A non-profit and interdenominational organization, Voice of the Christian Martyrs Nigeria has taken a swipe at comments credited to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohamm-ed over an audio CD by one Pastor Bosun Emmanuel to a Christian community, saying the APC reaction was mislead-ing, unfair and undemocratic.
In his reaction to General Overseer, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s statement addressed to members of his church, Lai Mohammed said: “We in the APC are delighted at the GO’s prompt action and statement that the RCCG did not endorse divisive comments in any form or shape, that it has sons and daughters in all political parties, and that the allegations contained in the audio CD are wickedly false, unsubstantiat-ed, ill-conceived and mischiev-ous.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, the director of Voice of the Christian Martyrs Nigeria, a group with a vision for aiding Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ, fulfilling the Great Commission, and educating the world about the ongoing persecution of Christians, Pastor Isaac Newton-Wusu condemned the statement, which he said was intended to distract well-meaning Niger-ians from the truth.
Ethno-religious animosity
Expressing dismay at the security situation in the North East, Pastor Newton-Wusu who was flanked by three Christian leaders from the troubled region including Gombe State CAN secretary, Rev. Samuel Bulus, Rev. Daniel Dogo Awayi from Yobe State and one of the celebrated victims of Boko Haram attacks, Brother Habila Adamu, urged Nigerian lead-ers to rise above ethno-religious animosity and prevent the nation from being torn apart.
On the Chibok School Girls abducted on April 14, 2014, Pastor Newton-Wusu frowned at the inability of the nation’s leaders to secure their freedom, adding “our leaders should stop creating state of chaos to advance their religious and political agenda. The govern-ment and the oppositions must wake up and act now. Those canvassing for a truce with terrorists must equally be terrorists.”
The VCM helmsman res-ponding the Alhaji Moha-mmed’s reaction to a letter which was credited to the G.O. of RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adebo-ye on the issue, “expressed our dissatisfaction about the purp-orted statement which we consider misleading, unfair, and undemocratic. We cond-emn it as it is aimed at dis-tracting well meaning Niger-ians from the truth that would help build our nation.
“Serious issues that affect Nigeria were revealed in the message and Pastor Bosun Emmanuel has the right to express his apprehension about issues that affect Christianity, more so, consider-ing the lethal persecution of Christians in the northern parts of the country. Christians need no instructions from Lai Mohammed on how reasonable people should cast their votes. Nigeria of today is supposed to be a democratic state that guarantees freedom of express-ion, free thinking and belief, a free country where people have the right to say yes to their fellow men or even no to God.
“If the All Progressive Congress is truly a democratic party, it should never be afraid of an individual’s opinion. Nobody stops the movement of the winds. The Nigerian constitution guarantees every citizen right to believe what he/she wants to believe in and join any politi-cal party of his/her choice, nobody should be hunted or persecuted because of what he/she believes in or not.”
Continuing, he said Mr. Lai Moha-mmed is not the spokesperson of Pastor Adeboye and he does not have the right to come out and tell Christ-ians what Pastor Adeboye has to say about the free spee-ch of Pastor Bosun Emmanuel.
“With due respect, I believe Pastor Adeboye has a platform where he addresses members of his denominat-ion. Lai Mohamm-ed should steer clear of Christian affairs. If Pastor Adeboye wants to pass instruct-ions to members of the RCCG, Mr. Lai Mohammed should not be the messenger. We have enough of Christian blood being shed on daily basis across the Northern Nigeria. We respect Pastor Adeboye, a profound Christian leader, whose messages have changed many lives and brought hope to millions of people around the world. Lai Mohammed’s res-ponse on statements credited to Dr. Adeboye does not hold in a free country where all men stand for freedom of conscience and justice.
Partisan politics
“However, we want to state that Nigerian Christians are citizens of Nigeria just like their Muslim counterparts. Nobody should use partisan politics to divide the body of Christ that has suffered so much in this country. If Lai Mohammed wants Christians to vote for his political party then, APC should go back to its drawing board and create a proper balance in the party. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and many other rea-sonable and well meaning Nigerians have suggested this. The party should create a political plat-form that takes into consider-ation all the various groups in the nation rather than drag the Chur-ch into its poli-tical mud,” he stated.
Noting that all the APC governors in the South West geo-political region, are Muslims, wondering how Mr. Lai Moha-mmed wants such a party to be described? Is that an all inclusive party or what is it? How does Mr. Lai Mohammed want to describe a party which at its inception, nearly all its national principal officers belonged to only one religion? Is that a balanced and all inclusive party?
On the alleged insinuation that Pastor Bosun’s message is capable of inciting Christians against Muslims, Mr. Lai Mohammed is being eco-nomical with the truth. On the contrary, he is the person seeking to incite Muslims against the Christians. “We suggest that he should go and listen again to the message. If the CD was meant to incite anybody, Nigerian Christians should have been on the streets by now. That message was calling Christians to prayers and revival of the Church worldwide, the Church advo-cates peace and not war.
“I challenge Lai Mohammed to rise as a good Muslim, including his party, to put an end to this carnage ravaging the Nigerian nation, rather than raising issues with a godly pastor like Bosun Emma-nuel, whom I know can never be purchased to be mischiev-ous. Christian and Moslem leaders have equal rights to contest or follow political parties of their choice as equal citizens of Nigeria. If Christians are concerned about the structure of any political party, they have the right to raise the apprehension,” he insisted.
Emphasizing that Pastor Bosun cannot be wrong in his assessment of APC, because a former president, Chief Olu-segun Obasanjo, also recently cautioned APC about its strong Islamic postures, the VCM director said APC and Lai Mohammed should go and take corrective measures and reassure Nigerians that they are not seeking to create a party for the Islamic Brotherhood in Nigeria. Nigeria is a multi-religious and multi-cultural nation. Every serious minded political party must strive to reflect the various diversities in the nation if it wants a broad based support.
He maintained that those can-vassing for truce with terrorists must equally be terrorists, pointing out that multi-million naira weapons were moved to the North East, but now captured by the Boko Haram. If Mubi cannot be protected, nowhere is protected.
Prosperity rooted in peace
He also alleged that Christ-ians are being used as human shield by the Boko Haram insurgents, noting that inno-cent women are abducted while young men are forcefully recruited to join the insurgents.
He therefore appealed to church leaders, to stand up to save lives now. “Our mission is on ground in Yola providing food and medicals to brothers and sisters who need our help now. We ask Christian univer-sities to help these children that lost one or both parents due to the persecution of Christians in northern Nigeria.
CAN Scribe for Gombe State, Rev. Samuel Bulus appealed to Christians across the country especially in the South West should come to the aid of their persecuted counterparts in the North East, saying “prosperity is rooted in peace and without peace there cannot be true prosperity.”
Pastor Daniel Dogo Awayi of Yobe State tearfully articulated the position of Northern Eastern Christians, calling on different denominational leaders in the country to rise up to the challenge of in-surgency in the country be-cause the insurgents will stop at nothing to carry out their vision of islamising the nation.
“I call on our leaders who are currently sleeping to wake up now to avoid the ugly future and teach their members on their responsibilities in the face of insurgnecy,” he noted, adding that “if you meet any Christian from the North East now, you will discover that he is already traumatised because whenever he goes ti bed, he is not sure of seeing the next day.”
Habiba Adamu, who survived gunshot wounds because he refused to convert to Islam. Still carrying relics of several surgical operations done on him, appealed to Christians in the South to acknowledge the ordeal they are passing through now and assist them.
No comments:
Post a Comment