WANTED: A CHRISTIAN AGENDA FOR NIGERIA (2)

David Mark, Senate President.

"Next, I mentioned in that piece, the structure of our federation. I argued that “as currently structured, there is so much injustice, inequity and therefore, ungodliness in the way Nigeriais run.” It was my view and it remains so that “whether we wish to acknowledge it honestly or not, God cannot be happy with a situation where the way resources, native to any part of the country, are controlled and managed from a so-called centre. The continued attempt at tinkering with this issue will get us nowhere. What we need in Nigeriais a true federation; one in which no section is treated as, or even remotely allowed to feel like, second-class citizens. Justice is the only enduring antidote to violence.” Can we encourage Christian legislators to engage with this fundamental problem?"

I wrote in part last week: “...Until now, I thought I have been playing my part, and that is not untrue. But, I know that I have to keep at it, up the ante, for indeed, the stakes are higher today than at any other time in our history. That is why I shall not stop calling on the Church, to which I belong, to rise up from its business as usual composure. When I wrote a serial titled, Wake-Up Call to Church Leaders; did an Open Letter series to the president of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor; when I proclaimed, by divine unction that 2011 was the year of the Church, I was trying to point out the need for the Church in Nigeria get up and get involved…”

Continuing, I also said: “To a significant extent, the church did, in collaboration with many other segments of society, and that is why we are where we are today. That is why we can talk about a reasonably free, fair and credible election…However, we cannot stop there; we dare not! People have been elected; a good percentage of them profess faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In other words they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of them are going there with the best of intentions. But so did many in the past, who came back warped by the system. Are there ways the Church can help them?  Are their things that we, as a Church, led by the Holy Spirit of God, can draw their attention to which, they should put on the front burner? My answer is yes, on both counts.”

It was my promise that I shall point out some of those things that ought to be on the Christian Agenda for Nigeria. For the avoidance of any doubt, this is not about “Christianizing” Nigeria, although I’ll gladly do, if I could. It’s about setting an agenda for governments at all levels based on our faith, values and interests that will make the nation better for ALL Nigerians, irrespective of their faith. It is about articulating for our brethren, who have been elected at various levels, those issues that are we, as a Spirit-led body, are persuaded with, as the cliché goes, move the nation forward.

Due to space constraints, I shall mention just a few. And these few derive from some my earlier suggestions on this page, beginning with the most recent, written and published just before the presidential election titled, “Election 2011: How-To-Guide for Christians.”

In that piece, I posited that we should be interested in the various candidates’ position on education. I wrote: “My people, says the Bible, perish for lack of knowledge (see Hosea 4:6). A Christian-friendly candidate would be one who has a clear, comprehensive, feasible and viable policy in education. Free education is good and should be encouraged, but the candidates/parties pushing it must give a clear blueprint about how it would be achieved. Also, there must be a commitment to the three worldview and character-moulding subjects, Christian Religious Knowledge, Moral Instructions and Civics. These will address the yawning gap in the growth of our children, who even when they are taught well at home, find themselves contending with different values out ‘in the real world.’”

Flowing from these, it should be our position that Christians in elective offices should push an educational agenda that supports easier accessibility to or possibly free education, as well as inclusion of character shaping subjects into the curricula at appropriate levels.

Next, I mentioned in that piece, the structure of our federation. I argued that “as currently structured, there is so much injustice, inequity and therefore, ungodliness in the way Nigeria is run.” It was my view and it remains so that “whether we wish to acknowledge it honestly or not, God cannot be happy with a situation where the way resources, native to any part of the country, are controlled and managed from a so-called centre. The continued attempt at tinkering with this issue will get us nowhere. What we need in Nigeria is a true federation; one in which no section is treated as, or even remotely allowed to feel like, second-class citizens. Justice is the only enduring antidote to violence.”  Can we encourage Christian legislators to engage with this fundamental problem?

A third issue that I raised at that time had to do with the seemingly intractable problem of religious persecution in some parts of northern Nigeria. The Bible, I wrote, “says we are one body in Christ (Romans 12:5). It says that when one part hurts the whole body hurts.” I then wondered why it seems like the rest of us Christians are doing little or nothing about the fact that “Christians in certain parts of Northern Nigeria have been hurting for ages.”  I noted that “many have died; many have lost loved ones; many have been maimed; very many are living in mortal fear of their neighbours”, and that “in some parts, churches cannot own property, including places of worship.” I suggested that “the persecution and marginalization has gone on for too long while our governments and intellectuals are busy debating whether the problem is religious or ethnic or both” and then declared, “the bottom line is that the Christian has become an endangered species in many parts of Northern Nigeria.”

This is an issue about which Christians in government have to be sensitized to take a position that will lead to appropriate policy decisions, including legislation, and well-defined timelines for putting to final stop to the tragedy.

In that piece, I also raised the issues of corruption and integrity, both of which are so crucial that if the Church does not step in and offer assistance to the nation, through those who profess faith Jesus Christ, nothing else would matter. So, I shall dwell on these next week and recall some of the structures that can be considered to help the church help its members to help our nation. (CONCLUDES NEXT WEEK)