TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE ORGANIZED BY CHRISTIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (CSMN) AND ADDRESSED BY NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ELDERS FORUM ((NCEF) ON FRIDAY 23^RD NOVEMBER, 2018 AT GOSHEN LAND, IKEJA, LAGOS AT 12.00 NOON

POLITICS AND THE NIGERIAN CHURCH:

THE NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ELDERS FORUM’S VIEWPOINT

Politics affects the lives of all of us; it cannot become an Exclusive Preserve of a handful of Politicians.

Neutrality of the Church at “TIMES LIKE THIS” is tantamount to “Leaving the flock alone without the guidance of a Shepherd” (Mk. 6: 34)

Distinguished gentlemen of the Press,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We recently conducted a fact-finding mission to Nigeria. One of the objectives was to investigate the June massacre in Plateau that claimed more than 230 lives inter alia.

However due to the violence that erupted in Jos while we were en route and continued for a week after, we had to cut short the duration of the mission and modify the scope.

The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) is a Group of Christian Elders from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Average age in the Forum is 70 years and the members have served Nigeria in various high ranking capacities before and after Independence. The Christian Elders have only one passion and that is to preserve Christianity and leave behind a better Nigeria for coming generations.

REV DR. D. C. DATIRI

President, Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN)

What has been the impact of the Islamic insurgency on COCIN?

The impact is unquantifiable. The destruction is unbelievable. In Borno state for instance, COCIN has lost an entire RCC. An RCC is a Regional Church Council that has a number of zones and its Local Council has lots of congregations under it. So, if you are thinking of congregations, we used to have scores of congregations that have been completely displaced and many of the members have been killed.

In terms of infrastructure, Christian properties worth billions of Naira have been destroyed.

In Borno state, we had three Regional Church Councils. The RCC in Gwoza was completely destroyed. The other two are still operating minimally because of the number of congregations that they have in Maiduguri. Unfortunately, the other congregations outside Maiduguri metropolis have been destroyed by Boko Haram.

In Bauchi state, the Tafawa Balewa Area has been under constant attacks. Even after the elections, the congregations there were attacked also. It is only the grace of God that is sustaining the brethren there.

Coming to Plateau state, communities outside Jos are being attacked almost on a daily basis. I cannot tell you how many Regional Church Councils have been decimated in these attacks. All these are communities not far from Jos. The Muslims kill Christians and destroy their properties. The media report is usually that these communities have been attacked by unknown gunmen or by Fulani herdsmen. The underlying motive is to destroy the church.

Even in Nasarawa State, we have lost no less than five congregations. When you ask who is responsible for the destruction, security officers will claim they are unknown gunmen or Fulani herdsmen. Yet, is most instances, they come dressed in military uniform. Where did the Muslim insurgents obtain the military uniform that they wear when going to destroy churches?

In Yobe, we have lost scores of churches and many of the members of our congregations have been killed.

Last week, one of our pastors was killed in Barkin Kogi. Another pastor was killed  in Wase, in Plateau state while we just heard this week that one of our pastors in Gwoza had been killed by the Muslims.

 The target of all these Islamic attacks is the church. The goal is to destroy the church so that Islam can take over.

What are the implications of these attacks on the Nigerian Church in general?

You see, COCIN is the predominant denomination here on the Plateau as well as in some parts of Bauchi state. COCIN forms probably 70% to 80% of Christians on the Plateau. So, if they succeed in destroying COCIN, they would have succeeded in eradicating a sizeable portion of the church on the Plateau. Since their goal is to wipe out Christianity in Plateau state, in their bid to overrun Nigeria with Islam, eliminating COCIN on the Plateau is tantamount to overrunning Nigeria with Islam. Plateau state is a big hurdle for the Islamists in their quest and overcoming COCIN on the Plateau is a sure sign that they have conquered Christianity in Nigeria.

So, they concentrate their forces on eradicating Christianity on the Plateau. It is only by the grace of God that we are surviving. We keep asking God for strength, wisdom, and courage. But, I must tell you, it is heartbreaking. At times I receive phone calls in the middle of the night from our members asking for help and in the background, I hear the sound of gunshots. It is tragic.

What do you suggest should be the remedy? What should the Church do?

The remedy is for the church to be united. The Nigerian church must speak with one voice and let the world know that Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen are orchestrated attacks on the church. All the Christians in Nigeria must see these attacks as intentionally designed destruction against the body of Christ in Nigeria. The unity of the church will go a long way in solving the problem.

In the midst of these attacks, compromise is still noticed amongst ministers of the gospel, even in the affected areas. What is the cause of this?

This is a serious problem in the church. As the devil is working through Boko Haram and the other insurgents from outside to destroy the church, we also notice that unsanctified ministers of the gospel also weaken the church from within.

Our approach has been to emphasize consecration and holiness for our pastors.

We have identified the problem that you mentioned and we are working very hard to make sure that in COCIN, such compromise amongst the ministers of the gospel is eliminated. Of course, you will understand that in this matter, I can only speak for COCIN.

What message would you like to convey to other Christians, particularly in the South?

I have mentioned unity of the church. The Nigerian church must unite to confront this evil agenda to eradicate Christianity in the country. Added to this is the need for intensive prayers and intercession, particularly for the Christians in the North.

One important area in which we appeal for the support of Christians nationwide is meeting the needs of the victims of these attacks. In most instances, those who survive are often impoverished. Every means of livelihood is intentionally destroyed by these rampaging forces. Their homes are burnt to the ground, their properties are burnt, their food is destroyed and even their farmland is destroyed. The Fulani herdsmen intentionally go to the farms and destroy the food crops. The aim is to impoverish the people, destroy their economy so that they can dominate and control them.

There is a great need for material and financial support for the brethren undergoing these persecutions. They need clothes, foods, medical treatment and so on.

Is there a political reason for this?

This is one area where many Nigerian Christians are deceived, thinking that Islam separates politics from religion. For the Muslim, there is no separation between politics, religion, commerce, and whatever other area you might mention. So, when a Muslim attacks the church, he has no political or economic barrier.

The underlying factor is that the Muslims in northern Nigeria believe that they are born to rule and dominate every other person in Nigeria. To them, everything is the same — religion, politics, commerce, and so on. So, if you do not practise the religion that they believe in, then you imply that you are not under their control and they will fight that.

The only thing that will save the church is for us to be united. If the Nigerian church can unite, they will stop these Islamic attacks.

Finally, sir, do you have a word for the Nigerian Christians?

I think that the biggest problem Nigerian Christians have is that for many of us, we lack genuine Christian conviction. For many Nigerian Christians, their faith is superficial, it is only on the surface. We need to develop deep faith and the way we can easily do that is to pay attention to Biblical discipleship.

If we cultivate genuine Christian conviction, our problems will melt away.

BY THE SUN NEWSPAPER ON MAY 2, 2015

Frontline nationalist, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai is not exactly comfortable with the dynamics of the just con­cluded general elections. The elder statesman, in his characteristic bluntness, laments on the role of religion and ethnicity in the defeat of President Goodluck Jona­than. He is deeply worried that the fallout of the 2015 presidential election might result in negative consequences for the unity of Nige­ria. In this interview with DESMOND MG­BOH in Kano, he also spoke on the expecta­tions of Nigerians from the in-coming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari and the place of President Jonathan in the nation’s history books. Excerpts:

In less than a month from now, Nigerians will usher in a new government. As an elder states­man, what is your advice to the incoming admin­istration?

As everybody knows, the main agenda of the new admin­istration is to fight corruption, to deal with the security sit­uation, particularly the Boko Haram insurgency, rescue the Chibok girls and deal with unemployment. These are the priority areas in terms of their policy objectives. It is, there­fore, the expectation of every Nigerian that these three issues would be the main areas of their attention. I think that after taking over power, these areas would be the yardstick by which the people would pass judgment on them. I think that after the first six months or thereabouts, Nigerians would be in a position to judge whether the new administration would be in a position to fulfill the promises they made to the public or not.

In the face of the dwindling global economy and the fall in Nigeria’s oil revenue, do you see the new administra­tion realising the promises it made during electioneering?

Well, I can see the problems posed by the fall in the national wealth. But I think somebody raised this same ques­tion to one of the leading figures of the APC and the answer he got was that the money they are going to save from fighting corruption in the system would be enough for them to kickstart their programmes. He said that they would reduce spending; they would reduce waste; that this waste would be divert­ed to the implementation of their pro­grammes.

But considering that some of the people associated with the incoming government are them­selves accused of corruption or have corruption charges hanging on them, how much faith should we commit in their pledges to fight and stand against corrup­tion?

Certainly, I can tell you that there are many people who are skeptical about the ability of the new government to tackle the problems of corruption in this country, precisely because of the num­ber of individuals that are instrumental in the bringing about of the new admin­istration into place who themselves are super rich without any justification. The worry of Nigerians is that, how is the administration going to handle the cases of such personalities?

Again, the electoral promises of the new party apparently sound­ed so lofty. It appears to disre­gard the current recession that is sweeping across the globe. Do you share the same fears?

Everybody familiar with the global political economy would have the feel­ing that the global economic situation today is not ideal for any government to embark on costly projects. But I be­lieve that they must have done their homework before coming out with their promises. I believe that they must have done their homework.

Despite the efforts of President Jonathan to seek the friendship of the core North by extending a reasonable size of projects to them, he was hated, hunted and turned down by these same peo­ple during the presidential elec­tion. What exactly happened?

Well, the people (core North) have been incited against Jonathan a long time ago. Even the educated ones were not fair in relating to his achievements in the region. They had made up their minds that Jonathan is anti-North. And whatever he has done, he remained an­ti-North. The fact that he sited nine of 12 new universities in the North in order to assist in bridging the educational gap that exists between the North and the rest of the country did not matter. The fact that he introduced the Almajiri schools which would reduce the number of young peo­ple who go about doing nothing but beg­ging also never counted to them.

In fact, somebody this morning, as we were discussing Jonathan, insisted that Jonathan was only busy sacking North­erners from federal establishments. But when I looked at the number of ministers and northerners in key positions, I real­ised that this very influential individual, who should know better, had made up his mind not to be objective about the issue. He was not prepared to listen to anybody. So, some people had made up their minds. The fact remains that there was this high level conspiracy against Jonathan, such that whatever he does, it would have been very difficult to con­vince people to abandon their already concluded opinion about him.

For instance, I was made to understand that a number of the members of the tra­ditional institution and influential clerics and university people, they all ganged up to spread one form of propaganda or the other against him (Jonathan). And this propaganda has already gone down deep into the minds of the people. The Friday before the presidential election, virtually all the imams in the North made a simple appeal to their congregations that when they go out the following day to cast their votes, they should make sure that they did not cast their votes in favor of an infidel. Just in one or two words, the campaign was finished. So, the follow­ing day everybody was charged to go and vote against an infidel. Who was that in­fidel? Jonathan. Even the Friday after the election, I attended a mosque where the imam was offering thanksgiving prayers to God for getting rid of an infidel.

Still, on this topic, what about the PDP members who also failed to rise up to defend their own and their party?

That is not my problem today. My prob­lem is that we in the far North have acted out the script of Gideon Orkar. We have opted out of the mainstream of Nigerian politics and I am waiting for the time to come when we would realise the conse­quences of our action.

When you say that you people have acted out the script of Gideon Orkar, what exactly do you mean?

Let me put it this way. This country is a country which is equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Where a Muslim would not vote for somebody because he is a Christian, then there is a problem. It may not appear immediately but there is a long time predicament that would one day appear because when someday it is the turn of a Christian to vote for a Mus­lim, surely this thing happening today would boomerang.

So, you foresee a future where the country would naturally be torn between Christians and Mus­lims…?

(cuts in) This is my fear. It is not only a divide between Christians and Muslims, but also a divide between the North and the South, and that would not augur well for the political future of this country.

There is this funny outcome that has played out so far. Some PDP leaders who declined to cam­paign for Jonathan have been losing their states or losing their strongholds like what we have seen in Kano, Jigawa and a num­ber of the North West States. What is your take?

Well, the bandwagon effect was so monumental that little campaign here and there would not make much differ­ence. The campaign against Jonathan has gone far before most people understood that it was beyond the capacity of a few individuals to change the direction of the mind of the people. I hope you under­stand.

But some of the members of his political group played games with him?

Yes, there is this feeling that quite a number of PDP members and leaders here did not work hard enough for Jona­than. But what they did not understand is that in politics, if you ask your supporters to vote for your opponent for whatever reason; when they go to vote for your opponent, if you are not careful, they are gone forever. And this is what happened to all of them.

Looking at the future, do you think the PDP would survive this defeat and return to a position of reckoning in the country again?

Well, you are in Nigeria, when the lo­cal government elections took place in 1999. At that time, APP and PDP were neck to neck. And the moment, the mil­itary government decided to back the PDP to win the local government elec­tions, people from APP started to troop out of the party into the PDP. And this is what happened. At the end, when the state elections took place, APP was only able to get nine governors in addition to the six governors of the AD. This is about the same scenario that is repeating itself. So, it depends on those who are going to run the affairs of the PDP from now till 2019. What would be their strategy? The tendency in Nigeria is that if you are in government and people are not getting what they wanted from you, then tomor­row they would start conspiring against you. Let us wait and see how the new administration would be able to meet the aspirations of the generality of Nigerians. That would dictate the survival or resur­gence of the PDP in the future.

It is speculated that Chief Oluse­gun Obasanjo is already lobbying to nominate some ministers into the Buhari administration. Is Bu­hari politically safe working with people like Obasanjo?

If people report that Obasanjo is having his eyes on some particular ministries, I will not be surprised. Because this is ex­actly why he quarreled with the late Yar Adua. It is also the reason he quarreled with President Jonathan. By his own mantra, he would like to dictate to who­ever emerges as the president through his own facilitation. And he would like to see that whatever he wanted is what is done. The moment you fail to do what he wants, then he would start a fight with you. I would like to believe the specula­tion that Obasanjo has already earmarked some ministerial positions that he would want to be reserved for his nominees. If that is true and his candidates were not picked; then that would surely be the be­ginning of his quarrel with General Bu­hari.

What is the place of President Jonathan in history? Where do you think he would find himself at the end of all this?

From the point of view of his service to the nation, I think that one remarkable thing is that even though he was defeat­ed by the smallest margin in the history of presidential elections in Nigeria, he accepted the defeat and he did not go to court. In other cases of presidential election results, the margin was in the re­gion of 10 million and yet people went to court to challenge the outcome. In this case, the margin was just 2.5 million and he accepted defeat. He will go down in history as the president, who accepted defeat as a result of which so many lives were saved in this country, and in fact, a president who saved the nation. Because, if he had not accepted defeat at the time he did, and people had started killing one another, by now we will not be having this interview in my house, today.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=117430

FP: Vijay Kumar, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

You are one of the rare individuals running for office in America who is actually making the issue of Islamic Jihad a significant part of your campaign. Tell us your view of Islamic Jihad and the background you have to make you see it the way you do.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The multi-dimensional, yet integral foundation of language of Conflict and Resolution are biological, social, cultural, psychological, philosophical; in the bid to meet our Basic Human Needs, plus the efforts to influence either for good or evil and goodwill and selfishness. It is evident and worrisome that we as a nation are confronted with wide range of conflicts and resolution challenges. We may not be fighting a physical enemy, but there is certainly a war on. This keynote would therefore revolve around our reason for gathering this morning, which is to flag off the LAN Conference on Language, Literature, Governance and Conflict Resolution. Conflict is an unavoidably integral part of communal existence. Its unfolding is certain but its resolution could be amicable. Conflicts generally unfold, but may I state that majorly, basic use of choice of language and choice of words, to a very large extent could actually douse the embers of its fire.

Concerned Citizen

Below are forty-one promises contained in the APC Manifesto as published by the party prior to the Presidential election.

The promises below are extracted from the two official documents released by APC as their Manifesto titled ‘Securing Nigeria’s Future’ and ‘Roadmap to a New Nigeria’, all published by the APC and signed by the then Presidential aspirant, now President Muhammadu Buhari. Please note that some of the promises that do not require funds to be implemented are even yet to even be initiated.

The following prayer is to be done in understanding and in the Spirit for at about thirty minutes or for as long as the Lord keeps the burden of prayer in your heart.

We are to pray that every single jihadist sent into various parts of Nigeria to lie in wait for a war against the Church will be arrested in their whole numbers for judgement by fire and for conversion to faith in Christ for those who repent in Jesus Name.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The multi-dimensional, yet integral foundation of language of Conflict and Resolution are biological, social, cultural, psychological, philosophical; in the bid to meet our Basic Human Needs, plus the efforts to influence either for good or evil and goodwill and selfishness. It is evident and worrisome that we as a nation are confronted with wide range of conflicts and resolution challenges. We may not be fighting a physical enemy, but there is certainly a war on. This keynote would therefore revolve around our reason for gathering this morning, which is to flag off the LAN Conference on Language, Literature, Governance and Conflict Resolution. Conflict is an unavoidably integral part of communal existence. Its unfolding is certain but its resolution could be amicable. Conflicts generally unfold, but may I state that majorly, basic use of choice of language and choice of words, to a very large extent could actually douse the embers of its fire.

The word “Nigeria” was first defined in 1902 and, in 1905 Lady Lugard first used the word “Middle-Belt” to describe the autonomous groups existing in the defunct Northern Nigeria as “A formidable pagan strength along the course of the two rivers (Niger and Benue) … the pagan Middle-Belt stretching from 8 degrees north latitudes to the coast, was practically unknown to the early Hausa race.” Besides, there were other different ethnic nationalities that inhabited the area, which is today called Nigeria. We make bold to say that there was, therefore, no Nigeria before 1900. 

Speech by Chief Obafemi Awolowo made to the Western leaders of thought, in Ibadan, 1 May 1967. (quoted in "Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria (Volume 1), January 1966-July 1971" by A. H. M. Kirk-Greene. )

The aim of a leader should be the welfare of the people whom he leads. I have used 'welfare' to denote the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the people. With this aim fixed unflinchingly and unchangeably before my eyes, I consider it my duty to Yoruba people in particular and to Nigerians in general, to place four imperatives before you this morning.