The Pentecostal segment of Nigerian Christendom are striking a rather triumphant tune towards partisan politics.
Like onward Christian soldiers marching unto to war, they have rolled the drums, jaunted, danced and strummed to their latest diktat: brethren, people of the body of Christ, set up your own holy political directorate — halleluyah!
It started with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). Then, the political hooray was echoed, pronto, by the general body of the sect, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is yet to avail Nigerians of its own thinking. If it concurs with its PFN siblings, then Nigeria’s orthodox Christendom: the Catholics, the Anglican, the Baptist, the Methodist, etc, aside from the first set of native Nigerian Pentecostals, the C & S Aladura and allied sects, not forgetting Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) and the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), would be joining the political fray — whoopee!
Well, it’s all so constitutional; as nothing precludes any religious bloc from looking out for its own and galvanizing its members to deliver for them, should they be interested in elective offices.
But just imagine for a while if it was NASFAT, the Islamic praying band, that had let fly this diktat: Jama’ah, go set up your own political directorate!
Christian lobbies would, by now, be foaming in the mouth, bawling “Islamization!” The Solomon Asemota-chaired National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) would probably be screaming and screeching about the umpteenth proof of dark plots to replace Nigeria’s democracy with the Sharia. Only on February 11, the NCEF warned of that alleged plot.
The Christian-leaning segment of the media, ever ready to rally for any illusion or delusion that catches its fancy on the religious front, would have been screaming with Armageddon-warning headlines, aside from romanticizing the latest of Bishop Matthew Kukah’s latest interface with the US Congress, to save Nigerian Christians as endangered species!
Yet, the Muslim lobby has, so far, been rather cool toward this latest Pentecostal foray. Is that proof of better inter-faith tolerance from that camp? Whatever it is, that would appear the right temper.
Still, Pentecostal plunge into politics is not new. In 2015, many priests turned their pulpits into hate rallies to push the failed re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan. But it appears little lesson has been learned from that fiasco.
Still, to be clear: Christians, as Muslims, have the right as Nigerians to aspire to any elective office. But they should push that right with due sensitivity.
Neither Muslims nor Christians per se. What Nigerians need is who best can get the job done — including the largely silenced people who adhere to traditional faiths. So, beware of creating new problems in the course of fixing current ones.