In the 2015 poll, Church Arise! hinged our pointed
support for then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan primarily on his
declared conviction that Nigeria’s primary and fundamental need is total
restructuring. At different fora, he decried the “winner-takes-it-all” politics,
where for instance a candidate who won 51 percent of votes takes over all the
instrument of government with absolutely nothing for the other candidate who,
with much investment and commitment, had won the other 49 percent. What else is
left for such losing candidate and his constituency, but to start fomenting
troubles for the winner ahead of next election!
And so, everything about Nigeria’s politics seems to start and end with
elections, with little time left for real governance and nation-building.
Goodluck Jonathan
further went on to convene a largely successful and credible National
Conference to address the issue of restructuring. He however, in the manner of politicians, irresponsibly
delayed the implementation of the recommendations - probably calculating to use it for some
further political gains for his party in the presidential election, which he
eventually lost! The opposition party, on
its own, had bluntly refused to participate in the National Conference,
choosing rather to include into her manifesto a nebulous commitment to
restructure Nigeria. Once in power
however, the party’s leadership, hijacked by the scheming cabal that had used
the party as ladder into power, adamantly declared that there is nothing in
Nigeria to restructure!
Church Arise! strongly
believes that the quite important issue of who is elected into political office
is not so much as critical as the structure and the system governing the offices.
As we learn from the global news on a daily basis, the politicians in the
developed climes are not necessarily more honest, godly, or even patriotic than
ours – only that they are constrained by strong institutions and structures. In
today’s Nigeria, not only do the systems appear designed to keep righteous
people away from power, they have the propensity to corrupt ANY righteous
person who somehow managed to get close!
As has been
repeatedly pointed out by the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum, the fundamental problem
with Nigeria is the current Constitution foisted on us by Islamic-inspired
military leadership, which has embedded two mutually incompatible ideologies:
democracy and sharia!
With the originally
jointly-negotiated 1963 constitution, the undisputed leader of the north, Sir
Ahmadu Bello chose to be the Premier of the Northern Region than be the Prime
Minister of Nigeria - which post he threw to his aide, Tafawa Balewa. And the three regions did make tremendous
progress! The military constitution destroyed all that. Today, the Centre
controls all resources, doling out pittances and “bail-outs” to the regions; rather
than have the regions work hard in diligently developing their God-given resources
and make appropriate contributions to the Centre. The United Arabs Emirate is one country that
is currently being cited for tremendous national development. Reportedly, that country was put together in
1971 using Nigeria’s 1963 Constitution as basic template.
CA! is convinced
that the one major requirement to bring out the prophesied beautiful new
Nigeria from the cocoon it is currently hedged in, is a fundamental review of
her structure and systems, which are codified in the constitution.
As light and salt
of the world, Christians have a central role in all these. A key problem with the Church in Nigeria
however is that the average child of God in the country hardly relates with the
central organization, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which ought
to be the major vehicle for mobilizing Christians for national development. The
Lord Jesus explicitly taught that Christians are to be “wise as serpents and
harmless as doves” (Mathew 10:16).
Several of the individual Church denominations in the country are indeed
doing a fantastic job raising dove-like disciples and instilling in them
spiritual virtues in preparation for heaven.
Without any doubts, this must remain the priority of the Church. However,
the earthly component of engaging in nation-building, which often includes
forming alliances with people of other faiths, requires the cunning of the
serpent, and should be handled by a central clearing house specially configured
for that purpose. That should be the CAN! To this effect, Christians need to be
taught to act “local” by participating actively in a denomination/local church;
while thinking “global” as they through the CAN embrace the concept of “if one
member suffers, all suffer with it” irrespective of denominations! (1 Cor.
12:26).
It is instructive
to note that there are several inter-denominational Christian groups that are close
to this structure already. Groups like
the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (with over 3,000
chapters in Nigeria), Gideons International, or the missionary organization
CAPRO, to mention but a few, have
membership straddling several denominations, and are largely successful in
mobilizing these into specific Christianity-inspired nation-building
efforts. One major way to restructure
the CAN could be to formally incorporate these para-church Christian groups
into CAN’s institutions and systems.
Alternatively, or
better still in addition to that, the CAN might wish to repackage her much
under-valued and under-utilized Organ, the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria
(CSMN) and purposively deploy her as the Christian platform for social
mobilization and nation-building. This would be similar to the situation in the
political terrain where the ANC (in South Africa) has its Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Afenifere in SW Nigeria its
OPC, and the Ohaneze Ndigbo the Massob/IPOB.
In conclusion, a
brand new Nigeria is possible. But it
will need to be preceded by a brand new structure of the Church to formally
interface with the country and lead the push for that new restructured Nigeria.
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