Apostle Arome Osayi's statement that “the Chinese make engines while Nigerians pray” because nations supposedly have different “callings,” with Nigeria's calling being to send missionaries into the world, raises a fundamental question:
Who decided that evangelism and industrialization are mutually exclusive?
Nigeria can produce missionaries and engines.
It can build churches and factories.
It can preach the Gospel and manufacture the machines that power its economy.
The problem begins when spirituality is presented as an alternative to productive capacity.
Because Nigeria's poverty is not a spiritual mystery.
It is, in large part, an economic and institutional problem.
And industrialization is one of the ways countries escape it.
A nation's “calling” cannot be an excuse for economic dependency
There is nothing inherently wrong with believing that Nigeria has an important religious role to play in the world.
Nigeria has become a major centre of Christianity, and Nigerian churches have sent missionaries and established congregations across Africa and beyond.
But that does not establish that manufacturing is somehow outside Nigeria's purpose.
There is no economic law saying:
If Nigerians evangelize, Nigerians cannot industrialize.
In fact, history demonstrates the opposite.
Countries and societies can simultaneously produce religious movements, intellectual traditions, businesses, scientists, engineers and industrial capacity.
The more useful question is not whether Nigeria should pray.
It is:
What happens when prayer becomes a substitute for production?
The Chinese engine did not fall from heaven
China's transformation was not primarily a story of people abandoning spirituality.
It was a story of deliberate economic policy.
China invested heavily in education, infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, supply chains, ports, energy, technical skills and export industries.
The result is that China can manufacture enormous quantities of machinery, electronics, vehicles, batteries, ships and industrial equipment.
Nigeria, meanwhile, remains heavily dependent on imports for many manufactured goods.
That difference is not explained by different spiritual callings.
It is explained by different economic choices, institutions, investments and industrial capabilities.
And here is the uncomfortable question: what is Apostle Arome wearing?
This is where the statement becomes particularly revealing.
Look at almost any modern piece of clothing.
The fabric may involve cotton farming.
Spinning.
Chemical processing.
Industrial weaving.
Dyeing.
Transportation.
Garment manufacturing.
Packaging.
Retail.
Logistics.
The buttons, zipper, thread, footwear, phone, microphone, vehicle and electricity supporting modern life all come from enormous industrial systems.
None of those systems were produced by prayer alone.
That does not make prayer meaningless.
It makes prayer different from manufacturing.
If the clothes Apostle Arome is wearing were imported or manufactured using industrial processes, then his own appearance demonstrates the very reality his argument risks overlooking:
Modern life depends upon productive systems.
You cannot preach industrial independence while outsourcing the material foundations of your existence.
Spirituality does not manufacture a diesel engine
A prayer can ask for wisdom.
An engineer still has to design the engine.
A prayer can ask for prosperity.
A factory still needs electricity.
A prayer can ask for national development.
Someone still has to build the road.
A prayer can ask for food.
Farmers still have to cultivate the land.
A prayer can ask for technological advancement.
Scientists and engineers still have to conduct experiments.
This is not an argument against prayer.
It is an argument against confusing spiritual faith with economic production.
Nigeria's problem is not that Nigerians pray
That distinction is important.
There is nothing wrong with Nigerians praying.
Nigeria's problem is that it has repeatedly failed to build enough productive capacity to meet the needs of its population.
The country has enormous human and natural resources.
Yet it imports machinery.
Imports many manufactured goods.
Imports refined petroleum products for much of its history.
Imports technology.
Imports pharmaceuticals and industrial equipment.
Imports vehicles and components.
Imports textiles despite having a large agricultural base capable of supporting cotton production.
The question should therefore be:
Why aren't we producing more?
That is an industrial-policy question.
Not a theological one.
Nigeria needs an economy that can manufacture its own future
Industrialization is not simply about making “things.”
It creates ecosystems.
A vehicle factory requires:
- engineers;
- machinists;
- electricians;
- software developers;
- steel producers;
- plastics manufacturers;
- battery companies;
- logistics firms;
- component suppliers;
- accountants;
- designers;
- technicians;
- researchers;
- maintenance specialists.
One factory can therefore create an entire network of economic activity.
That is why manufacturing matters.
The ultimate product is not merely the car or engine.
It is the capability to produce.
And capability compounds.
Once a country learns to manufacture one sophisticated product, it develops skills that can eventually be applied to another.
The real lesson from China
The lesson Nigerians should take from China isn't:
“Stop praying.”
It is:
“Build.”
Build factories.
Build technical schools.
Build reliable electricity.
Build ports.
Build railways.
Build machine-tool industries.
Build research institutions.
Build semiconductor capability.
Build pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Build agricultural processing.
Build steel production.
Build domestic supply chains.
Build companies capable of competing internationally.
And yes—
pray if you believe in prayer.
There is no contradiction.
Missionaries need industrial economies too
There is another irony in the idea that Nigeria's “calling” is to send missionaries into the world.
Missionaries themselves need resources.
They need transportation.
They need accommodation.
They need communication technology.
They need medical care.
They need printed materials.
They need computers and phones.
They need vehicles.
They need airplanes.
They need electricity.
They need food.
All of these depend on economic production.
A missionary travelling from Nigeria to another country is participating in a global industrial system.
The plane was manufactured somewhere.
The fuel was refined somewhere.
The smartphone was manufactured somewhere.
The internet infrastructure was built somewhere.
The clothes were manufactured somewhere.
The currency used to purchase these things depends on an economy producing goods and services.
Even the missionary enterprise depends upon industrial civilization.
Imagine if Nigeria actually manufactured the things missionaries use
This is where the conversation could become much more ambitious.
Why shouldn't Nigeria manufacture:
- missionary vehicles?
- solar power systems?
- water purification equipment?
- affordable medical devices?
- agricultural machinery?
- communication equipment?
- educational technology?
- construction materials?
- affordable motorcycles?
- electric vehicles?
Imagine Nigerian companies producing these products and selling them throughout Africa.
Then the Nigerian missionary would not simply arrive somewhere carrying an imported product.
He could arrive carrying products designed, engineered and manufactured in Africa.
That would be a much more powerful form of influence.
Economic sovereignty is not materialism
There is sometimes a false dichotomy between spiritual values and economic development.
Industrialization is portrayed as materialistic.
But poverty has material consequences.
A mother without electricity experiences a material problem.
A child without medicine experiences a material problem.
A student without a functioning school experiences a material problem.
A farmer without machinery experiences a material problem.
A hospital without equipment experiences a material problem.
Telling these people to pray without building the systems that solve those problems risks turning faith into an excuse for institutional failure.
God does not manufacture generators for Nigeria. Nigerians have to build the institutions and industries capable of producing them.
The Bible itself does not glorify economic helplessness
Even from a Christian perspective, the argument that a nation's spiritual calling somehow excuses industrial underdevelopment is difficult to sustain.
The Bible contains extensive references to agriculture, craftsmanship, trade, construction, stewardship, skills and productive labour.
The parable of the talents, for example, is explicitly concerned with what people do with what they have been entrusted with.
The broader principle is straightforward:
Resources are meant to be developed, not merely admired.
Nigeria's natural resources are enormous.
Its young population is enormous.
Its agricultural potential is enormous.
Its market is enormous.
Its geographic position is strategically important.
The question is what Nigerians do with those resources.
A country cannot export sermons and import everything else
This is perhaps the sharpest point.
If Nigeria becomes excellent at exporting religious content while importing the material necessities of modern life, it will remain economically dependent.
There is nothing inherently wrong with exporting ideas.
Ideas matter enormously.
But sustainable national wealth comes from a much broader productive base.
Nigeria should be exporting:
software, pharmaceuticals, machinery, processed food, automobiles, financial services, entertainment, agricultural products, industrial components, engineering expertise and intellectual property.
And yes, it can export religious ideas too.
There is no reason to choose.
Nigeria needs both altar and factory
The false choice between Christianity and industrialization should be rejected.
Nigeria needs churches.
It needs schools.
It needs hospitals.
It needs laboratories.
It needs factories.
It needs engineers.
It needs pastors.
It needs entrepreneurs.
It needs missionaries.
It needs scientists.
It needs farmers.
It needs manufacturers.
The Nigerian who spends Sunday in church and Monday designing an engine is not confused about his purpose.
He may actually be demonstrating what a functioning society looks like.
The real calling should be capability
If there is a “national calling” worth discussing, it should not be defined as:
“We pray while others manufacture.”
It should be:
“We develop what God has placed in our hands.”
That means turning crude oil into petrochemicals.
Turning agricultural products into processed foods.
Turning minerals into manufactured components.
Turning young people into engineers.
Turning universities into research centres.
Turning ideas into companies.
Turning companies into industries.
Turning industries into exports.
And turning Nigeria from primarily a consumer of other people's industrial capabilities into a producer of its own.
Faith should produce responsibility, not resignation
There is a profound difference between saying:
“We trust God.”
and saying:
“Therefore we don't need to build.”
The first is faith.
The second can become fatalism.
Nigeria does not need less faith.
It needs less fatalism.
It needs a generation that can pray in the morning and then spend the day solving engineering problems.
A generation that can worship and manufacture.
A generation that can evangelize and innovate.
A generation that understands that spirituality does not require economic dependence.
The final irony
The Chinese worker who manufactures the engine is not necessarily less spiritual than the Nigerian who prays over the engine.
The Chinese engineer may pray.
The Nigerian engineer may pray.
The difference is whether their societies have built the institutions that allow their prayers, education, skills and labour to translate into productive capacity.
So perhaps the question Nigerians should ask is not:
“What is our calling?”
It is:
“What are we doing with what we have been given?”
Because the clothes on our backs, the phones in our hands, the cars we drive, the hospitals we enter and the machines we depend upon all tell the same story.
Faith may give a person meaning.
But factories give a nation productive power.
Nigeria should pursue both.
Pray. Then build.
And when the next generation stands before a Nigerian-made engine, Nigerian-made machine, Nigerian-made aircraft component or Nigerian-made medical device, it should be able to say:
We did not choose between God and development. We chose to develop what was placed in our hands.
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