God Can’t Send Nigerians To Hell — Sowore

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has declared that God is kind and will not send Nigerians to hell.

The former presidential candidate made the declaration on Saturday while addressing a gathering, where he criticised what he described as the manipulation of religion by political and religious leaders to keep citizens subdued.

“God cannot send Nigerians to hell. We are already living in hell. It will be a double tragedy to live in hell in Nigeria and to go to another hell. And I know God is kind; He will never do that,” Sowore said.

He argued that, “The disagreement I have always had with Christians is that this world is not meant for us. It is not true. The world is meant for us,” Sowore said, challenging conventional Christian teachings on life after death.

He argued that when God created heaven and earth, He intended for humans to enjoy life on earth.

“He didn’t want us not to enjoy our lives or live well on earth; He wanted us to live here because He created everything we need. But for some reason, our Christian brothers and some religious people always say, ‘Oh, go to heaven, go to heaven.’ No. God himself, as I have said, doesn’t live in heaven,” he asserted.

Sowore further questioned the popular notion of heaven, asking rhetorically where God resided before creating heaven and earth.

“When God was creating heaven and earth, He was staying somewhere. That was where He came to create heaven and earth from. Still, when He created the earth, He said, ‘This is the most beautiful thing I have done.’ That is why He created us, created plants, created animals, and we are not the only people on earth. There are so many creatures on earth, some of them we have never seen,” he said.

Switching between English and Yoruba, Sowore urged Nigerians not to be misled by religious teachings that deprive them of happiness and fulfillment on earth.

He further accused government officials and religious leaders of hypocrisy.

“Don’t let anybody drive you out of this world with the lie that you are going to another place. Live the best you can here on earth. Don’t let the government deprive you of life on earth. As you know, people in government don’t like to die. Even the pastors who tell you there’s heaven don’t like to die. Imams don’t like to die. They want to enjoy this life to the fullest,” he said.

“Live your life the way God wants, so that you will be happy with your children. I am saying this because the government uses religion to lie to us that heaven is somewhere. This life that we are in now, we must finish it first before going anywhere,” Sowore added.

When asked whether he believes in heaven, Sowore quipped, “Don’t ask me because I am not a pastor.”

He concluded by reinforcing his central point in a sharp rebuke of the government’s failure to improve citizens’ lives, asking Nigerians to resist allegedly government’s drive to drive them “to a heaven that is hell.”