A professor of Religious Studies, Kehinde Obasola, has expressed concern over the high level of religiosity and outward expression of piety in the country without corresponding level of social morality among Nigerians.

He also condemned the increasing wave of prosperity gospel from the pulpits across the country.

Obasola said that world religions generally encourage truth, justice, honesty, fairness and probity but wondered why these have not been the case despite the avalanche of prayer houses and worship centres.

He stated that there is an embarrassing gap between the high ethical expectations of the two major religions that the majority of Nigerians practise and phenomena of corruption, greed and graft that have given the country the unenviable status of being one of the most corrupt nations.

The don, who stated this in his lecture titled, “Delivering God From Evil: An Afro-Philosophical Perspective,” being the 115th inaugural lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, said that many had expressed concern that corruption is pervasive in Nigeria that it was as if the socio-economic and political system could not function without it.

He, therefore, lamented the increasing wave of prosperity gospel coming from the pulpits of many Pentecostal churches, warning that it is evil and counter-productive.

Obasola, who described prosperity gospel as a prominent idea churches in the country teaches and preach to congregants, noted that while the preachers are evidently amassing enormous fortune and living in opulence steadily, the followers remained largely impoverished, having been plunged into poverty due to high routine contributions, tithes and special offerings imposed on them.

He urged the people to be self-aware all the time and critically interrogate every doctrine or message coming out from the pulpits, warning that some of the prosperity preachers use “altered state of consciousness, peer pressure and hypnotic suggestions” to manipulate and exploit their victims (followers). (The Guardian)

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