igerian Christians at home and abroad will be
shocked by the reported crass opportunism of
some of their religious leaders as next week’s
presidential polls draw
closer, SaharaReporters has learned.
Ayo Oritsejafor
Authoritative sources disclose that during a meeting of
Christian leaders held recently, the President of the
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor expressed a strangely personal reason why
he is not supporting the clamor of Nigerians for change in
the country.
Oritsejafor told his colleagues at the event, which was
convened at the Redemption Camp of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God on the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway that oil bloc leases are due for renewal this
year, and if the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket prevails, his chances
of owning one would diminish.
“The oil in my father’s backyard,” he specifically said. “I
don’t own one bloc, and all these Northerners have oil
blocs!”
The CAN president has been known to be an ardent
supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan, and anopponent
of his leading challenger, General Mohammadu Buhari.
What shocked many of the Christian leaders at the
meeting, howver, was his message that he
was less interested in good governance or the killing of
innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram in the Northeastern part
of Nigeria, and more so about his desire to also own an oil
bloc this year.
Reported to be an even more vocal supporter of Jonathan
at the meeting was Bishop
David Oyedepowho reportedly said it would be an insult to
have any of the Christian leaders at the meeting to vote
for Buhari. At a point, a respected pastor, Bishop Mike
Okonkwo of TREM, lambasted the meeting for not inviting
Pastor Yemi Osinbajo to witness the meeting, being himself
a Christian leader and pastor.
According to Okonkwo, the least the Christian leaders
could have done was invite Osinbajo and hear from him,
adding that not doing that was “an act of cowardice.”
Oyedepo, our source said, did not take kindly to that
suggestion from a Bishop of equal caliber, and demanded
an apology from Okonkwo. Okonkwo, equally annoyed,
insisted on his position and refused to offer an apology at
the tension-filled meeting.
Sources said the conveners of the meeting did not want to
invite Osinbajo as the candidates on the other
ticketwere also not represented. But some sources at the
meeting said it was a disgrace that a fellow pastor at their
level, running for Vice-President was not even allowed to
sit in at the meeting which was convened under the banner
of the Nigerian Apostolic Coalition,membership of which he
was entitled to.
While Oyedepo maintained his advocacy for President
Jonathan at the meeting, at times in vehement anger and
outright disrespect for the opposing views of the other
pastors, a leading Bishop from the North spoke up against
the plans of Oyedepo and Oritsejafor to mobilize support for
the president. Christian leaders in the North have always
criticized the lust of some Southern Christian leaders for
material things making them not to empathize with the
sufferings of the Christians in the North, who are facing
persecution.
Bishop Jonas Katung of
the Maranatha Churchin Josexplained that President
Jonathan has done nothing in the past four years deserving
of a second term. Katung, who is known as the Lion of Jos,
was ordained Bishop in Jos by RCCG’s Pastor
E.A. Adeboye in 2013.
He strongly advocated that the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket
should be given a chance given the level of failure of the
incumbent.
Pastor Mathew Kasali of the Foundation of Truth Assembly
in Lagos also spoke passionately at the meeting, calling on
the Christian leaders to remain neutral and not become
encumbered with partisan issues for any reason. He also
supported Bishop Okonkwo that Pastor Osinbajo, “who is
one of us,” should be allowed to address the meeting.
A source at the meeting disclosed that the national clamor
for change in the country as being captured by the Buhari-
Osinbajo ticket has now become a source of great fear by
several Christian leaders in the Southern part of the
country, essentially because of their own selfish interests.
He asked in disappointment, “Where is the fear of God in the
lives of some of these leaders?”
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