The Church And Political Reforms

It is not saying a new thing that the church is one of the two age-long human agencies for civilising society and fostering positive change. The other is the Mass Media.

The role of the church is shapening and moulding opinion of its congregations on contemporary, socio-economic and political matters, cannot be over-emphasised.

This explains why the church is seen as a veritable development partner to government. Conversely, every government will need the church to succeed by implementing its policies and programmes.

Besisdes, the fact that the church is a spiritual organism saddled with the responsibility of preserving public morality and illuminating sin-infested society through the dogged propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is also a human organisation whose members are integral part of the larger society, thus are directly or indirectly affected by the policies and programmes of government and the activities of those in government.

This reinforces the fact of compatibility between the church and government. In fact government and the church are inseparable pair. Any attempt to separate them triggers a yawning vacuum even as one languishes for want of the other.

Though a spiritual mechanism to stem satanic activities, the church since several years ago serves as a pressure group to check excess of government, social and moral turpitude and flagrant violation of human rights.

Cases in point are Desmond Tutu, Tunde Bakare and several other church leaders who had remained consistent and resolute in denouncing anti-human and social ills from and/or outside the pulpit.

This is why some church leaders believe that the church relationship to politics which is a constitutional and fundamental process of governance in a democratic context, should transcend the purported passive, laissez-faire role.

In the considered view of the proponents of Christians’ participation in politics, it is better to be in the system so that change can be effected than criticising from outside.

Rev. (Dr.) Daddy D. S. Ibulubo, the District Superintendent of Assemblies of God, Rivers District, is a  vocal proponent of Christians participating in politics but that they must do so with decorum and strict adherence to standards guiding morality and accountability.

According to Dr. Ibulubo the premonition that Christians will be corrupted if they participate in a partisan politics is more often than not, a wild goose chase.

He wants Christians to actively participate in the processes of governance because as he puts it, “if Christians do not participate in politics, evil and mal-administration will persist and prevail.”

Genuine Christians, the church administrator said, have all the requisite qualifications to offer credible, transparent and accountable leadership in the country.

The District Superintendent who practically expressed his profound commitment for quality leadership through a democratised adult suffrage system, directed all 431 serving pastors and the entire membership of Assemblies of God Nigeria in the District to register in the on-going voter registration exercise and obtain their card. The voter’s card, Dr. Ibulubo says, is the only potent instrument of entrenching good governance if used wisely.

I have registered on Saturday at Unit Eight Ward Four in Okrika, Rivers State, to reinforce my determination to foster a rebirth of credible and transparent governance at all tiers of government.,” Ibulubo stated.

He maintained the position that the much clamoured positive change will be elusive if the church remains apolitical to the electioneering processes.

Mrs. Ima Ekpo, a Zonal Pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God in a paper she presented recently at the 34th quadrennial convention of Assemblies of God Nigeria corroborates the sentiment expressed by the District Superintendent, Rev. (Dr) Ibulubo. Mrs. Ekpo believes that the church is so important that government sees it as an agency to actualize its programmes and policies.

The church, she says, cannot afford to risk its prime place in society by playing the second fiddle and urges the church to be awake and alive to its multi-dimensional functions.

The Founder and General Overseer of Jesus Evangelical Ministries International, Prophet Solomon Umoruodua blames apathy to politics on bad public leadership and decried a situation where some elected public officers fail to keep faith with their oaths of allegiance and office.

He believes that an elected official who sees himself as lord and not a servant leader is tottering on the brink of a failed political career.

For Rev. (Dr) Charles Ogbonnaya Osueke, the immediate past General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Nigeria, Church leaders should encourage members who are endowed with the gift of administration to actively participate in politics.

No Christian in politics who plays the game according to the dictates of a reliable conscience and ethics will go to hell, and describes as unfounded sentiments that Christians who are involved in partisan politics will lose their faith.

In what can be described as a valedictory message to the church, Osueke noted that through political processes, the denomination Assemblies of God has produced state governors, two Senate presidents, legislators at state and national levels and several ambassadors.

I want you pastors to encourage your members with leadership acumen and gift of administration to vie for elective positions in the forthcoming elections”, the out-gone General Superintendent says with a ring of finality.

 But despite the ultimate accolades which Christians in politics have attracted, all that glitters is not gold. Politics in Nigeria and several parts of the world is not without attendant moral challenges, most proponents of an apolitical church state, have affected the credibility, spiritual and moral soundness of some Christians.

Be that as it may, the growing enlightenment of the church on partisan politics appears to have effaced into insignificance the speculated apprehension of the challenges participation in politics.

It is a truism that the church has come a long way and cannot be predisposed to the multiplex churches which partisan politics foists on those plying it.

The church, however, should not compromise its core-values and mission as catalyst of the salvation of fallen humanity, even as it is poised to assert its relevance politically.

The debilitating consequences on society and of course, the church can be better imagined than experienced, if the shadow rather than the substance beclouds our mission.

Igbiki Benibo