’Tunji Ajibade; tunjioa@yahoo.com 08036683657
Sometimes, one thinks one has heard it all regarding what some ‘Christians’ focus on. But each time, they come up with something new that makes one wonder. It was getting state governors to utilise public funds in sponsoring tourists to Israel that some once concentrated on, and still do. At another time, they preached to adherents to play lottery in order to get money to tour Israel, as though the founder of their faith gave such instructions. The latest fad is forming a political party for Christians only. Yet, during last week’s presidential pre-inauguration Sunday service, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo urged Nigerians not to use either religion or ethnicity to divide the nation. Maybe, he belongs to a faith different from that of those who want to form a political party.
Many Nigerians have this vain gratification over the idea that their religion controls political power. Meanwhile, many of those whom they say belong to their religion in public offices loot treasuries to the detriment of the same gullible majority. Anti-graft agencies show looters on TV all the time. Moreover, we know that some raise the religious argument when other avenues for accessing public office are closed to them. In any case, everywhere in the world those interested in public office use any means, any argument that can get them the vote. It’s the reason I shall start with the unreliable traits often exhibited by those who share a common interest, and which is the basis for setting up political parties anywhere.
In the campaign leading to the last presidential election in France, a party leader, Marine Le Pen, campaigned on an anti-European Union platform. She wanted France out of the EU. She thought French voters would elect her based on that. But she lost to the pro-EU Emmanuel Macron. A few days to the May 2019 election into the EU Parliament, Le Pen said she was now pro-EU. Her party won. It’s part of politics. Politicians canvass what they won’t, as a matter of principle, stick with; they tell voters only what they like to hear. There’s also Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro. He started his 2018 presidential campaign claiming China was “buying Brazil,” attacking all the things Brazilians hated. Three months in office, Bolsonaro is singing a different tune about Brazil’s number one trading partner. He’s adopted a more moderate approach to China which he’s scheduled to visit later this year.
In addition, there are politicians who form political parties based on the tenets of a religion, or parties that appeal for the votes of people of a particular religion. Christianity-based parties in particular emerged in 19th-century Europe. They continue to be influential in Western countries even though they have abandoned the Christian tenets. The Democratic Party in the US belongs here. Now, it promises anything to everyone to get the vote. E.W. Jackson of Exodus Faith Ministries, US, says many American blacks are breaking with the Democratic Party. This party, Jackson writes, has “fully embraced an abortion policy that amounts to infanticide. They have also made the lesbian-homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda their vision for America…All over the country, black churchgoers are now expressing disenchantment with the Democrats making “same-sex marriage” an official part of their platform.”
The point here is that political parties change over time, and they must because they consist of humans who are unpredictable. Political parties would say whatever voters like to hear in order to secure power. The Nigerians who want a party for Christians are doing the same now. I’m not for anyone using religion to rally people in order to secure public offices. Many who put religion in people’s face have proved unreliable when they occupy public offices. The reader knows many who’re voted on the basis of religion but who have been a disappointment. Some of those who call for a Christian party have been in public office, and it’s difficult to say their action shows they know why a Christian should make a positive difference. One of them is of particular interest. A few days before he and others announced that they wanted to form a party for Christians (The PUNCH, May 21, 2019), someone from his area talked about how he had been disappointed in the person in question regarding the time he held public offices. I also said when this same individual was given some platform in the past, I was elated, expecting to see a difference. But nothing which showed that a Christian was in charge happened until the platform was taken from him. Now he wants to form a Christian party.
I instinctively distrust people who use religion for purposes other than what’s purely religious. I don’t state that they may not sometimes be up to something worthwhile. But people who conduct themselves according to religious principles and harbour the mentality in public office are rare. Embarrassing performances in banking, government and industry by people with names and titles that display their religion are common. So one doubts if those who want to form a party for Christians know what responsibility that places on them, let alone conducting themselves according to Christian principles if they find themselves in positions of power. There’re examples. In one of the states with a Muslim majority, some Christian leaders collect things from government on behalf of all Christians. News got to the Government House that a large percentage didn’t get to the intended parishes. Consequently, Government House decided to, by itself, invite parishes to collect what it had for them. That’s for living the principle.
Regarding the mentality, Osinbajo once said some Christians were beginning to hate the very people that the founder of their faith died for. He said if this happens, then darkness has descended once more. Hate mentality is now imbibed by many ‘Christians’. I once told the story of how I mentioned the name of a prominent Fulani person in the presence of a ‘Christian’ and suddenly he became hostile and rude to me in a way no Fulani person had ever been rude to me (October 12, 2018). There was another time I was visiting a senior citizen. I was seated opposite my host as some pastors, General Overseers of their own ministries, arrived to hold a meeting with her. One of these General Overseers walked in, looked at me (dressed as I was in a way that made him conclude I belonged to a religion he hated) and pointedly ignored me. He walked past me to other pastors, loudly greeting them, “How are you doing, Pastor…?” If that was a setting prepared for him to win someone over to his faith as the Christian mission requires, he missed it because he harboured hate.
Does this kind of hate-filled persons belong to the same faith as Osinbajo? What messages do they preach to their followers? I think I know. I’ve sat, for professional reasons, before General Overseers who speak with hatred regarding people that it’s their calling to win over. These and many more are the reasons I’m wary whenever anyone talks the way those people who want to form a political party for Christians talk. What triggers their action is the same condemnable hate mentality. It’s there in the justification they give. In fact, in that justification is the weakness, the unsuitability of what they pursue, but only they don’t see it.
They say a certain religion uses an ideology and it coopts Christians into the ideology. But it’s smart of any religion to coopt others into its fold. Isn’t that what Christians are called to do, the mission their faith allots them? But hate has blinded some to this. Instead, getting adherents to tour Israel and forming political party are the concerns of Christian leaders. I once stated on this page that Christians were withdrawing unto themselves (October 5, 2018). A political party for Christians is divisive, another example of the withdrawal tendency, and it’s not it. Those who think they can bring religious principles and mentality to governance should go and prove themselves within the fold of any inclusive political party that we have. If they don’t represent Christianity well in there, they can’t outside.
Guardian (NG)
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