Confronting the Challenges to Development in Nigeria with Lessons from Old Testament Prophecy

Abstract

The concern for development is the plight of any patriotic citizen anywhere. However, in Nigeria, in spite of recurrent claims and efforts, very disturbingly, national development has continued to be elusive. Today, the importance of national development calls for renewed efforts to address its main challenges. In response to this need, the ongoing debate on the role of different disciplines in combatting the challenges of national development is timely. While religion generally would offer useful contributions to national development, the content of the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament, which revolves around the religio-civic development of Israel, proposes to offer more useful hints towards the development of Nigeria. This paper is therefore a specific response to the ongoing search for answers to the national development question. Following a traditionally expository method, this paper first seeks to discover the main challenges to development in Nigeria and then, exegetically drawing relevant lessons from the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament, desires to confront such growing challenge. The hope is that, the application of such Biblical wisdom to confront political issues would not only result in a more responsible civic arrangement towards the desired national development, but will also generate further scholarship in this area.

Keywords: Development; Nigeria; Old Testament; Prophecy; Corruption.