 Welcome to The Advocate, your Sunday reminder that important conversations are among the necessary tools for a saner society. Today, I'm pointing my spotlight on the religiosity of Nigerians, Christians and Muslims who holy pass. Raymond's focus is on youth empowerment. As always, discussions around our mental health are always welcome, so Eji Mai is saying today that suicide is never an option. Baba Shola who joins us for the first time today talks about the struggle of new political parties in Nigeria and finally, Kingsley is back again and is here to reveal to us who Nigeria's enemy is. As always, your panelists are here to share ideas aimed at provoking thoughts with no holds but stay with us. Nigeria's religiosity, Islam or Christianity, which one better pass? As religious people, sharply divided along religious lines, at least that is what we are made to believe, many have queried the impact and influence of religious bodies on the total growth of the nation. Rather than engage in a cycle of blame game, the major question should be, one, in a nation where we claim to be Christians and Muslims, premium Times reports that in 2016, Nigerians spent over 208 billion Naira on alcohol for consumption. This total amount was higher than the budget of understate for that year. We have a market so vibrant that major Ghanaian alcohol beverages are selling millions of bottles in Nigeria annually, yet both major religions frown at alcoholism, yet the gods are not to blame. We remain a major market for the sale of condom. Society for Family Health says Nigerians use an estimated 400 million condoms annually and believe me we could have sold more but for the fact that many people see condom as a hindrance to total pleasure. You know what I'm talking about. You call a Christian businessman in church and he would bluntly lie to you, telling you he's in Oklahoma, when in reality he's in the heart of Okokomiko, somewhere in Lagos. During Ramadan, a Muslim brother tells someone, that means don't get me angry and I'm fasting. When I'm done fasting, I will destroy you. So what is the essence of fasting when you're saving the best for the last? When you read both holy books. None of it encourages what is happening in Nigeria presently. I listened to a Muslim cleric speak during a TV interview over the weekend. He says the Quran states that before you choose a leader, such a person must be trustworthy, honest and capable. I mean a lot of other qualities. In Titles 1 verse 7 and 8, it describes a leader as someone who is not arrogant, quick tempered, a drunkard, violent or greedy for gain. But someone who is hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. So if both books put such huge demand on leadership, why then are we plagued with successive bad leadership? Why do our leaders who hold fast to their faith continue to work in contravention of the words of God? Our problem in Nigeria is not religion. Our problem is the wrong application of the dictates of our religion. Our problem is that we have turned our back on the foundation of religious beliefs. We have hijacked processes from God. We then turn around and blame the church or the mosque for the failures of our society. We have allowed politicians and our selfish interests falsely divide us along religious lines. But when we have personal needs, we do not care about religion. When you take someone to the hospital, how many of us demand to see a doctor, nurse or even a surgeon that practices our religion? So I ask, if we don't care about religion of, I mean, when we're getting artisans or professionals to provide a service for us, which is more personal to us, why then should we care about religion of our leader and ignore his qualities? Leadership is not about religion. It is about the qualities that God needs to advance his course for a people at a particular time. The hypocrisy of it beats me. Honestly, let me finish my first thing when I am done. I would destroy you, Jew, tell me how you do it. I would destroy you. Oh my God. That really caught me. You know the person that really got me thinking was the statistics he gave about the alcohol consumption, where the majority of, of course, these two religions. So who is bringing it? Yes, exactly. We are spending so much money, like more than a state government's budget within a period. But you get into these places and these guys are telling you that nobody, we don't drink this and they even swear that they don't take alcohol. So where is this thing going to? And then the statistics about the usage of condom, 400 million. Actually, we thank God that they are using it. Inadequate me though. But again, there's something I saw there when he said that some people are beginning to hijack processes from God. Taking the whole tenets of religion, focusing more on the religious aspect of people's lives instead of their qualities also. Because we have people that are not in any of these religions and they are doing exceptionally well when they are giving responsibilities to take care of things. So what do you now say? Are you now saying it's because he's not reading the Quran or because he's not reading the Bible? Where is he actually getting that? So it means that he's focusing more on something deeper than those of us that have actually hijacked the process from God. I think we placed too much emphasis on the religion. And over time, unfortunately, I've had experiences whereby somebody tells me, oh, I'm a Christian. I'm very religious and I'm very Christian like I go to church all the time. Then you find that the person's behaviour does not reflect any God-like characteristics. At a point in time, I had this staff and one day I asked her, oh, you're so early. She was like, yes, I go to church at 5.30 in the morning before coming to work. And at that point, I was like, really? And I was like, really? I was like, really? Are you that holy? And of course, she had issues with four customers. At that point, I had to ask her that going to church at 5.30 a.m. and being rude to customers is contradictory. Personally, I consider Nigeria's religiosity a disability, a national disability. And there are a number of reasons for that. I think most times the political class hide under the guise of religion to perpetuate atrocities, right? But beyond hiding under the guise of religion to perpetuate atrocity, you discover that people also have soft spot for people on the basis of religious affiliation. That is it. And most painfully, the fact that we wait for God to do the things we should do for ourselves. Instead of fixing our country, we are praying, right? We are not driving innovation and doing a lot of things. I don't know how much I think it worries in the UK. Maybe they are not as religious or they have another approach to it. What do you think? Well, for me, I am someone who, people who follow me on social media, I talk about religion a lot, is that, like she said, we are religious people but we don't practice religion. If you were looking at data and statistics, they probably tell you Nigeria is the most religious country in the world. Yes, absolutely. When it comes to what's up there on the ground, when we interact with each other, you don't see the love that the religion preaches. That is, I believe that the Christian religion preaches about love a lot. We don't see that love manifesting in our everyday lives and it's quite a disappointment. And as is rightly said, religion is something that politicians hide behind. This is to perpetuate all sorts of injustices. And so, for me, I think both religions, I think it really falls down to the people that preach religion. I think they are doing a disservice to humanity by not telling their followers to actually obey those tenants that the religion, they are preaching in religious circumstances. You are very right. And I think the major problem we have with religion that I see in a part of the world is that we have the saying that, don't judge me, I know my God. You see, I always tell people that religion starts as a personal journey. But it doesn't end as a personal journey. If you really are a Christian, everybody around you should be able to testify. It's not the saying I know my God. Your behavior is big for yourself, for you. You are preaching it. So you don't need to now tell me I'm a Christian. I preach it. No, I should say it to you and ask. Nice, true. So religion is just a comfortable corner for us to hide and do a lot of things. All right. Up next is Raymond and his advocacy on youth empowerment. Stay tuned.