Religion has extensively leveraged ICT in sub-Saharan Africa and gained incredible market visibility, and according to Dele Olojede, the Faith industry is perhaps the fastest growing industry in sub-Saharan Africa, "faster growing than even the telecom sector, and perhaps just as profitable… feeds off the misery of the people and appeals to their worst instincts and propensity to superstition, illogic and unreason. The mushroom churches are particularly in love it would seem from the billboards around our benighted city, with words such as fire and damnation, as well as promises of wealth… We do not necessarily have to agree with Marx that religion is the "opium of the people" to recognize the destructive power of mindless faith, which eschews self help and sacrifice and instead asks you to trust in God, who will magically provide everything for you… I do not by this mean to single out Christians at all; I think the same is largely true, perhaps even more so, in the other major religions. But our country right now is in a desperate state, a time that calls for clear thinking and rationality, not magical solutions and a reliance on divine intervention. Life is grim and hard, and it should not be obscured by the sentimental philosophy of the pulpit, where everything is out-sourced to God and people are encouraged to believe that the just and the good will somehow result from some deity reaching down through the clouds to sweep all our sorrows away…"

Alas, ICT is only a tool, and produces great results only in the hands of intelligent and creative users; I have never harbored any doubts about the economic potentials of ICT/bridging the digital divide. My pertuberance revolves around the acceptance of ICT and modes of implementation by sub-Saharan societies.

While Western Nations enshrine strong work ethics within structured social orders and economic parastatals, and Asian societies have gradually relaxed socio-cultural inhibitions to embrace ICT with spectacular results, sub-Saharan African still struggles with the designation of Religion; miracles, magic, something-from-nothing superstitions.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei

Real ICT impacts will only be achieved with the right ICT tools in the hands of Africans who are in touch with reality. And reality here is; there are no shortcuts to success. No amount of fasting and praying will either produce as much food or economic development as hard work. The deadly cocktail of popular idiocy and hollow leadership will always be heralded by the cheap clanging of empty vessels, false prophets, social inequities and endless inhibitions to real ICT access and impacts.