Advertisement

Catholic Bishop Blames Rise of Paganism in Nigeria on Selfish Religious Leaders

Bishop Godfrey Onah of Nigeria's Nsukka Diocese. Credit: Nsukka Diocese

Paganism in Nigeria is reportedly on the rise, a vice that the Bishop of the country’s Catholic Diocese of Nsukka blames on the “crossless decaffeinated selfish” preaching by Christian leaders in the West African nation.

According to Bishop Godfrey Onah, Christians are resorting to paganism because they can no longer find love in churches.

“The present-day resurgence of paganism and fetishism is partly because of the crossless decaffeinated selfish Christianity that many Christian leaders in Nigeria have preached,” Bishop Onah said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

He added, in the Sunday, September 3 video, “We have lost our faithful because they don't find the love of the crucified Lord in our churches and in our lives. Time has come for us to retrace our steps and begin to preach Christ crucified and to live the preaching in our lives.”

On August 9, Catholic Bishops of Nigeria’s Owerri Ecclesiastical Province (OWEP) expressed concern about the increasing rate of neo-paganism among the young people who they said were resorting to ritualistic ways of acquiring money.

Advertisement

In a statement after their two-day meeting at Umuahia Diocesan Secretariat, OWEP members who include Local Ordinaries of Owerri Archdiocese, and the Dioceses of Aba, Ahiara, Okigwe, Umuahia, and Orlu expressed regret that some young people had resorted to ritual killings and other forms of criminal activities.

“We are alarmed at the rate at which our young people are relapsing into neo-paganism,” the Catholic Church leaders lamented in the statement that their Chairman, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Owerri Archdiocese, signed. 

They added that the young people in the West African nation “are lured into fetish rituals in their quest for money, for demonic powers and false assurances of protection.”

OWEP members further expressed concern that young people in Nigeria belonging to different cults were intimidating others, and were using the cults to conceal their criminal activities from the eyes of the law.

In his September 3 message, Bishop Onah said that individualism in Nigeria had left many of the country’s youths disillusioned.

More in Africa

He found it baffling that in Africa’s most populous nation, and one of the wealthiest countries in the world, only a few people are living in affluence.

“What does it profit a nation, a people, if it has all the wealth but has lost its citizens?” Bishop Onah posed, and lamented, “Nigeria is one of the wealthiest nations on earth. But because of bad leadership, we have lost our citizens. Many of our young people are living in a country that has lost confidence in them. And if you give the example of Igboland, the southeast individual Igbo people may have a lot of wealth driving very expensive cars and building marvelous and humongous mansions. But we have lost our youths; we have lost our values.”

“Time has come for us to ask ourselves what is essential in our lives and gradually rebuild our broken nation,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishop who has been at the helm of Nsukka since his Episcopal Consecration in July 2013 said.

He went on to weigh in on the Nigeria’s disputed presidential poll and that of other political leaders, and addressed himself to the tribunals handling the election petitions. 

In the Presidential poll, the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was declared winner of the February 25 election by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was challenged in court by Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).

Advertisement

In his September 3 message, Bishop of Nsukka calls on election tribunals working on the election petitions in Nigeria to act with transparency.

He however cautioned Nigerians not to have high expectations from the tribunal judges, denoting that the officials are products of the country’s “corrupt” system.

“We must remember that the honorable justices are Nigerians. They did not fall down from heaven. They are products of the same corrupt society, which all of us live in. We should therefore moderate our expectations because great expectations herald great disappointment,” he said.

Bishop Onah urged Nigerians to be satisfied with the outcome of the election tribunal, noting that the results will not please everyone.

“Whatever judgment the tribunals may give, some will rejoice, others will protest. The judgment must therefore not be clothed in equivocations and legal quibbles and technicalities. The judgment must be so clear so that all of us the common Nigerians understand that justice has been done. Otherwise, we will blame ourselves for the consequences,” he said.

(Story continues below)

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.