THAT CHRISTIAN CONSULTATIVE FORUM COMMUNIQUE (3)

“…I also said that this was the kind of strategic intervention that the church should be known for. But I doubted that there would be any meaningful involvement of the church in the immediate - in these words: “I may yet be proven wrong, but if past record is anything to go by, none will come. And if it did, it would most probably the usual platitude. I sure would be joyful, were I to prove wrong, by the time you read this.” Happily, I was wrong. There indeed was a reaction from the church. No, it wasn’t from any of the umbrella bodies, to my knowledge. The Christian Association of Nigeria is still silent; the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria was, as I sign off on this piece one week after this new episode of “Till Death Do Us Part” opened, yet to find its voice. Perhaps the CCFN is still consulting. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria however, spoke up and directly too!”

As I noted last time, the US government’s statement on Wednesday February 24, the very day that President Yar’Adua was believed to have been smuggled into Nigeria like a thief in the night, was a kind of clincher. It was a timely strategic intervention that, analysts believe, forced the power hungry cabal around the president to an immediate volte-face, at least in the short-term. It was one intervention that immediately internationalised the crisis, reinforced local resistance, and isolated fence-sitters both locally and internationally; forcing many to crawl out of hiding and take sides with the truth.

I also said that this was the kind of strategic intervention that the church should be known for. But I doubted that there would be any meaningful involvement of the church in the immediate - in these words: “I may yet be proven wrong, but if past record is anything to go by, none will come. And if it did, it would most probably the usual platitude. I sure would be joyful, were I to prove wrong, by the time you read this.” Happily, I was wrong. There indeed was a reaction from the church. No, it wasn’t from any of the umbrella bodies, to my knowledge. The Christian Association of Nigeria is still silent; the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria was, as I sign off on this piece one week after this new episode of “Till Death Do Us Part” opened, yet to find its voice. Perhaps the CCFN is still consulting. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria however, spoke up and directly too!

Here’s how one of the newspapers reported their intervention: “…The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) …at the end of their plenary conference in Abuja called on the Presidency and the National Assembly to restore the country to the path of constitutional leadership and stop assaulting the psyche of Nigerians. The Catholic clergies in a communiqué signed by the President Rev Felix Alaba-Job, Secretary, Rev. Adewale Martins and read by the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rev Calistus Onaga said, ‘for over three months, we have been faced with a crisis of leadership that is rooted in unwillingness to be truthful in handling issues of governance.

"News report says President Umaru Yar'Adua is back in the country, we thank God and we pray for his continued recovery. But in the meantime, the nation should be promptly restored to the path of stability and progress under a clear constitutional leadership. We pray for the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who now oversees the affairs of our nation’. The group also deplored the manner in which the President was taken back with his whereabouts shrouded in secrecy. Part of the communiqué read as follow: ‘Government and its functionaries should not be seen as working very hard to show that they cannot be trusted; we deplore the contempt with which Nigerians have been repeatedly denied knowledge of his whereabouts and the true state of his health. The immorality of dishonesty undermines the authority of government; they also violate the rights of the citizens to good governance.’…"

Bless these bishops for their forthrightness. Bless them for saying it like it really is. How I wish that this was coming from an umbrella body for ALL CHRISTIANS! In that case those in secular authority would have understood that they were hearing the voices of at least half the population of Nigeria, and then we would have seen if they won’t shudder at the repercussions of ignoring this weighty voice.

This obviously leads to the core challenges we face in the Church’s journey to national relevance; in the journey to, as one of the clauses in the CCFN communiqué put it, “lead in the transformation of our nation…” On this score, the CCFN communiqué was quite hard on the Church, rightfully so. It emphasised in virtually every clause the need for the Church to put its house in order, if it’s going to be able lead.

It says, for instance, that the Church needs a transformation of its own if it is going to lead in transforming the nation, stating that “the Church cannot be transformed if it has not been working to develop its own leaders and champions amongst its members. The church must therefore instil discipline amongst its members, sanction erring members and develop new leaders in the way of the Lord… restore the right values, re-establish high standards in corporate and public governance and social behaviour, and to adopt good discipline, and establish a reliable system for ensuring consistently good performance… its leaders must lead with integrity, honesty of purpose, and speak out forcefully against the ills of country’s leaders. The church must also teach and develop its members into leaders and must promote integrity and discipline, encourage austere living and generosity and discourage…materialism.”

Flowing from all of these is an acute awareness that the Church has to work on a number of things. Unity is key. As I stated in the serial, “A Wake-Up Call for Church Leaders”, the Church of Jesus Christ is one and indivisible. While unity is not necessarily unification and the unity of faith does not imply unity of doctrine, it is absolutely possible to unite around a set of minimum standards. And I think the communiqué came close when it reiterated “that the church is …a spiritual fellowship for Christians and its only agenda is that of God. And that it is, through this agenda, that our Christian leaders must be consistently courageous to teach all men (both leaders and followers) to observe all things that Christ has commanded.” And I daresay that, save for the controversial area of “discouraging prosperity,” which seems to have been wrongly equated with “discouraging materialism”, the communiqué can be developed into a kind of minimum standards that the Church ought to be willing and able to propagate and, where necessary, enforce in the conduct of its members, particularly in this context, those who go to public service flying the “Christian flag.”

As CCFN works towards an action plan, Kingdom Perspective wishes them God’s guidance and urge them to prayerfully consult widely, so that what will emerge will be widely acceptable without watering down God’s own standards. (CONCLUDED)