In September 2006, a friend and I boarded a bus for Benin-City.

As we were about to leave, a small, middle-aged man jumped in to address the passengers. “I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”

“Welcome and thank you, man of God”, replied the passengers and bus driver.

He spoke at length of the evils of ember months (September, October, November and December), stressing the need to confront the devil and its agents. Then he declared, “I bind all blood-thirsty demons, I rebuke all witches and wizards, I soak the driver, the passengers and the engine of the bus in the blood of Jesus.” He ended by assuring the passengers of a safe journey and soliciting payment.

I suggested that what mattered was for the driver to observe traffic regulations and drive safely rather than bothering about witches and wizards.

The “man of God” was angry

“No bus I have prayed for any has ever had any accident!” he said.

“We are not quarrelling over that, I just want to arrive safely,” I responded

“If you are an agent of demon or a member of a secret society, I rebuke you in Jesus name!” he yelled.

Annoyed, I replied that I had once been like him but was now liberated.

Various passengers now came to the defence of the preacher and made verbal attacks on me.

The bus started off. From time to time the driver went at a high speed but when I protested aloud he reduced his speed. Other passengers, however, made disparaging remarks about me and asked him to continue since God was in control.

Luck ran out when our driver dosed off, and our bus flew through the air and somersaulted three times. It crashed into a concrete pole that supported live, high-tension wires. The entire bus was smashed, and many passengers sustained serious injuries. My friend and I were unhurt. We climbed out and started mobilizing sympathetic nearby villagers for a rescue operation.

One of the most badly injured was Minaso Kalada Joseph, a university student in his late 20s. He had been sitting near the point where the bus first hit the pole, and suffered severe injuries to his head and body. He had been among the most voluble of my attackers. Nevertheless, I took him to a private clinic, which was dirty and inadequate. The “matron” asked me to pay N4000 for first-aid treatment to poor Minaso Kalada Joseph. I did, out of my own pocket.

We later transferred him to a hospital owned by the State Government. Although better in some ways than the clinic, it lacked modern medical facilities. After we had contacted the family of the victim, he was taken to the Teaching Hospital in Port Harcourt.

The bus driver told the police that one of the tyres of the bus had been punctured and this had caused the accident. I later countered the lie and gave the police a true picture, but they never arrested the driver. As I wrote later in my regular column [1], I discovered that the police had accepted a bribe from the bus company and everyone had walked free.

Our Debacle

The above account illustrates some of the effects of belief in the supernatural. Belief leads to an attitude of lazily waiting for divine intervention instead of taking action.

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth shows Macbeth’s belief in the powers and protection of witches leading him and his nation to his ruin. Belief in the supernatural constitutes a major thematic element of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was writing in England in the early 17th century, a period characterized by religious dogmatism, under-development, superstition and belief in witchcraft, much as we find in Nigeria today.

Winging From Oblivion

The “Renaissance” (meaning “rebirth) is a name given to a period in European history. It covers many discoveries such as printing and the rediscovery of Greek classical writings.

In many other respects, the Renaissance was essentially the continuation of the Middle Ages. There were a few giants, but modern Science cannot be said to begin in earnest until the 17th century with such men as Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Réné Descartes. During the Renaissance, printing shops became very numerous and the number of printed books increased immeasurably. The steady accumulation of knowledge was guaranteed [2].

The growth of seventeenth-century empiricism into modern science has brought the same pitfalls that befell old dogmas. Scientists have often become detached from the daily life of the average citizen, while their research and achievements remained beyond the easy grasp of laymen’s understanding. [3] Laymen may therefore be tempted simply to trust the methods and conclusions of scientists and ignore their own duty to understand the bases for those conclusions.

And science is not exclusively Western: there is nothing Western, or African about it. Science is science.

Religion and Development

All over the world religions stifle the growth of society. Science alone might have advanced humanity far beyond our present stage. Richard Dawkins argues that [4]:

“Fundamentalists know that they are right because they have read the truth in a holy book and they know, in advance, that nothing will budge them from their belief. The truth of the holy book is an axiom, not the end product of a process of reasoning. The book is true, and if the evidence seems to contradict it, it is the evidence that must be thrown out, not the book. By contrast, what I, as a scientist, believe (for example, evolution) I believe not because of reading a holy book but because I have studied the evidence. It is really a very different matter. Books about evolution are not believed because they are holy. They are believed because they present overwhelming quantities of mutually buttressed evidence. In principle, any reader can go and check that evidence. When a science book is wrong, somebody eventually discovers the mistake and it is corrected in subsequent books. That conspicuously doesn’t happen with holy books”.

Religion leads to the under-development of society. Science and technology, on the other hand, have developed rapidly and in many directions, bringing great social benefits. Had religious dogmatism reigned supreme, many important discoveries would not have been possible. Science had made life easier and enjoyable. Although some of those who contributed to the advancement of science and technology were religious, they pursued a secular discipline with commitment, passion and dedication, without the help of any deity.

The Great Delusion

Nigeria has been described as the most religious nation on planet earth. Our country is highly underdeveloped and infested with crime, violence, immorality, corruption and prostitution. Religious nonsense has compounded our problems and deepened our contradictions. All kinds of religions have tapped into our superstition and our outlook is now bleak. In Europe and elsewhere, people are closing down churches because they have not added value to their lives, but have spread ignorance. Even European merchants who gave us the “holy books” are thinking of new ways of advancing their lives through science and art.

In Nigeria, people daily die through ignorance; I nearly lost my life in the bus accident because of religious nonsense. In Nigeria, those who fail in their goals suddenly hear the voice of a god or spirit, and turn to hawking miracles, raising the dead, curing HIV/AIDS, diabetes, malaria, fever and other life-threatening ailments.

Everywhere in Nigeria, there are churches, mosques, shrines, etc., yet the people who propagate religious abracadabra are those who are also encouraging corruption, participating in crimes, telling lies, perpetrating fraud and practising other vices. Nigeria is a secular state by statute, but its rulers use taxpayers’ money to promote this religious absurdity, while our infrastructure is hopelessly deficient. Shouting “God” or “Allah” becomes the easiest way to get to power, so as to loot our treasury. Clerics became rich overnight. Ignorance pervades the land, and critics are condemned as satanic agents.

Religion encourages laziness and blind, unquestioning acceptance of the status quo. Religious extremism is pushing our society towards the edge of the precipice. Ritual killing is happening because some religious people believe it brings wealth, power and success. As an undercover investigative reporter, I have seen how miracles claimed by juju priests, Pentecostal pastors and others are all exaggerated and fake stories put together to maintain their steady income from their clients. I used to be a mystic and juju worshipper, later a Pentecostal preacher. Over the years, I have discovered a lot of deceits and false claims in religion and will die a Humanist. Since becoming a Humanist, I have led a more honest, truthful and sincere life than I did when religious.

Humanism

Humanism is a most human philosophy of life. Its emphasis is on the human, the here-and-now, and the humane. It is not a religion and it has no formal creed, though Humanists have beliefs. Humanists are atheists or agnostics and do not expect an afterlife. Humanism brings values and meaning into life [5].

Humanism is not a set of doctrines, but an attitude to life. To the Humanist, the miracle is here and now. It is the miracle of nature; there is nothing supernatural about it. Because the Humanist believes that this life is the only life we expect to have, it is especially important to make this life a good one. So, although Humanism is based on atheism or agnosticism, it is not merely negative. It also includes positive commitments to make the best possible use of our lives – both for ourselves and for others [6].

Humanists are concerned to make the world a better place to live in, not only for people alive today, but for future generations also. Above all, Humanists regard each individual person as an end in himself or herself, never as a means to achieve something, however desirable that may be. In order to be a Humanist one has to be an atheist or agnostic. But it is possible to be an atheist or agnostic without being a Humanist. The Russian Dictator, Stalin, was an atheist, but he was certainly not a Humanist, because he did not respect the rights of people who disagreed with him.

Humanism is not a novel concept newly emerged in the 21st century. Barbara Smoker refers to Humanists in the ancient world: thinkers who harboured Humanist views, such as Pericles and Hippocrates and many more.

Epilogue

I urge Nigerians to join the Nigerian Humanist Movement (NHM). The NHM is “an association of non-religious people who seek a rational, constructive approach to human affairs. It offers a positive alternative to all religious and dogmatic creeds. It acts to uphold and defend the human rights of humanists and of the general public. It supports via legislation any other democratic and constitutional means to improve social conditions. It supports the widest conception of education and enlightenment for the better understanding and enjoyment of life.”

Patrick Naagbanton is a public interest journalist, activist and Humanist. This article is an abridged version of a talk given to the 2007 Annual Convention of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.

1 (The Town Crier), “A Flight from the Grave”, The Port Harcourt Telegraph,

The Midweek Telegraph, October 23-31, 2006.

2 Baddey, P.B, The History of Science and Technology

, Wilson publishing Company Limited, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, 2001.

3 Koepsell, David, “Beware of the Pitfalls of Belief Systems”, article in Secular Humanist Bulletin, 2006,

4 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

, Bantam Press, 2006.

5 Jim Herrick, Humanism: an Introduction

, Rationalist Press Association, 2003. Published in Nigeria by Gadfly Publishers Ibadan, Oyo State, 2006.

6 Barbara Smoker, Humanism

(4th Ed.), South Place Ethical Society, 2005, Published in Nigeria by Gadfly Publishers, Ibadan, Oyo State, 2006.