As the year winds down in a couple of weeks, church founders and men of faith have impressed on other leaders in the Lord’s Vineyard and other stakeholders in the media the need to place more emphasis on sound moral teachings that will promote sustainable peace and development in the nation, reports ADEOLA OGUNLADE.
Elections are very important to Nigerians today. Nigerians are being more active and involved in the process of choosing leaders to that point of leadership because of the state of the economy and security,” Senior Pastor, of the Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA), Yomi Kasali said during the end-of-year forum of the Association of Christian Correspondents of Nigeria (ACCoN), held recently at the Vineyard Christian Ministry, Lagos.
Speaking on the theme tagged: ‘Sustaining Peace and Unity in Nigeria in the Post-Election Era: Role of the Church and the Media,’ Kasali said that in the last 24 years, Nigeria has witnessed successive transitions of government from one administration to another, noting that not much can be said about the electoral process both at the state and federal levels.
According to him, the parlous state of the economy and the issue of insecurity have been the two major factors that stimulate the interest of Nigerians in arriving at their electoral choices.
Both the church and the media have roles to play in the pre and post-election processes.
Kasali calls for more patriots, not politicians
While commenting on how to get Nigeria working again after the strained socio-political atmosphere on the back of the 2023 general elections, Kasali said that Nigeria needs patriots and not politicians. According to him, patriots build a nation not politicians.
“Nigeria in post-election needs moral leaders. This country needs two things for our nation to get better – first Nigeria needs moral leaders; second, Nigeria needs patriots,” Kasali stressed.
“Nigeria will not get better by looking to politicians for solutions to national issues; rather she must look for patriots who are detribalised, with some sense of moral uprightness. “Politicians know we have been bought over – what I am simply saying is that we are all involved. We lack moral leaders in Nigeria,” he said.
He is of the view that people can effect change, especially for the cause of the people without holding political offices. “Christian journalists must become moral leaders. When we have patriots in politics, it’s better. But, when we have politicians forming patriots, it’s terrible. Because politicians build parties for themselves; patriots build nations – that is why it’s easier for patriots to work with the winning side even when they lose,” Kasali said.
Church as a change agent
Kasali disclosed that about 12 years ago while he was working on a project tagged, ‘Church for change’, he discovered that Nigeria had less than 1, 800 active politicians in electoral (political) offices both at the state and federal levels.
The idea of the project, he recalled, was to leverage the church as a moral agent to drive change in the polity. “1, 800 people should not hold 200 million Nigerians to ransom,” he lamented. Less than 2000 people should not carry the responsibilities and the future of the entire nation on their shoulders, he reiterated.
He disclosed that the plan behind the project then was to meet with about 1000 politicians holding political offices as ‘Church for Change’ and as Christians to speak directly as moral institutions, leveraging moral and persuasive force for social transformation.
The church for Change project was birthed by the need to create a progressive change agenda that people can see and measure tangibly.
“Some of us run churches with 8000 members – if you look at 2000 people, we should be able to communicate, speak to these 2000 people. Those that you and I put into offices vote through the ballot boxes to run the affairs of the state and federal government,” Kasali noted.
The church, he emphasised, is a moral institution that must speak truth to power and must be non-partisan. Noting that the church is not a business enterprise hence the need to maintain its non-partisanship by avoiding using the pulpit for partisan politics.
The Ark of Nigeria will rest on solid rock – Archbishop Ojo
The Presiding Archbishop of Calvary Kingdom Church (CKC), Joseph Ojo, took his lessons from Genesis, stating that “The ark rested on the seventh month; on the seventh day of the seventh month upon Mount Ararat.”
According to him, the President Bola Tinubu-administration will be celebrating seven months in office by December 29 he therefore prayed that the ark of Nigeria would begin to rest on the solid rock. According to him, the foundation of the current administration will be solid enough to withstand all the political floods ahead of it, and it will not get carried away by the floods.
Ojo, who was represented by Best Ojo, the National Overseer of CKC, said that God is raising men in journalism, in the church that will always come with the olive leaf. “The dove signifies the Holy Spirit, and the olive leaf signifies the truth. The truth is that our waters will abate in this country,” he said.
The church has a critical role to play in Nigeria’s socio-political and socio-economic narrative. He said that the church must appear to be blameless in all circumstances and that church leaders and journalists will be blameless in carrying out their day-to-day activities.
Rhoda Jatau: It’s wrong to beg govt – Bishop Robertson Akwazi, former PFN chairman, Bauchi
According to him, the question left for the Nigerian state to answer is about what happened to the perpetrators of the Sokoto killing; and if the question is left unanswered, it means there is a problem in Nigeria.
He said further that Rhoda Jatau was not meant to have been jailed, and that whoever jailed her should have been the first person CAN should have gone after to ensure that justice is served. “And, if that is not done it means we are just hypocrites.”
According to him, Jatau was bold enough to speak up when Christian leaders in the country were afraid to speak.
“Are you saying that as Christians in Nigeria, we can no longer cry out for injustice?”
Was she wrong to have asked why a young girl would be murdered for a crime she never did?
We must have the mind of Christ as a church-Adetoyese-Olagunju
The Senior Pastor of Praise Arena-Kingdom Light Christian Centre, Dr. Jummy Adetoyese-Olagunju, charged the church to have the mind of Christ in any situation and circumstances and should live above the standard of the world.
He noted that as the light of the world, we are to make a difference in society. Be the light to the world.
He said “As stated in Matt 5:14-16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Adetoyese-Olagunju cited Myke Murdock saying it takes knowing Jesus for you to be saved but it takes knowing the principles of Jesus for you to succeed in life.
“Therefore we as followers of Christ should be guided and controlled by the principles of Jesus we are following; His ways should become our way and his instructions become our foundation”, he said.
He advised the church that the church should rediscover and focus on its purpose concerning the Kingdom assignment, adding that the Church should champion the move to institutionalise the right values in the educational system without sounding religious.
He charged the Christian media practitioners to rediscover and focus on their purpose as Light to the World.
