By Nnaoke Ufere, PhD
Last week, I ran into a Nigerian friend in a conference. We chatted about Nigeria and the 2023 presidential election.
He told me his church is holding another prayer vigil for Nigeria.
I asked him, “a prayer vigil for which of our numerous problems?”
He responded, “for God to intervene in the 2023 presidential election and anoint a good leader to be president.”
He offered an invitation to the vigil. I declined. He was taken aback, with a shocking expression on his face.
I countered by saying that I don’t consider prayers for Nigeria to be divinely effective.
Continuing, I reminded my friend that we’ve prayed many times, long enough, fervently enough, and received the same or worse outcomes each election cycle.
We should realize by now that either God doesn’t listen to or hear the messenger or that the message is corrupt.
My friend felt confused; he couldn’t believe what I just said.
So, I followed up with a nuanced question: “Why would an all-powerful, just and merciful God withhold anointing a good leader for our troubled nation until we petition for one in a prayer vigil?
My friend did not answer. Rather, just before we parted ways, he released a heat-seeking missile: “I can’t believe an ordained Presbyterian Elder doesn’t believe in prayers.”
I corrected him immediately: “No, I said ‘prayer for Nigeria’, not all prayers!”
The Absence Of Divine Action In Nigeria
But back in my hotel room, I thought deeply about our brief exchange. I wondered why God wouldn’t answer prayers for a nation notoriously religious, with 92% of its population (196 million) either Christians or Muslims, according to Pew Research Center report.
And then it dawned on me. Could it be that Nigerians have separated themselves from God, and He seems absent and inactive in Nigeria by divine choice?
There is consensus among religious scholars that when a society separates itself from God, when divine absence seems apparent, God can be present without being active. Alec Basson and Samuel Balentine, both renowned religious scholars, conceived divine absence as a withdrawal of God’s protective, benevolent, and saving presence.
In this view, an absent God is a God not involved, a God not acting on behalf of His people. A God that may not answer their prayers.
Building on this insight, I argue that the absence of God – the separation of Nigeria from the love of God – accounts for why God may not answer prayers for Nigeria. It is conceivable that God has chosen to turn His back on Nigeria.
For evidence, read the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The scale and scope of sin in Nigeria today is a multiple of Sodom and Gomorrah.
My Conviction: God Is Merciful
Despite our apparent departure from God, I hold steadfast to the strong conviction that eventually God will not forsake Nigeria. God is merciful as well as just. He was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were only 10 righteous persons.
We must take collective action to realign with God on a personal as well as societal level. Not just by proclaiming our faith in God but also by our thoughts and deeds.
By deeds, we must also deal with the politicians, political parties and other evildoers who have led us away from God and allowed evil and mass suffering to proliferate all around us.
Accordingly, we must use the power of the ballot to vote them out of office and elect people of good character and moral rectitude. It will require good character, moral and creative wisdom to discover what it means to rebuild a nation in which awareness of divine presence is the foundation of being.
Only by doing so will we have the power to break the vicious cycle of electing bad leaders who cause mass suffering.
What does all this mean for the 2023 presidential election? One implication is you can pray all you want, but please go and vote.
Even when God anoints a good leader for Nigeria as my friend wishes, we all still have an important role to play to realize God’s anointed one.
So, encourage your family and friends and church/mosque members to go and vote.
Now back to the title question: Does God answer prayers for Nigeria?
When we remove evildoers from office and among us, we can feel the presence of God again. Only then can we expect to welcome God back into our society. And only then will we feel our prayers have been heard.
