There is tension at the First Baptist Church Garki, Abuja over alleged refusal of the outgoing Senior Pastor, Rev Dr Israel Akanji, to follow due process in the emergence of his successor.
A group in the church alleged that Akanji, who was elected President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) last year, opposed its Constitution to initiate the process of electing deacons for the church.
They also said Akanji refused to leave office and allow the Pulpit Committee to take over the Church to spearhead the process of ‘recruiting’ his successor.
Ambassador Akin Oyateru told The Nation on behalf of the other concerned elders, that instead of handling upon his appointment as NBC President, Akanji requested for a three-month extension from the Church-In-Conference to prepare a handover note, pray for the church and elect deacons and execute a transfer of service.
“The Church-In-Conference acceded to the three months for him to prepare his handover notes but there was silence on the issues of transfer of service and election of deacons.
“There is a Church Constitution and bye-laws and by normal judicial practice, an organ of an organisation cannot preach its own constitution.
“That was what led eight of us to raise these observations and our objective to remind the church to ensure that those actions to be taken are in conformity with the Constitution of the church”.
The elders said on June 14, 2021, a member convened a meeting with the pastor and took decisions after they had written the Church Secretary.
Oyateru said one of the decisions at the meeting was for the Senior Pastor to publish the Constitution of the Church before leaving office but he never did:
“Secondly, it was not proper for the Senior Pastor to be a signatory to the church account. That it was improper for him to select deacons for the incoming Senior Pastor.
“Others are that it is not proper for him to hold two executive positions at the same time. He cannot transfer service to another pastor because the Constitution said when there is a vacancy, the Pulpit Committee takes over the running of the church and set up the Search Committee to get a new Pastor”.
The elders said surprisingly: “The process for the election of deacons was instituted, the search committee was formed by the Senior Pastor and he refused to publish the Church Constitution.
“Then after his 60th birthday, all we saw was that he anointed his successor by pouring anointing oil on his head. These are unusual and strange practices in the Baptist Church and he became Acting Senior Pastor which we felt was contrary to the Constitution”.
The elders said Akanji cannot be signatory to the Church’s account, transfer service to another pastor, appoint new deacons because the serving ones have not rotated out and the First Baptist Church cannot continue to pay him a salary.
When contacted, the Chairman Board of Trustees (BOT) of the church, Pastor Bamidele Solomon told The Nation: “There is a procedure for everything in the Baptist church and normally you, first of all, go through the Church Council and the final authority is the Church- In-Conference and that was where the decision was taken. I don’t know what it is again.
“No system is perfect but people will always have their own feelings. We are all humans but then everything will be resolved by the grace of God”.
Akanji told The Nation the issues raised were internal and should be handled internally.
He said the church adopts congregational polity whereby the members take decisions as a congregation and the decisions are implemented.
He said all the actions taken were based on the decisions of the congregation.
According to him: “This is the issue of the body of Christ and it is not good for such issues to begin to gain public attention in such a time we are in as a nation.
“Even if these people feel unhappy about anything, they should not make a public show of things that have to do with the church, they are internal matters that should be handled internally and they are no serious issues to be taken to the public.
“I have my response to every single matter that was raised. I have been going to the church for programmes and it is not as if anything has happened.
“Our denomination is strangely a congregational polity, decisions are made by members when they all gather. Everything we did in church was properly done by the approval of the congregation. It is just that some few individuals wanted something different and the congregation said no.
“Our church government is called congregationalism and everything we did was done by the congregational decision.”