Later at the higher school, two things happened that changed the entire course of my life. One, I met a classmate who told me that he would spend only one year instead of two and that the following year he would enter into the university of Ibadan. I asked how he wanted to achieve this. He said he would be reading for six hours every day. I then asked if I could also achieve that and he said yes. That was how we started the gruesome six hours marathon reading every day. Six hours every day, including Sundays. God have mercy! The more I read, the more I started realizing that what appeared initially difficult was becoming very simple. Well, let us cut the long story short. A week to my GCE Advanced level my father died. But I passed! In one year! I immediately left the school and started teaching in Obalatan Commercial Grammar School, Ilupeju Ekiti from where I entered into the University of Lagos in 1980 to read political science. That was the first. My friend, Goke, taught me, a hitherto very useless teenage prankster devoid of any focus in life, that with hard work one could succeed. The Bible is very complete! It says: 'show me a man that is diligent in his work, he will stand before kings and not mean men.' 

A pertinent question here. How did I pass the ordinary level mathematics that was a prerequisite for reading political science? I guess God must have been very kind to me. During the long vacation period of that year, my cousin, Engr. Olu Omoloye did not get a vacation job. So, we were together for that period. Then, he made to buy the Ordinary Lewel Mathematics textbook by Hardwood Clarke. He started teaching me mathematics, beginning from the definition of the subject. For two months that went on. Finally, I wrote the examination. Surprise! I made a C5 in mathematics. Oh God in the Heavens! In two months! I eventually regretet my stupid decision to part way with maths in my form three.

The second and more profound experience in my higher school was my Government teacher, Mr. JB Olawale, a Marxist political scientist trained from the University of Legon, Ghana. JB, started teaching us Marxism and the invincibility of the Soviet Union and that if Jesus Christ should come he might find it difficult to penetrate Soviet Union. What! Immediately, Economics bit the dust! Goodbye to my my ambition of reading Economics. That was me, an impressionable teenage boy. It was at this formative stage that JB introduced to the evils and deceit and bastardisation of religion.

To buttress this, a friend of mine in 1981 in the University of Lagos gave me a book titled, The Word, by Irving Wallace. This book dwelled extensively on how the Bible was written and the internal contradictions in it. Consequently, for six months I threw away my Bible. But eventually God had mercy on me I went back to the Bible and embraced my Lord Jesus Christ at whose name every knee must bow and every tongue confessing His Lordship.

What is my point? My point is that today, religion has become a dangerous weapon and instrumentality of exploitation and oppression of the hapless masses. And Karl Marx is very right that it is an opium for the masses. A look at the mushrooming and proliferation of the churches and mosques in Nigeria today and attendant astronomical rise in corrupt and dubious practices would tell you that religion has failed the Nigerian nation. Why? Because of its dangerous manipulation by many rotten ecclesiastical dignitaries for selfish financial and material gains.

 

At this Juncture it becomes apposite for me to bring in two perspectives here. The first is a post from a friend this morning which I think will drive home my point. And the second is that of Mr. Raji Fashola.

Now my friend's post:

IF THIS ISNT ABNORMAL, I WONDER WHAT IS:

Richest Churches in the world.

1- Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints- $40 Billion +
2- Catholic Church - $30 billion +
3- church of England - $7.8 Billion +
4- Opus Dei - $ 2.8 Billion +
Now observe that there is no;
RCCG
Winners
Christ Embassy
Synagogue
No Pentecostal church at all

RICHEST PASTORS IN THE WORLD
1 Bishop OYEDEPO - $150 Million
2 Bishop TD Jakes - $147 Million
3 Pastor Chris Oyakhilome - $50 Million
4 Pastor Benny Hinn - $42 Million
5 Pastor Adeboye - $39 
6 Pastor Creflo Dollar - $27 (He used to be #1)
7 Pastor Kenneth Copeland - $25
8 Evangelist Billy Graham - $25
9 Prophet TB Joshua $10
10 Pastor Joseph Prince $5
Observe again that no of the 4 richest churches mentioned have their leaders on this list of Richest Pastor.
The Pope is not here 
The Arch Bishop of Cantabury is not here
The Bishop of Opus Dei is not here
The Director of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint is not here.
Now observe again.
6 out of the 10 Richest Pastors are blacks, with their congregation being predominantly blacks
4 out of the 10 richest Pastors have their churches in Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, the 147the most corrupt nation of the world, the home to the second deadliest terrorist group, the most unsafe place to give birth to in the world.
Observe as well the the Richest Churches are situated in
1- America
2- Vtican city
3- England
These are amongst the most safe, less corrupt and most prosperous Nations.
Like I said, if this isn't abnormal then nothing is abnormal.
Source of Date used: Wikipedia

Now from Mr. Raji Fashola :

Freedom from fear, choices before the new generation By Babatunde Raji Fashola | 01 December 2016 | THE GUARDIAN

 

We are now in the realm and reality of constant expectations of miracles and divine intervention. Superstitions have taken over reason and logic.
When we pass examinations, win football matches, conduct successful elections, or achieve any feat, we seem all too frightened and unsure of ourselves to take credit for even the most modest of successes attributable to our efforts.
The first thing you hear is God did it. For the avoidance of doubt, I believe in God, and only He can question my faith. But I also believe He gave us a lot of free will.
Regrettably, we have surrendered our capacities and abilities in a frightful way to FEAR, that we have become victims of some confidence tricksters who deceive, disentitle and prey on our fears and frailties in ‘gods’ name.
Every man and woman of substance now has a Pastor, Imam, Spiritualist or even a witch doctor or Dibia who is responsible for telling them what to do, when to do it, in a way that diminishes his abilities and surrenders his talents and free will to divine intervention or spiritual consultation.
Many people are disappearing and are being murdered in a crazed quest for human parts because some who have been entrapped in fear and superstition, believe that you can make money through ritual sacrifice.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
Human parts are tissues, bones, muscles and all that, and they have no place in the materials used to manufacture money.
There is nothing Divine in money making. It is entrepreneurship, production and hard work.
The teaching of science as espoused by Theodoropolous tells me that money is a product of man and not a product of God.
It is manufactured in a place called a Mint, by a process of printing, using special paper, ink, engravement and embossment, to make it difficult to fake or counterfeit.
When we play a football match and get to half-time, which is a few precious minutes to quickly refresh, renew and re-plan in the dressing room, we instead gather to pray, on the field, in a huddle that the whole world is still trying to fathom.
We waste the precious time that is allotted for tactical review, and return to the second half, singing and praying, “He is a miracle working God” in search of divine intervention.
The truth is that we have done well when we prepare and done badly when we do not.

Sometimes of course, working hard does not always bring the expected results but it is better than not working hard.

Yes, God is a miracle worker. I believe, but he is not an unjust God who rewards those who make no effort at the expense of those who do.

I once listened to a sermon broadcast on television, asking people who are indebted to step forward for prayers that will make their debts disappear.

It frightens me. It does not make sense to me. Debts are accounting, matters of credits and deficits. They do not vanish.

It is people who live in FEAR who fall prey to such teachings and become victims of misery from poor choices.

I urge you to free your minds from such fears. 

 

There are many teachings about freedoms. Freedom from want, Freedom of Associations, Freedom of speech, freedom of choice (including the choice of leadership by voting at elections) and many others.

But the least expressed freedom, is the freedom from FEAR, which in my view is the most important. A mind taken over by fear cannot express free will and will therefore not fully optimise or benefit from the other freedoms.

For example, we have seen that elections are conducted in other parts on the basis of polls, campaigns, analysis of human behaviour rather than any occultic or sacrificial offering.

Candidates who wish to win elections must persuade people to agree to their messages and promises, and seek to change the minds of those who are unpersuaded, by understanding what they want and taking steps to address them.

Let me reiterate again that I have no quarrel with faith. What I seek to advocate is the lack of FEAR, and the resort to faith out of conviction rather than as a result of FEAR.

Fear takes choices away, and choices can and must be the product of conviction. If we pursue our choices with as much conviction as we pursue our faith, we will certainly be a more prosperous society.

Let us remember, that at least the two dominant faiths are not original to us. They are inherited. The propagators of the faith have made them personal affairs and not public ones. I have attended meetings in the West and in the Middle East and not on one occasion have these meetings been started or ended with prayers.

Meetings represent public undertakings and places of work and productive undertakings to deliver prosperity. When those people have worked hard for the week, they go on Fridays and Sundays to their places of worship and their homes to offer prayers, for God to bless and prosper the work of their hands.

Sadly, back home, the head of Governments, heads of ministries, and businesses, devote early mornings at work to prayers with their staff while productive man hours tick away, they do the same at home and on weekends, we socialise.

In effect, we spend a lot of time praying and socialising. How can this lead us to prosperity? If this is not faith influenced by fear, I do not know what it is.

If you visit many construction sites where the Chinese are employed as contractors, you will find that they work on Sundays, but we who have unemployment challenges, do not often work on Sunday.
We have invested a worrisome amount of money in building places of worship compared to what we have in building factories, businesses and schools.

This is worrisome compared to the investments I see in businesses and schools that outstrip investment in places of worship in the West and Middle-East.

Again I reiterate, I do not criticise worship, but I am challenging you to think through the choices you will make. We will not pray our way out of recession, we will plan, and produce our way back to prosperity and out of recession and you are the freshest, youngest and most energetic workforce we will have to work with.

You are the new batteries to power the engine of growth of our country. Your choices must be clear, free from fear, not reckless but driven by analytical thought, questioning and probing and ultimately determined by convictions.

In order to test the consequences of choices based on faith influenced by fear, I advise you to look at the world map and 2 (TWO) Island nations who are situated on the Northern Hemisphere. I will not tell you their names. You find that out. But I will tell you they are close to each other. One believes in God and works hard. The other one is the home of voodoo and spends all time practising this. If you follow their history, the first one is prosperous and the second one seems to have made a permanent contract with poverty.

This can be changed if and when they make the right choices.

How do you free your mind from impossibility, improbability, and unlikelihood?

The answer is simple. Remember always, that those words are negatives. Replace them with positive thoughts and actions.

This is what frees your mind from fear and helps you to choose, to see solutions and to look for opportunities, instead of dwelling on and surrendering to problems.

If you see unmanaged refuse as a problem, you may not think of recycling and re-use and the economic opportunities that have multiple benefits, including the ultimate removal of the refuse.

If you dwell on traffic gridlock as a problem, you are unlikely to focus on developing intelligent traffic management solutions like traffic lights or a radio station to manage it and create opportunities for yourself and others.

If you focus on crime and its burden, you may lose the opportunity to focus on crime management strategies like more policemen, crime detection methods, employment and training of judges.
Indeed, as they say, if you see every problem as a nail, the only solution you might evolve is a hammer.

So, please look for the positive angle of a difficult situation, because there will be one, if you look hard enough.

I urge you to free your mind from fear, reach for the skies, choose by conviction and not by fear; trust in your abilities and God given talent, take responsibility, work hard and pray if you believe.

Yes, Sango is the god of lightning and thunder, but all the sacrifices made to Sango has not generated 1 (ONE) kilowatt of electric power.

 

My message to you rotten and predatory religious merchant is that you can't get far. Mend your ways before it is too late.

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