New UNN Deputy VC makes case for true moral re-armament

[MrVan]

By Emeka Mamah

Newly appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) for the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, yesterday said that only recourse to true moral rearmament on the part of leaders and the people of Nigeria would reverse the present myriads of crises threatening the corporate existence of the nation.

He said it was erroneous for some persons in certain quarters to believe that religion brainwashes adherents but that rather, it purges the citizenry of  the tendency and longing to do evils that violate the sanctity of societal well-being.

Okwueze, a professor of religion, spoke while speaking to a capacity crowd in the Princess Alexandria Auditorium of UNN as he delivered the 67th Inaugural Lecture of the institution on the theme, "Religion: Indeed, the 'Opium' of Life", during which the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Bartho Okolo, called on stakeholders of the premier university to pool resources together to make it  a premier university in Africa.

Okwueze, who was the best graduating student of the university in the 1986/87 session said it was absurd to think that society would be better off without religion as is the preaching of Karl Marx in his saying that religion is the opium of the masses and should be abolished, adding that in reality, citizens who are good religious adherents are wont to become desirable elements of any given society, even as he was quick to point out the grave danger inherent in the activities of the current predating and violent Islamic sect, saying it was a case of wrong application of  the ideals of a religion.

"The case of the Islamic sect's attacks shows how badly things can go and how far people can go to harm fellow human beings when such people abandon religion and God in their lives ironically in the name of religion", he said adding that this was the dilemma of the nation in the face of the insurgents.

He said those believed Marx's opium of the society theory in his unfortunate popular saying about religion failed to underscore that in reality, religion which is capable of determining how and what a human being could react to the happenings in society was the most influential factor directing his affairs.

Vanguard Nigeria