28/06/2024
Chinwoke Mbadinuju was the governor who started or popularised these market prayers in our markets. He will even lead in the prayers himself. He will preach, sing praises and pray in tongues. The people loved him because of this, but he became the worst governor in Anambra. He destroyed pipe-borne water and schools went on strike for almost three years thereby giving room for the rise of private schools.
It is not bad to pray anyway, but there is time for everything. We have turned markets into prayer grounds. We go to market by 8 and pray from 8 till 11 or 12 pm. That's after we spent an entire day in Church on Sundays and some other weekdays.
Market prayer remains the most ridiculous thing I have ever witnessed in my life. The book of Ecclesiastes says there is time for everything. Time to pray and time to play. Time to go to church and time to go to market. Time to be born and time to die. Are we still learning about these things in our own holy book?
Politicians are loved because they go to church to donate. Once they donate, the Daddy GO or Bishop will mark him good and the people will forget all he stole and those he kị́lled. We must stop loving politicians because they come to church or buy corn from the roadside and eat it. Your love for politicians should be because he is doing his job well.
We must stop turning our markets into prayer grounds. If you need prayers in your shop call your pastor or priest. It should be a private thing.
If prayer brings good governance, Mbadinuju would have been the best governor and Nigeria would have been the most developed country in the world.
Tell me any other country that prays like Nigeria, yet everywhere is in a mess.
Elochukwu Ohagi, Philosopher, Teacher and Activist, 2024.
