Work more, pray less – Don urges Nigerians

By Richard Elesho

Excessive prayer without work has been identified as one of the clogs in the wheel of Nigeria’s development. Citizens have therefore been asked to stop the lazy habit of praying about challenges, God ĥas given them the intellect and ability to resolve instead of tackling them frontally.

Those were the opening takeaways from the 41st inaugural lecture of the Federal University, Lokoja, FUL, recently delivered by Prof. Ebenezer Ejalonibu Lawal, a political scientist. He treated the topic ‘Paradox and problems of development: The pedestal and pragmatic of a political scientist.”

Ejalonibu noted that God endowed humans with great intellect in all aspects of life to ¹enhance advancement. However, he regretted that “instead of making use of these, humans throw these things back to God to do for them and employ all sort of diversionary actions to justify this.

“Most of the underdeveloped countries, Nigeria inclusive, are often embroiled in activities that are not coterminous with the Principles of development, and they have normalized these practices.”

He recommended “a dire need for academic preoccupation with various approaches to combat the debacle as this is the only means of attracting the desired gains and honour.”

Ejalonibu carried out a general overview of development, the paradox, and the pragmatic. “The pedestal represents the normative heights of the aspirational frameworks, goals, and values that specify what development should be. Good governance, democratic consolidation, the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and inclusive growth are some of these. The activities that influence the execution and results of development programs, on the other hand, are the lived realities of political life that are represented by pragmatics…”

He concluded that “the paradox of development is a situation that must be continuously managed. Development is characterised by a conflict between aspiration and execution, between ideals and reality. In the end, we must use the paradoxes of development as a chance for introspection, creativity, and change rather than merely bemoaning them. Because it offers the moral compass that directs our goals, the pedestal must not be abandoned. The pragmatics must not be disregarded because they establish the conditions necessary to achieve those.”

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Gbenga Ibileye described the lecture as the second one under his watch as head of the institution and commended the lecturer for his commitment to service and research.

“To our inaugural lecturer today, Professor Ebenezer Ejalonibu Lawal: it has been asserted that, political scientists are, by training, accustomed to analysing those who speak at length without quite saying anything…… I did not arrive at that characterisation alone. I was reliably informed — by another “political scientist.”

“Although George Orwell who, I dare say, understood political language better than most politicians, once wrote that political science exists to give ‘an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’ I leave it to our lecturer to tell us whether the diagnosis still holds.”