Bishop Charles Ighele is General Superintendent of Holy Mission Church (The Happy Family Chapel) Lagos. He spoke with Shehu Olayinka about rise in teenage pregnancy, prosperity preachers and needs for religious regulation. Excerpts:
What’s the new life for teenage mothers’ centre all about?
There is a big problem in this country which has been growing as societal values deteriorate. We find out that a big social problem has cropped up.
The problem of teenagers getting pregnant in our society is happening in huge numbers and to our surprise we have also found out through our rural pastors and authenticated that teenage pregnancy is becoming a big problem in the remote villages.
So as a church, we decided to come up with a department that will address this societal problem. Looking at it from two angles; when teenagers get pregnant, their parent immediate action is annoyance and some even go as far as driving them away with some even disowning them.
So we thought about helping and the first step we decided is that pregnant teenagers have a place to run to and after that we try to reconcile them with their parents through our centre by engaging with the parents in a face- to- face discussion. We tell them that chasing them away is not the solution and but helping them.
Another initiative by our centre is also providing help to those who have already giving birth. We also take care of mother and baby. This morning, we gave cartoons of baby food to a mother, who has been giving sachet powder milk to her baby as she couldn’t get her breast milked for the baby.
What our centre is for is caring for the baby and the mother and we also don’t stop there, help the mother in providing means of livelihood for her and the baby.
What do you think is cause of decay in the society?
Societal value is in the direction of how society grows. We don’t have values and morals anymore. We don’t have a sense of what is morally right and wrong. We are copying a lifestyle of outsiders.
The problem the American government is trying to tackle is what we are copying. In America, I think nearly 70 percent of new children born to blacks are born into homes of single parents and that’s the mother while for white it is better.
American government is trying to see how to get this problem solved and it is this lifestyle many of our people are copying and we weren’t in such situation before. We are copying immorality, copying the worst from other part of the world and not copying the best.
China copies the best from America in terms of technology by exposing their youths to it and also makes sure their youths are not exposed to any immorality from America through the control of cyberspace and control of music, which is a powerful tool of immorality.
Even some Africans countries are also working on controlling their cyberspace. If you bring in a kind of music that the video is immoral, you will have a problem and these are what those countries are doing to stop it. Only few families are discipline or know how to pass discipline into the life of their children.
What can government do about it?
Every leader is meant to pass his/her values as a President down to the grassroots. I am not a fan of Chairman Mao Zheng of China but he came up and passed his ideologies to the people. Look at Singapore, even in Mauritius, all drinking bars are closed from Monday till Thursday but opened Friday till Sunday.
I am not saying such laws should be made here but this a country where everything goes. Even now we have places women go to have sex with male prostitute. Everything worst trend is coming to Nigeria and in that kind of situation, the atmosphere of a country can be determined by the government.
So when a President stand for morality, then things are institutionalised to make sure values are followed. What government can do is looking at the whole system and how can our way of life be changed?
How can the average Yoruba man, a native of Benin republic have behaviours different from the average Yoruba man who is a Nigerian? Also why is the Fulani man also in Benin republic different from the average Fulani man in Nigeria? Why is it so?It is because the environment determines the culture and the culture is determined by the leadership.
We need a leadership to put up good structures. Culture is born when people socialise into a way of behaviour. This culture we found ourselves today was not so before. So it is a culture that’s on increase and can also be removed within a period of years.
Culture can be changed and there is a process through which culture can be changed. It is not a one day process and making public announcement on TV like advert won’t change anything, but the whole system.
Who is to blame?
A society is made up member of the society. So, leaders and parents are all to blame. Everyone in the society has shares of blames in what’s happening. Look at the average Muslim from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan who’s based in America, they still try to ensure that they protect their families from bad western culture.
Look at the average Indian that has been there for twenty to thirty years, they protect their families from the bad influence of westernisation and work with the good ones. Now a typical Nigerian or African families finds it difficult, though I know those who have been able to protect their families.
If the society determines to be rotten, then a family should have his culture and have a system in which its put the right values in their children.
How do you think clerics can contribute to this?
That’s supposed to be our work but you see most families are not good. Many parents are not good, they are indiscipline. They have no values and they have no sense of what’s wrong and right. They give birth to children and make them cheat in school, bribing their way to the top.
The family is like a factory that’s producing products like milk or beverage. If the quality of the milk is contaminated or bad and is taken to the society, then the society is consuming a bad product. So many families are that way and it is this kind of products they are releasing to the society that’s makes it look like the way it is currently is.
So in this society, the same society gives to policemen who are corrupt, gives birth to imam, pastors and what do you expect when there are so many bad pastors?
The good few need to stand up and preach righteousness and value into the people. That this is the way it should be. That is how it should be and God values should be impacted into the society and that’s what our pastors here are directed to do.
Don’t you think the continuous preaching of prosperity by some pastors contribute to this?
Pastors are doing a lot of good in this country. Right from the missionaries but there are always some bad ones. Those you read in the newspapers are not pastors, in fact only few are pastors who fell along the way. Look, the free atmosphere is why we have all this happening.
Like I tell people you can’t just wake up and say you want to be a lawyer, chartered accountant or a soldier. But for pastors and imam is where you get someone wakes up and start calling him or her a man of God. Government should not control religion.
But I have been of the opinion that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the five blocs that make it up, should come up with a bill that will make those who want to be pastors go through a process that will be recognised by CAN.
Just like how the law and health profession is, it shouldn’t be a free- for- all affairs. This is what I think religious body should be able to do about it.
You mean government should pass a law on religion?
No, not like that. Let me give you an example; if a lawyer misbehaves, the NBA will deal with that lawyer, same with a medical practitioner. If he misbehaves, he will also be dealt with by the medical association.
There should be a law passed by the parliament – for Christian body to regulate itself, just as how doctors and accountants are doing. If you want to be a pastor, you must get a recommendation and training from a recognised cleric. You cannot just jump into pastorship because you can speak in tongues. No one can wake-up today and say he is a catholic pastor because there is a system that involves training and mentorship.
You can’t just come up and say you’re an Anglican pastor, you have to go through a process of training and mentorship. But you have someone come up and say I am an Aladura pastor, a Pentecostal pastor and you see them collecting taxes on buses. That’s nonsense and a sane society shouldn’t allow such things. So what I am saying is that we should be able to regulate ourselves with a law passed by parliament.
