Nigerians have got to use the occasion of Lent and Ramadan happening simultaneously to force their Christian and Muslim clergymen to call a National Religious Finance summit that will propose the following

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Legislation must be passed by the national Assembly compelling all clergymen to donate their privates jets to the state to be used as part of the fleet for a new national carrier

[2] There should be a moratorium on building churches and mosques across Nigeria. Over the next 10 years, Christian and Muslim organisations should instead build housing estates, schools, libraries, clinics, roads and electricity power plants. Every dollar spent on a church or mosque is a dollar of investment taken away from infrastructure

[3] As things stand, we need to invest about $100bn annually in infrastructural projects. Given that our national budget is only about $30bn, organised religion must commit to meeting at least half of the country's infrastructural development costs by investing at least $70bn a year in infrastructure. Across Europe, most of their cathedrals, shipping ports, town centres, museums, etc were built by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages

[4] Islamic Finance and Christian Finance must be used for the widespread building of power plants across Nigeria. The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria must each commit to generating 1,000MW of electricity a year. All those shouting government, government, government, are not economically literate. Our faith houses have more capital at their disposal than the federal government

[5] Both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria should place a 10 year moratorium on pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia and Israel. It is sheer madness to be boosting the tourist income of those nations while we wallow in poverty. Instead our Christians and Muslims should pray at home

[6] In a bid to address insecurity, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria should both undertake to collect arms from their adherents. Armed Muslim and Christian kidnappers, armed robbers and criminals should be allowed to hand in their weapons at mosques and churches in exchange for an amnesty

[7] Wherever religious laws clash with the Nigerian constitution, the teachings of the bible and koran must become subordinate. Nigeria is a secular state, so religious teachings must accept second place in our national affairs. Nigerians of this generation should sacrifice going to heaven for the sake of a better future for their children and grand children. Laying down your life so others can have a better future is actually a religious teaching

[8] Both the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria must drop their opposition to homosexuality. It maybe that our own Einstein, Faraday, Newton, Curie, Watt, etc might be lesbian or gay. We cannot afford to have them ostracised as they may be vital for our national development. One of the reason why Germany lost World War Two was because some of its best brains needed to boost the war economy were Jewish and they were in concentration camps

[9] All churches and mosques should set up dedicated power and railway funds. All future tithes and zakat payments over the next five years should go into these funds with the aim of generating and distributing 10,000MW of electricity and building a 6,000km double gauge railway network by 2030

[10] All Christians and Muslims must eschew the self-indulgence of titles. Vanity is one of our biggest problems as a people. It is known to fuel corruption, so as part of our drive to bring about humility in our nation, titles such as Alhaji, Jerusalem Pilgrim, Grand Khadi, Sheikh, Apostle, General Overseer, Evangelist, etc will be dropped in favour of the ordinary Mr and Mrs

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