Religious Education and Societal Development: The Nigerian Context

Abstract

The present writer is drawn to write on this topic based on the realization that the Nigerian society seems to be one
that is bereft of the practicalisation of the ideal standards of virtues. There is apparent lack of objective measures of
rightness and wrongness of actions, especially in the present dispensation, irrespective of the so much touted
religiosity of Nigerians. A particular action is regarded (by implication and praxis) as right when performed by
persons of a particular religion, tribe and party affiliation, but as an abomination when performed by some other
persons. This beats one’s imagination to the core, especially given the fact that the religio-tribal considerations
appear to be the major driving force. This paper is therefore interested in the contents of the religious education of
the various major religious types and how these contents that are imbibed by their adherents aid or mar the
development of the Nigerian society. It was discovered, through personal observations and through the tools of
analytical and deductive reasoning via library research methodology, that certain aspects of certain religious
teachings have great positive impact on societal cohesion which leads to development in the Nigerian society while
some others rather sow the seed of discord, injustice, hate and rancor that have led to killings, oppressions and
upsurges that have characterized the Nigerian social space for decades on end and have drastically militated against
social development of Nigeria. Recommendations include: religious education must consider the virtue of justice, it
must adhere to the demands of rationality, it must be universalizable and not myopic, it must be dynamic, and it must
be morally honest and must proceed from right conscience rather than a sick conscience.