by Harmony Levin

“Nigerians need to know that it’s not about the religion, it’s about treating the next person right and knowing that you’ve done something great without expecting some superhuman force to reign blessings on you.”

It’s few days before one of the biggest religious festivals in the world comes around – Easter; and as usual, Nigerians will never be left out. In our usual trend, the anticipation is high for the two-day off work holiday, the uncountable number of church services that will hold during the Easter weekend, not leaving out the top rated shows and events; and the mediocre Nollywood flicks that will make a poor show of The Passion of Christ will flood the market.

I have realised, ever since I started studying the different dimensions of Nigerian religions, every single Nigerian practices a brand of religious extremism, especially amongst the Christians and Muslims(how the latter patterns their extremist manifesto should be a talk for another day). So this means that the average Nigerian is armed with the know-how to coerce you into signing up for his/her religion.

Although these religions depict both good and bad tendencies, for some reason, the good ones are always brought to fore – while their talebearers remain forever blinded to the negative tendencies of these religions.

In a country with so much attention focused on religion does it cause any wonder as to why crime, or the so-called “sin” is on an everyday hike?

A country deep in the mud of economic crisis and the need for wealth creation, two days would be taken off the working calendar to ease the tender extreme tendencies of a certain religious lot. Financial and economic analysts, including Forbes, reckon that Mondays as the first day of the week can have a significant effect on the level of productivity turnover.

The point is, dear reader, that religion is good. Religion gives a reason for the essence of the human soul, it clarifies our being and our search for the supernatural. On the flip side, it is the greatest undoing of mankind, because instead of good it has brought bad: why can’t these religions establish their heavenly promises here on earth? Why do we have to go through all these crazy stuff with the promise of going somewhere we aren’t even sure exists.

Nigerians need to know that it’s not about the religion, it’s about the lifestyle; it’s about treating the next person right and knowing that you’ve done something great without expecting some superhuman force to reign blessings on you. It’s about knowing that shoving your religion down my throat is disrespect of my person. Nigeria’s religious extremists need to know that threatening me with a prospective torment of hell will even push me farther from such religion.

Have these extremists ever wondered if truly they have a real superhuman being they worship, what if they are all basking in the euphoria of psychological exorbitance? What if we are all deceiving ourselves in the name of religion? What if we are unassuming religious extremists in the glory of our different religious beliefs?

Many Nigerians look forward to the luxury of the Easter weekend; while I am looking forward to calculating the losses that will be registered on Good Monday. Cheers!

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YNaija’s NEXT spotlights a more composite sampling of young Nigerians under the age of 24. We think this is a deeply important voice that is underserved and under-heard and whose narratives (mostly towards the dying years of military rule in Nigeria) must be heard, consistently. We call them the ‘authentic millennials’.

Harmony Levin(20) is a writer, speaker and social commentator. An undergraduate student of the University of Uyo, studying History and International studies, a feature writer and editor of Diplomatic Access. A creative director and idea innovator, with high stakes in literature, lifestyle and religion. He is on Twitter as @mactorrr