Veteran eccentric entertainer Charles Oputa, fondly known as Charlie Boy shares his thoughts on Religion and how it affects people especially in Nigeria. He even formulated a word 'Mumugiousity' to describe the category of those who can not discern the
truth on their own, but think only as they are told.
For starters, don’t pick up the dictionary to look up ‘Mumugiousity’, I coined it myself but you go soon grab weytin I wan yarn.
As I approach this topic I want to be careful so readers don’t get the whole essence of this write up, twisted. E no dey hard some people. Religion is a touchy subject for a lot of people and in my household it is generally not considered “polite conversation.”
For some, an attack on religion is an attack on their god or gods. I only wish to put down certain points or aspects of organized religion I’m not comfortable with, I am not questioning anyone’s belief in a personal god.
In Nigeria, religion has helped us to remain sane or else we all for donkolo with the way our environment is stifling us. Religion can give people a sense of community and make people feel welcomed. But life is never that simple sha. Kai! Oh lord.
In Nigeria especially, religion has turned a lot of my people into MUMU’s. Instead of learning to discern truth on their own and formulate their own mindset, they’re told how to think. These are the people engaged in ‘Mumugiousity’. For them Religion has turned them into group soul’s, sheep, cows and goat with their Shepherd as their pastors, who have erased their trust in their own intellect and gradually convinced them to put their trust in them(pastors) as the only true men of god, convincing them that without them they would be lost. Hummmm! They fall for this like very poor people would fall for a bag of rice. Odikwarisky…
You have become ‘mumurized’ when you can forgo the little intelligence you have and on top of all that, you become a hypocrite. Religion is filling mumupeople with fear; it is one of the main reasons why mumupeople are afraid of living. And when I say ‘living’ I don’t mean just surviving. To survive is one thing, even stones do that, but to live is a completely different thing. To live means to be sensitive, it means to feel, to grow, to discover your potential and achieve to higher states of being each and every moment. These days nothing happens without it being remote controlled from the village, someone must have sent it, there are more demons waiting to destroy us, chineke God are you there?
Once you are a religious mumu you will not tolerate religious ideologies that are different from the one you follow. This is why you can see religious mumu people fighting nonreligious ones.
To identify with a religious ideology, and call it the only truth and way, leads to tremendously negative consequences – hatred, tribalism and all kinds of violence. Just think of how many wars have been carried out throughout history by some mumu’s in the name of God and religion.Abegi!
To live means to learn and life is a continuous lesson. When, however, you grow into ‘mumuship’, conditioned to believe what is right and wrong according to religion, and told that to doubt religion means to go to hell, naturally you become afraid of seeking true knowledge. You stop searching to find the truth, to learn, and hence to grow as a human being. You can’t believe how many of us have stopped growing…Millions.
To blindly follow any ideology without asking questions simply means to restrict your perception, suppress yourself, and live in hypocrisy — in other words, to live in suffering and misery.
Many mumu people choose to follow, even though they suffer from this choice, simply because religion frees them from personal responsibility. To live spontaneously one has to take responsibility for oneself, and this is certainly painful. Life is made of choices, and to make the right choice is not always easy. So ‘mumu’ people prefer not to choose for themselves, but to have others choose for them. They prefer to walk on paths made by others, instead of creating their own path. But unless we stop having some of these wayo people telling these mumu people what to do or what not to do, some of us will never be free. And unless we are free, we will never be happy and peaceful.
Yes, you can have a personal relationship with God starting with giving love to your neighbour, just don’t let some masquerades turn you and your life to ‘Mumugiousity’. Fire burn dem.
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