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Mandate 2011: The Performance Of Christians In Politics And Those Entrusted With Public Office By Rev. Danjuma Byang INTRODUCTION From Nigeria’s Independence to the 2nd Republic there was a raging debate in the church as to whether or not Christians should participate in politics or hold public office. This debate was informed by the ethos handed down to the national church by their white missionaries which had unwittingly divorced politics from church life and treated people holding public office as second class Christians. Politics they said was a dirty game not worthy of the participation of the children of God. With this attitude it was unheard of that a serious minded Christian would be looking for elective office or accepted appointment as a commissioner or appointed as chief of their community. There were also professions Christians were not expected to engage in, like practising law or be engaged in business. According to this view lawyers were liars and all businessmen and women were cheats and dishonest people. The only practices acceptable outside of preaching the gospel and doing missionary work were teaching and healthcare. All else were considered preposterous and inimical to the well-being of the Christian here on earth and especially in the hereafter. Well, we all know that this has changed kudos to the untiring campaigns of CAN and other similar Christian bodies, which have successfully enlightened and mobilized Christians to fully participate in politics and accept public office. As at today there is hardly any Christian group or individual who still believes and teaches that Christians should shun politics or disdain public office. If anything, the mad rush in which politicians now appeal to religion to canvass for votes is becoming alarming. As a matter of fact, many have risen to power and fame on the crest of religion. But as 2011 is fast approaching and the drumbeats of elections and re-elections are deafening our ears, we need to assess the performance of our brethren in politics and those holding public office. This must be done so that the church will not have her fingers bitten again. How are the people the church invested her votes on and got them elected doing? Are they keeping to their campaign promises? Are they being true to the mandate that the people entrusted them with? Is their conduct in office any different from those who don’t profess Christianity? Has their participation in politics and holding public office been a blessing or an embarrassment? Is the society better off with or without them? Is God being honoured through their lives and conduct or do they daily deny and betray Him by their actions? It is time for the church to be wary of charlatans who use the church to get to power and then dump her and all she stands for. The church must screen those who want to use her as a launching pad for their political career but with sinister motives. It is not enough that the candidates we support bear the names John or James or Peter. But can and have they delivered the goods? It is not even enough that some of them can speak in tongues and cast out devils but can they resist the lure of the percolate of office? As 2011 is around the corner can we be confident to sell them to the electorate again? How have they performed at the national, state and local government levels? An assessment of their performance shows that apart from few of them found here and there who have stood out, the majority have performed woefully. Many coming from poor backgrounds and upon seeing the goodies that public office held they plunged in to them like what some soldiers in the army of Gideon did when they first saw water after a long time of deprivation. Many have gone collecting kickbacks after inflating contracts to build roads or supply drugs in hospitals, just like everyone before them has done. Many have abandoned chastity and their families and joined the bandwagon to change lovers as often as they change their clothes. Some dole out huge sums of money to their home church intermittently to appease their weeping consciences. And, of course, there are no shortages of “prophets and prayer warriors” that daily throng these devious politicians to see visions for them and prophesy their return to power come 2011, all for a “brown envelope” at the end of the day. Some have even descended as low as to import mediums from foreign lands to divine for them. And yet some have cut off all contacts from their locality and remained inaccessible since they assumed office so that they may not be disturbed by “parasites” or be charmed by their “enemies” who don’t desire to see their progress in life. There are still many unprintable things Christian politicians have done and are doing that are abominable to the church that supported and voted for them. Many have violated even the commonest code of decency expected of public office holders. If you really want to know how our brethren in power have performed check the EFCC and ICPC lists of offenders and you will be shocked by whose names are there or absent! Brothers and sisters, we have a crisis on our hands. Apostates have come as apostles of deliverance. Profiteers have come as prophets, and imposters now operate as pastors. They operate in and from the church. They are threatening to sink the testimony and jeopardise the witness of the church in the eye of the world. We have a crisis. What can we do? First, we must know that not everyone has joined the rat race to use religion for personal gain. There are few of our brethren who have kept their garments clean and thereby have honoured and glorified the name of the Lord. I recall the testimony of one of them. Upon his appointment to public office he went on official function with his colleagues outside their locality. In the evening one of his aides came and asked him if he was interested in “essential commodities”. Thinking the aide was talking of provisions like sugar, milk, vegetable oil, etc, which were actually scarce at the time, he said yes. But to his surprise the aide later ushered in a lady to his hotel room! The aides had taken the liberty to organise girls from a nearby school to come and “serve” their Ogas, possibly with the knowledge and permission of the school authorities! But this brother refused to take his own share of “essential commodity”. Another brother talked of how embarrassed he often felt as half naked girls were made to dance seductively to welcome them to many of the communities they went on official tours. These are the few who remembered where they came from and where they were going to. And these are the few the church must fish them out and celebrate them. Secondly the church must not be fooled into accepting and placating candidates just because they say they are Christians. Their antecedents must be thoroughly scrutinized. If they have not held public office before then check their private leadership style in the church, family and the community. The Bible says everyone is known by the fruit of his actions. If we check well we shall surely not be deceived. Those found to be charlatans must be rejected. And those found worthy of our trust can then be trusted with our mandate. Thirdly, those holding public office should always be assessed to know if they are still on the right path or perhaps they have been swallowed up by the system. Uphold those who are still standing and mark those who have deviated. We should be careful not to allow those who have squandered their chance to hoodwink us into rubber-stamping their desperate pleas for second or third term. Those who have done well should be allowed to go for as many terms as the laws permit, provided that they continue to do well and that there are no better alternatives in the waiting. And those who have betrayed our trust should be shown the way out. Fourthly, the church should do well to clearly define what is expected of its politicians and public office holders. Many times these people don’t know what they can do to please the church. And by pleasing the church here we don’t mean stealing public money to give to the church. No! Instead, the church must set out standards of conduct that conform to honesty, fairness, servant hood, humility, accessibility, transparency, integrity, hard-work, accountability, progressive and exemplary behaviour. These qualities should be enforced through formal and informal contacts with our public office holders. We must emphasize here that the church should shun placing unrealistic demands on these people to give out moneys far beyond their legitimate earnings. A brother in public office once lamented that were he to respond adequately to every invitation for fund-raising campaigns from various churches and religious organisations he would not be able to feed his family! Of course, Christians in government should support God’s work, but they should do so within the limits of their wages. And the church must appreciate their little and sincere efforts. To support God’s work with embezzled money is no less an attempt to bribe God or worse still to attempt to buy one’s salvation with naira! There is no greater abnegation to the cross of Christ and its atoning significance. No one will escape the judgement of God, even if he steals money to build God’s house! The church must protect the purity and simplicity of the gospel by ensuring that politicians, even the Christian ones, don’t corrupt it with unclean mammon! CONCLUSION Nothing said above should make the church become complacent and say it does not matter who represents us because it is hard to get the right people. If the church abdicates its responsibility to nurture and raise its politicians the enemies of the church will send their own people to represent us. And we shall all pay the price later. Is this not what is happening in several states of the federation already? Good Christian politicians may be hard to get, but we must work hard to get them. And if they are not available we must breed them from the church. Inculcate the right qualities in them and then mobilize them to go out and stand for us. We cannot afford to put our heads in the sand and pretend we don’t see what is coming to us. We must find and put the right people there so we can justifiably say Christians can do better as politicians and office holders than others. Given what has happened so far we can’t make this claim. But we must recover the good name Christians used to have. Many of us recall when in this country many employers, including non Christians, preferred “born again” Christians to handle their affairs because they found them most competent, reliable and trustworthy. The demon of get rich quick at all costs has beguiled us. But we should remember our mission as light and salt of the world. In fact, we must do so; else we have nothing to offer our society and posterity. In which case the society and posterity will soon forget us because we would have shot ourselves in the head and out of relevance and existence! May God forbid bad thing. |