If a nation is bad and evil don't check the political leaders, check the Church leaders; they are responsible.
If a nation is bad and evil don't check the political leaders, check the Church leaders; they are responsible. If a nation is corrupt don't ask other leaders of other religions, ask the leaders of the Church. If the economy of the nation nose dives, don't charge the leaders of that nation or the finance minister for incompetence, ask the Church what they have been doing with their prayers and their holiness. If the schools are doing badly in morals and education, please don't think it is the government that is responsible, blame the Church. If the people continue to elect evil leaders don't blame the people blame the Church, if criminality engulfs a nation, it is the Church that is responsible. If you see a whole nation given over to corruption, don't look too far, it starts from the Church before it spreads to the society.
What am I saying? Nigerians have been looking the wrong place to solve their problems. They have blamed politicians, they are currently blaming Bola Tinubu for all the woes that are threatening to destroy Nigeria. They equally blamed Muhammadu Buhari before Tinubu, and they will continue to blame him if he lives to see his successor. But that will never solve the problem. When one of the Church leaders in Nigeria, Tunde Bakare announced at a time that Nigeria must arrest and put all Church leaders in jail, many derided him as only being too rascally. If those who blamed him know the crucial role of the Church in nations, they would never blame this man of God who has taken some time off recently from his usually radical prescriptions to celebrate his 70th birthday and his wife's 64th birthday and thereafter their 40th wedding anniversary. If a man has lived up to seventy years in a nation where the average life span is about fifty, if he has lived with his wife for forty years especially in a nation where Christian divorce top the list of divorce cases in courts, the celebration is really worth it. But what other Christians are asking is, why the throwing of caution to the wind and why the wild parties which the bible calls revelry especially in a nation where many don't know where the next meal will come from.
For people of other faiths who might be wondering whether I have not given exaggerated position to the Church, please let me explain from the Christian perspective. God that Christians serve did not author what we call today Christianity. If you ask him if he did, he would tell you he has nothing like that on his computer. It was a label given to us by outsiders who watch the behavior of our progenitors which was exactly as radical as our founder, Jesus Christ. Anyway, the title struck but the behavior and the character and the power are gone. What our God is looking for when he sent Jesus Christ to come the earth is to have a people who can be priests to him. Only these priests can represent people of nations to him. Only them can pray to him that he will receive and answer. Other people who pray are just in a futile exercise. You may doubt me but that is what the bible teaches. Only ones in Christ can lift holy hands to God because they have been saved and brought to God by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have also been following Jesus and continually becoming like the Savior in character and love. When he or she stands before God to pray, heavens stand at attention to hear and do whatever he says according to the will of God. He stands not for him or herself but for his society. He lifts up his or her holy hands to bring the kingdom of God down to his community. And things that God wants, the peace of God, the goodies of God comes down to that community. But when he or she becomes dirtier that even those others in the society that do not believe in Jesus Christ he or she becomes the problem of the society; heavens become locked up to the society. Nothing happens but only evil and more evil, the leaders ruling according to the evil dictates of their hearts.
The Church in Kenya recently demonstrated this keen awareness of its role in the nation when the Catholic Church of Kenya refused to take a gift of 40,000 US dollars from the President of Kenya, William Ruto. The president who himself is a Christian and a vital member of the Africa Inland Church, AIC had attended a parish of the Catholic Church where he had donated $20,000 promising to add another $23,000 to build the rectory. He also donated a bus for the choir. William Ruto had also been in the choir at AIC. That was on the 17th November but on the 18th November, the Church declined the donation. The Catholic Church had criticized the Ruto administration for not fulfilling its electoral promise to the nation, sharing character with our Bola Tinubu who is not fulfilling his promises to Nigerians. It condemned rampant unemployment, inflation and unfulfilled promises to the youth which has made them to become restive, as well as human rights abuses. People get abducted in Kenya and like in Nigeria many get missing. The Catholic Church in Kenya was not ready to compromise its ethos and integrity. It wants to emphasize its integrity and keep its independence. There is a law that forbids any money to be raised without first getting permission. In Ruto's gift that was not done. Again the gift violated the Catholic Church's directives.
President William Ruto did not take kindly to the rejection of that huge unsolicited donation. And as such Ruto and his administration have made many releases accusing the Church of misleading the public. How the Church did that is not yet known other than what it did as seen by the government. But the Catholic Church is not yieding its ground because it knows it’s the ground and pillar of truth in the nation of Kenya. I don't know any Church in Nigeria that will take such a bold stand as taken by the Catholic Church in Kenya. The Catholic Church in Kenya number about 40 million baptized members which is about half of the nation's population which means if anybody can win the votes of those Catholics certainly that person wins the country. But that Church will not trade its priestly service to God for a potage of mess. It refused to be used for anybody's political popularity.
That recommends the Catholic of Kenya to the entire Church in Nigeria. In Nigeria too there are about 40 million Catholics, another 40 million Pentecostals, 18 million Anglicans, 2 million Methodists, 10 millions Church Of Christ in Nigeria, COCIN and huge numbers for other denominations. If this huge Church will play its priestly roles, will live as Christ wants them to live, things will rapidly change. There is the Christian Association of Nigeria the umbrella body for all Christians in Nigeria, there is a Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, among other associations. Can they not take a tough stand against corruption, the cankerworm that is threatening to destroy Nigeria. What if for example the Church in Nigeria refuse henceforth to take the tithes and offerings of all politicans and civil servants that attend its services. These two categories, politicians and civil servants control the sizeable money that is stolen in Nigeria. This kind of bold stand can embolden repentance among Christian politicians and civil servants and can have multiplier effect on people of other faiths in Nigeria. It can drive fear into the heart of President Bola Tinubu and his ministers who have been misdirecting Nigeria. Doing this, what constitute the major sin of the Church would have been repented of and taken away and so prayers of the Church for the nation will be quickly answered. God will receive their prayers and heal the nation. Politicians who cannot but sin will be heavily judged by God and they will be examples to the nation. God has no business judging the nation when his own people remain in sin, so the bible says. Clean up the Church, clean up the nation.
First Published in METRO
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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
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