Nigeria bleeds, and we anoint the wound. Power fails, and we bind demons. Elections are stolen, and we declare fasting. For decades, a dangerous habit has taken root, we spiritualise problems that have human fingerprints all over them. My arguments is that while faith is vital to the Nigerian spirit, using it to explain away corruption, incompetence, and institutional decay has become Nigeria’s most sophisticated form of denial. The result is a nation rich in prayer points but poor in accountability.
I. Spiritualisation is the act of relocating blame from earth to heaven. When the national grid collapses for the 97th time, the diagnosis is “principalities” instead of “DISCOs refused to pay GENCOs”. When ₦80 billion vanishes from a ministry, the sermon is “the devourer” instead of “the permanent secretary.” This habit serves a purpose, it makes unbearable reality bearable. It is easier to fight an invisible devil than to confront a visible minister or governor. It is safer to call it a “marine spirit” than to name the senator who diverted constituency funds.
The tragedy is that we know better. We know the contractor who abandoned the road lives in Abuja. We know the police van had no fuel because the Division allowance was stolen by Commissioner. We know ASUU strikes because budgets bypass due process. Yet at 5am, millions of Nigeria women, the same groups at the epicenter of Nigeria’s melancholy kneel to bind what a court summons could solve.
II. The Cost of Heavenly Outsourcing Accountability Evaporates. If God will judge them, why should EFCC? Spiritualisation tells the plucker that the chicken will pray, not peck. So the plucking continues for another 4 years, and the grains come right on schedule in January.
Nehemiah fasted, then demanded audits. We fast, then abandon FOI requests. “Due process is too slow” becomes “let’s pray for speed,” and contracts get awarded on the mountaintop without bidding. Corruption wears a choir robe. We called the 1966 coup “God’s will.” We called Biafra “judgment.” We called SAP “trial.” Each time, we mourned spiritually and learned nothing structurally. So the same man-made hunger returns, wearing new agbada.
III. Faith Is Not the Enemy. Abdication Is. This is not an argument against prayer. It is an argument against prayer as substitute. The prophets Nigeria reveres didn’t spiritualise man-made oppression. Moses confronted Pharaoh, not Pharaoh’s demons. Esther used the king’s legal system, not just sackcloth. Jesus flogged traders out of the temple, a direct, physical intervention against institutional corruption.
James 2:17 indicts us. Faith without works is dead.” In Nigerian translation. “Vigil without PVC is tears.” “Anointing oil without audit trail is fraud.” The Holy Spirit is not allergic to spreadsheets.
IV. The Way Out of the Epic of Melancholy. Name the Hand. Stop saying “the enemy.” Say “the commissioner.” Stop “territorial powers.” Say “the Governor.” Demons don’t sign memos. Men do. Budget defense is spiritual warfare. Voting is intercession. A court case against a rigged election is a prayer with evidence. If due process is corruption when skipped, then due process is righteousness when followed.
Any pulpit that tells you to pray for roads but never asks why the road fund disappeared is part of the plucking. “Religion that doesn’t demand justice is a customer-service desk for oppression.”
Nigeria’s melancholy is not a mystery. It is a man-made project, maintained by men, and excused by men using God’s name. We cannot cast out what we must vote out. We cannot bind what we must bill. We cannot fast away what we must file in court.
The chicken in the parable of “…Hitler came to a cabinet meeting carrying a chicken” will keep eating grains until it remembers it has claws. Nigeria will keep plucking itself until it remembers that “God’s time” is now, and His method is often called due process.
To stop spiritualising our problems is not to abandon God. It is to finally bring Him into the places we’ve kept Him out of the collation center, the procurement office, the ballot box.
When heaven meets accountability, melancholy loses its epic. When prayer meets process, the intending 2027 coronation ends.
That is the revival Nigeria actually needs. “A stitch in time saves nine.”
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