of the economy– power, roads, water, education, transportation, agriculture and industries, among others; these must come through hard work with prayers “
. “This is what I think that Nigerians should emulate and embrace as the nation set to move beyond is present level where nothing seems to be working.
