CAN’s ‘political interference causing disunity’

The Concerned Christians Forum of Nigeria (CCFN) has accused the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) of dabbling into politics, saying this is causing disunity in the “body of Christ” and the country at large.

CCFN, which gave the warning, said CAN’s constant comments and statements on political issues do not conform with the vision of its founding fathers.

James Amedu, national coordinator of the group, spoke at a press conference on Monday.

He said divisiveness in the country must not emanate from church or its leadership.

The group said it was particularly worried over a recent statement credited to the leadership of CAN where it insisted on a Christian senate president or speaker for the national assembly .

Amedu said it appears that CAN, under its immediate past and current leadership, is committed to fully evolving into a political party or at the very “least the Christian wing of the PDP”.

His words below:

The Kingdom of God is threatened and the threat comes from within. Gentlemen of the press, hopefully you are not as scandalized by the demand by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) asking that the position of the Senate President and Speaker should be ceded to a Christian.

This demand, as reported, was made in a statement signed by one Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, who is the Special Assistant , Media and Communications to the President of CAN, Reverend (Dr.) Samson Ayokunle.

The street logic offered by that statement was that the President and the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) are Muslims hence a Senate President and Speaker of the Christian faith will “give all Nigerians a sense of belonging.”

Note that this ludicrous demand came just days after CAN initially confounded even its own ranks by giving reason for not visiting the Presidential Villa to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his victory at the recently held Presidential Election.

It turned out that this story was flown as a strategy for scoring an invite to the Villa since the association’s leadership was aware that such invitation will not be willingly extended to it after identifying as the “Christian Chapter of the Opposition” in clear violation of the neutrality expected of an organization whose membership straddles the political divide.

Our thinking is that the founding principles of CAN did not envisage the body becoming enmeshed in politics to a point where its leadership become political lobbyists that have joined the campaign for sharing the loots of election victory especially now that CAN leadership is now hiding under a new found nationalism to influence a party it vehemently opposed during the elections. It had shown such error of judgement when it revealed that rather than seek the face of the Almighty and take direction from the spirit it would rather watch the trend of the election petition tribunal blow before deciding to visit a president-elect and bestow prayers upon him.

This their latest call for making a Christian the President of the Senate follows the same pattern. They have merely surfaced from a shame induced retreat to make demands that tallies with the wishes of one political party, in this case the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

If the CAN leaders were this good with dispensing counsel on how to give Nigerians a sense of belonging we are left wondering why they never used the privileges God has given us as clergymen and carriers of the Good News to prevail on successive PDP governments to treat citizens right in accordance with God’s Word and expectations of leaders. Instead, these gods of men commercialized Christendom and willingly sold absolution for fees.

Rather than tasking those that will emerge through democratically recognized processes on the need to fight corruption and provide a safer country for the vulnerable poor, the CAN leadership is interested in promoting sectarian strife by highlighting differences that Nigerians are willing to forgo in exchange for good leadership. It would have made sense had the CAN supremo organized a retreat for the Christians among the lawmakers-elect to impress on them the need to conduct themselves with the fear of God for the duration of their tenure in parliament. That would have signpost an association that is committed to producing a desirable Nigeria. The lawmakers that would have attended such event would automatically become beholding to the people and be seen as eminently qualify to lead in the National Assembly.

But in what has become a growing tradition of disdain for the views of the masses, CAN has arrogated to itself the role of kingmaker while expressing the belief that other factors and stakeholders do not matter. The emptiness of this arrogance is glaring and the demand that a Christian must be the Senate President uncalled for and highly demonic.

David Mark, Patricia Etteh, Adolphus Wabara and others are all Christians that have occupied the position and Nigerians know how well their religious belief helped advanced the cause of the masses especially considering how they serviced their personal interest at the expense of citizens. Rather than advance the fortunes of Christendom they did damage by projecting the faith as one that produces rent seeking politicians.

Gentlemen of the press, when CAN said it was “waiting for the controversy surrounding the presidential election be resolved in court first before going to do so (congratulating President Buhari)” and later visited the same Villa, we knew that this kind of shenanigan about Senate presidency will ensue. We knew that it was a precursor to a greater manifestation of base selfishness on the part of people that should be feeding the Lord’s flock but have instead resorted to eating the sheep. For us it marks a new low that a religious association that should be the embodiment of Christ is now engaged in. CAN has now been reduced to flying political kites at a time when it should intensify its role as a conscience for the country.

It is equally appalling that men whose primary calling should have persistently align with God’s Commandment could resort to lying in the course of trying to escape the nightmare situation they created for them in the course of assuaging their greed. They go against the very sermons they have preached to their congregations and violate the charge to Christian faithful in Leviticus 19:11 (“‘Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.) For them the words of Proverbs 14:5 “A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies” have no meaning whatsoever because the words that emanate from CAN in recent years call for concerns for anyone desirous of doing God’s will.

We at this point demand that the CAN leadership should have been sincere enough to admit that it has fundamentally strayed from its calling. It has now become an association that is milking visits to the Presidential Villa for political leverage after such visits are no longer lucrative the way it used to be during the period that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was in office.

True Christians and indeed Nigerians have not forgotten so soon about the N7 billion bribe to CAN leadership under a certain administration. We have not forgotten when the pinnacle of the otherwise religious group became an errand boy for a government that sent him on gunrunning and money laundry rounds. Now that these kinds of sleazy deals are no longer flowing the Presidential Villa CAN’s attention has swerved to the National Assembly, perhaps in anticipation that it can facilitate the installation of a pliant leadership that will allow it share in the loot.

Secondly, a compromised CAN that has been politicized to a point where it stopped short of endorsing the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, which practically campaigned for him in some instances, has now turned to attempting to influence how an APC, All Progressives Congress, dominated parliament choses its presiding officers. The association has to face the reality that it would either be seen as a mole in the APC government or it would be seen as engaging in anti-party activities owing to its branding of itself as an affiliate of the PDP. Hopefully, the PDP will not demand that it makes refunds of the money and generous donations that exchanged hands during the election. Knowing that they have since exhausted such funds to finance opulent and lavish lifestyles, this is would put the association’s members in a difficult situation.

Irrespective of the commercial interest being pursued by CAN, the Concerned Christians Forum of Nigeria (CCFN) will like to make certain things clear same way it did before the elections when it warned against CAN’s unacceptable mission of forcefully dragging Christianity into partisan politics. We took this stance because of the potentials that mixing religion with politics on the scale being attempted by CAN has for being divisive. Sadly, it appears that CAN, under its immediate past and current leadership, is committed to fully evolving into a political party or at the very least the Christian wing of the PDP.
The divisiveness that comes with merging religious with politics is what we are against and it is disingenuous to further compound the situation by hiding behind the idea of a desire to “give all Nigerians a sense of belonging”. the law courts. The association erred by cunningly elevating itself into an endorsing authority that must sign off on who becomes President of the Senate without which they will not be considered as acceptable to Nigerians. The danger of this unspoken proposition is precisely what we are experiencing, a situation where CAN will attempt to invalidate the will of the people by declaring the loser as the winner and vice-versa.

We are using this opportunity to call on CAN and its leadership that it is not too late to do the right thing. If they are interested in being partisan, they are welcome to declare their intent so that Christian faithful under their guidance can take heed and discern when they are being campaigned to as opposed to hearing sermons. These clergymen are also free to congregate and register a political party or in the alternative decamp to the PDP from CAN so that Nigerians will know where they stand.

Another option, the better option, however is for them to re-examine what is written in Proverbs 28:13, which says “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” They should return whatever money PDP has given them to destabilize the polity, openly confess to Nigerians and reveal how they have been compromised, they should seek the forgiveness from their flock that they have lied to and also seek forgiveness from God. Only then will they find compassion from the followers, Nigerians and from God, whose name they blasphemed to make money.