A former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has said that one of the major reasons Nigeria has remained underdeveloped is because Nigerians are fond of praying without working.
Mimiko, who made this known on Saturday at the public presentation of a book ‘Saved by His Praise,’ by Prince Emeka Obasi, said that prayer alone was not enough.
He gave examples of countries that citizens are not as prayerful as Nigerians but are more developed.
According to him, Nigerians should continue to understand that there is economic undercurrent in most miracles.
“The greatest miracle God created is the human mind and human beings but the extent in which you can actualise your potential is also a factor of how that society is organized.
“While Nigerians pray for miraculous development, they must also pray for the actualisation of the greatest miracle God had given to man, which is the human mind,” he said, noting that “If we don’t organize ourselves very well as a society, the miracle will not come and we will continue to be poor.”
He added: “By World Health Organization (WHO) figure of 2015, Japan had the highest life expectancy in the world and is at 85. By their standard, whether you pray or not, you will spend 85 years on earth. If you are in Nigeria, whether you are a miracle worker or miracle recipient, the average life expectancy is at 55.”
He added: “Few years back, there was an accident where a Minister, James Ocholi, his wife and his children died. We also had the case during the Nigerian Medical Association conference in Kaduna, where five specialists lost their lives.
“For you to be a specialist, you must be trained for seven years. We have no business losing those people, but we live in a society where we are not organized. We live in a society where we pray without work; a society where everybody is a commodity that could be bought on an election day with N5000.”
