Without a shadow of doubt, Nigeria is endowed with men and women with requisite cerebral competence that can shake up and reawaken the soul of the nation from its manifold and multifarious doldrums across all spheres. Nigeria is blessed with characters who exude irrefragable capableness that can help bring the nation’s ship back on the right course of travel toward glorious days. These are patriotic citizens with witty understanding of how the global economy can be made to work for the good of all with none left behind. They are Christians, Muslims, agonistics, atheists, and adherents of diverse faith ideologies.
In this treatise, I will not attempt to pall up the immense and notable contributions of men of other faith towards the growth and development of our nation. My curiosity slams down on the exiguousness of the numbers of pastors of the Christian faith who have found themselves in the claw of Nigerian politics; and thousands of erudite clergies who have decided to play the ostrich burying their gifts far off from the ground of government. They are lawyers, journalists, doctors, professors in universities, engineers, accountants, investors, and self-sufficient professionals and businessmen and women. Unfortunately, with their rare endowment, they stay away from the political process while they ONLY continue to pray for Nigeria in their vigils, baptise people by immersion and win souls, evangelise the Godless from door to door and then cocoon up in their big cathedrals and on the plum pulpits. But why won’t these brilliant minds help mind Nigeria’s wholistic political business that’ll lead to growth and progress?
Some church folk shout it out loud that pastors should stay in their lanes preaching to the world only about how men can get to heaven because earth here is hell. They prefer that men-in-collar stick to their “calling” and stay away from the “dirt” of politics. A cursory look at the professed reasons why good people generally stay away from Nigerian politics may make you conclude that there is much sense in that idea. A pastor friend close to the Nigerian seat of power recently put it this way to me: “Political appointment is good for a pastor. But if you contemplate elective office, where do you get the money to fund a successful campaign, given the type of money politics in our clime?” There are too many scums in it aside from the issue of money. Can a pastor rig an election? Can he send thugs to snatch ballot boxes and stuff them with ballot papers? Can a pastor bribe electoral officers to falsify figures for him? No pastor worth his calling will do these.
Many pastors back off from politics because they don’t want to become sacrificial offerings in the hands of greedy brutes in power who have not much to offer. They are wary of the terrain already taken over by thugs in expensive suits and sleek Babanriga who steal kill and destroy. They are afraid of a country that devours its inhabitants; and a murky and tempestuous political terrain that snuffs out life before time. And they withdraw into their shells because they don’t want to get caught in the storm.
Yemi Osinbajo once pastored a very big mission of his church in Lagos before destiny beckoned on him to become the first ordained Pastor to become Nigeria’s Vice-President. I have a credible peep into what he goes through as a man with gritty determination to help bring some form of reform to Nigeria’s polity and policies. His grim experiences as a Man of God doing government business among mean men in love with mammon are untold. One night after I heard a stomach-turning account out of Osinbajo’s experiences in the purlieu of power; I asked a mutual friend: “How in the world can a pastor survive and succeed in Nigeria’s politics, for God’s sake?” Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Citadel Global Community Church (formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly) is not a newbie in the raggedy terrain of Nigerian politics. He is a high-ranking habitué in the tenebrific frontier where men freely hack down men in the awry audition for Nigeria’s presidency. One Sunday last year during a church service, he declared himself the successor to Muhammadu Buhari. Not too long afterward, he backed off but with a promise to return to the discourse. Is the involvement of pastors in politics a miry-mix or a mandate from the Messiah?
Many good people including pastors stay away because in Nigerian politics, every man is considered a thief before he becomes a chief. The tiniest of the pedigree you have built for yourself will be rubbished. If you are confirmed for a position, you have become a thief without the opportunity to prove your innocence. Every court and tribunal may give you a clean bill of innocence; but you are still labelled a robber and it will be justified in “beer parlours”, social media, and some mainstream media. You will be dragged before Pontius Pilate and crucified at your appearance. Your family and friends will finish you if you don’t cough up some contracts and regular maintenance allowance, and you may be banished from family meetings. There is no man or woman with a castle of integrity and pedigree who will want to voluntarily run into the harming arms of Nigerian politics in search of an appointment that will end up a disappointment.
Many good people hate Nigerian brand of politics, and justifiably so. But we must be reminded that government is of God. Governmental constituted authorities are God’s weapons used by Him through men of character and integrity to douse the fire of poverty, hunger, disease, and decrepitude in a society. Every good and bad government everywhere runs on the conveyor belt of politics. And then the challenging question: if good men and women refuse to get involved in politics, how then does our filthy political system get cleansed? Must we all stand arms akimbo speaking grammar and grandstanding on social media while nothing changes in Nigeria? Will anything change about the 110 million Nigerians who are now considered poor and hungry while good people do nothing? Must we continue with some infantile argy-bargy while some fools in leadership are busy aggrandising? Must we surrender our lives and destinies to half-baked individuals who are bent on continuing to tell us what to do and how to live?
Edmund Burke served as a Member of Parliament between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. The words he left on the marble of history ring true anytime I try to process through my mind why good men pull back from serving in bad political terrains. “Those who will say nothing in the face of tyranny must endure the rule of idiots”. I agree with Burke. It is also true that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. So, how do you adjudge the active involvement of good people including pastors in Nigerian politics? A miry mix or a mandate from the Messiah? Definitely, it depends on who you ask.
Credit: Fola Ojo, Punch