As I was saying, Mr President, the challenge of uniting the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will call for deliberate action on the part of the new executive under your leadership. We trust that , with the Holy Spirit as your guide, you are up to the task.
On the religious crisis in the North, very little can be added to what you told Segun Otokiti who quoted you in his Nigerian Compass article as follows:
“The second thing is the religious crisis that continues in the North. It is another concern for our administration to look into. I’m very concerned about this and I also strongly believe that we can do something about it. I believe we will find new ways and more ways to dialogue with our brothers on the other side of the religion divide. God will show us more ways and we will dialogue better with them. For example, we see the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), which is the coming together of both religions, as fantastic but I think at the grassroots, there are many of the people who are not educated, they don’t even know what is going on, and they don’t fully understand the fact that there is no religion that preaches violence. So, leaders of both religions must not always come together in big cities, they must begin to go into villages, they must go into mosques in the villages, into churches in the villages and be able to reach out to the people and begin to tell them what the truth is. And then, they must also begin to seriously find ways to influence the very local imams and pastors in the rural areas. And if that is done and done constantly and properly, you will discover that the senior wicked people who caused all these troubles, when they go to grassroots to get those they will use to cause crisis again, they wouldn’t find them because the understanding would have filtered down to those people. I think we need to work more and there are many other thing we must do to make sure that peace comes to stay and also begin to get government to play its part as well.”
I wish however to invite you to deal with the perception that some stakeholders have of you as a hawk. Many have expressed their worry obliquely, but Adamu Adamu, in a piece titled, “CAN and the Book of John,” which you might have read, was very direct. He wrote in the conclusion to his beautiful piece on Onaiyekan and I quote: “Surely, if healing the Christian-Muslim rift is the one of more important items on the agenda of a CAN president—and if it is not, it should be—then Archbishop Onaiyekan is arguably the most successful president of the Christian body. Without the understanding, respect and dialogue pioneered by Onaiyekan, which must be reciprocated, it is to be feared that someone removed from the scene of the crisis and informed only by media reports that are sometimes part of the problem may lead us into a whirl pool of religious disaster. That is why today the challenge on the shoulders of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria and the new CAN president, is a heavy one, indeed, especially in view of the fact that at times of crises in the past, some of the most unhelpful comments have issued from Pentecostal pulpits, unfortunately, including his own. While wishing Pastor Oritsejafor every success, it is to be hoped that he will take a leaf out of the Book of John Onaiyekan.”
Without losing sight of the irony that the leader those outside the Lord’s flock consider as “arguably the most successful president of the Christian body,” didn’t seem to have made a similar impression within, and was therefore not re-elected, you still have to deal with this perception. Perception, after all is said to be reality; at least to the perceiver. That’s a tight rope given that you cannot also afford to disappoint those who elected you. It is our prayer that God’s grace shall be sufficient for you.
The third item on your agenda is also very, very crucial. As a matter of fact, for someone involved in men’s ministry, like I have had the privilege of being, it seems to me as the issue besides which everyone else pales into insignificance. And I really love the way you put it: being “light and salt of the earth.” Listen with me, to yourself, Mr President: “Then, the third thing is to be light and salt of the earth. And to do that, the church must impact and make input into Nigeria. We must begin to get our Christian brothers and sisters who hold high offices accountable for money that passes through their hands, accountable for wherever God has put them, and they must be held accountable to the people they lead. We must enforce it, we must press for it, we must make sure that it happens and we must begin to teach them that they are accountable for such things. We also need to encourage Christians to get into politics and play their part in any way we think we can be of help to government in moving the country forward in the project of Nigeria. I think the church will be more active and play our part more actively. In addition, Nigerians need to enjoy more of the dividends of democracy and journalists are in the position to influence things more positively and we hope they do that well.”
This column has since inception a few years back devoted several articles to this subject. We have drawn attention to the sad truth that more Christian leaders have fallen foul of basic moral standards in public office than adherents of other faiths. We have made many suggestions that could form basic ingredients for action – to no effect. This declared intention that “the church will be more active” in this respect, offers an opportunity to ventilate those ideas again and we will – next in this letter. Thanks for your time, Mr President. (CONTINUES)
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