Religion is a reflective activity that puts man and his concerns into focus. Religion is reflective in the sense that it takes man high above. Every physical (both living and non-living) entities and focuses on those factors that makes man what he is and also that which gives man fear, pains, anguish, e.t.c in his day to day activities. Man therefore is the focus of religion.
The reflection is geared towards a deity, gods or God. This therefore makes religion a spiritual activity. Man looks towards the deities or God for succor any time he is besieged with the facility of life. In looking at the deities or God, man reflects on his strength and infinite characteristics that make him of no equal to anything ever created. This therefore produces reverence for God and a communion is established. In other words, religion arises as a result of awe expressed towards a being regarded as supernatural and the creator or designer of the universe. To man, this supernatural being who is regarded as God has all the ingredients to make man have succor in the face of life’s difficulty.
This being is believed to have a code of conduct that regulate the activities of man so that man can be alienated to benefit from his grace. Any deviation from this code of conduct will definitely lead men to disaster. This is why rituals and sacrifices are done every now and then to appease the gods who in turn takes their plea to the supreme God; this is usually done by traditional worshippers. The Christians do it through Jesus Christ while the Muslims through Mohammed. However there are many other religious sects with their specific ways of approaching God. These religious sects have their various precepts and tenets that guides the daily conduct of their adherents. Some of these precepts are similar; for example, killing, adultery, stealing, robbery, covetousness, dishonesty e.t.c. are abhorred by the various religious sects.
Politics though is descriptive in nature, is also a reflective activity. A political leader often sits down to think deeply on what his people need at a particular point in time. This is to ensure that he did not embark on projects that does not have direct be aring on his people. In doing this, he is ensuring that his people enjoy good standard of living. In ensuring good standard of living, he tries to discourage crimes, fraudulent acts and every dehumanizing acts of man against his fellows.
Whenever the political leader is asked why is he discouraging all these nefarious acts, he usually responds by saying that they are naturally bad and that God does not approve of them. With this, he has succeeded in allowing his religious belief to affect him. Even when the political leader is corrupt, he will tend to control himself to some extent so as not to incure more wrath of God upon his life. Some political leaders that involved themselves in human rituals, usually perform sacrifices to appease the gods. When the load becomes too heavy for the gods to bear as a result of the wrath of the supreme being, different disaster will start besieging the political leader and this makes him to run to the church claiming genuine repentance. This is why you see some political leaders or rulers, giving money grants to churches. Apart from the church, some also resort to some other religious sects for cleansing. In doing this, the life of the political leader is gradually regenerated. As a result of this, he will start seeing politics from a different perspective. This is why religion is being regarded as the washbowl of politics.
The reason why politics still look very dirty is that some political leaders or rulers are very stubborn. This stubbornness has often times led to the death of many politicians and many more have been faced with some other kinds of misfuortune. This is the major reason why death struck the late despot– General Sanni Abacha, when he least expected it. Late Pope John Paul II came to Aso Rock, Abuja to warn the late despot but the late despot remained adamant and stubborn, the aftermath result was death. This therefore shows that God is highly interested in politics; His precepts are there to serve as code of conducts for politicians. No wonder that the immediate past president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo went back to the University to study a post–– graduate programme in Theology.
The stubbornness of our political leaders and their lackadaisical attitude can be adjudged as the main reason why Nigeria is being afflicted with different set of problems. Our leaders should appreciate religion as a veritable tool which help in averting disasters from our society. Our leaders should always examine themselves and when found wanting, should wash themselves in the bowl of religion. This is because religion remains a potential means of cleansing politics.
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