JONATHAN’S 2015 BATTLES ON PULPIT!!!! As battle for2015 election peaks, Nigerians are expressing concern that some politicians and public holders are taking advantage of the pulpit, converting religious services to mini campaign grounds or venues to get back at their critic s or political opponents. One of the public officials thatis so accused is President Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan. Between the last Christmas Day, December 25, 2013 and today, the president, according to some respondents has probably taken advantage of the pulpit more than any other single politician or public office holder. He has utilized every opportunity given to him to thank congregants in virtually all the church services he has attended, to either respond to criticisms against his person or office or to comment on other critical national developments in the country. On the Christmas day, last year, the president, who worshipped at the Cathedral Church of the Advent Anglican Communium , Gwarimpa Abuja, used the opportunity to warn his political opponents against heating up the polity, saying the country belongs to nobody in particular but to all Nigerians. The first Sunday of the year, January 5, 2014, was another day for such verbal exchanges. Jonathan, who worshipped at the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) used the opportunity to lash out at some Nigerians he identified as ‘evil’ prophesying that the country ‘’must be liberated’’ from such people. This year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day Service offered the president another opportunity to advance his position on the 2015 presidential election and to talk back at his critics and political opponents. At the service held on the second Sunday of the year at the National Christian Centre, Abuja. Interpreted to be a direct attack on a personality like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who recently wrote an open letter carpeting Ionathan’s administration and other outspoken political opponents. ‘As a result’ said Dr Gabriel Uzoma, an elder in Presbyterian Church and grass root leader, ‘’concerned observers are today afraid that the church stands the risk of being dragged into the muddy waters of politics ahead of 2015. We are worried and will appreciate it if Mr President and other politicians will henceforth refrain from making political statements when they attend church services. Such services are good for prayers and worship of God alone and should not be used for political commentaries and such like, he said’’. It would be recall that for Jonathan, resorting to the pulpit, for solution to his political quest is not new. At the peak of the campaigns for the 2011 presidential election, he caught the attention of Nigerians when, at one of the Holy Ghost Night Services at the Redemption Camp Ground, he stepped out for a special prayer. At the end of the exercise, witnessed physically by millions of worshippers at the camp, and watched live on cable and television across the globe, his critics loudly condemned the act, wondering why as the president of Nigeria, he had to KNEEL DOWN to pray in front of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) who lead the prayer. One of the critics, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Senior Pastor of Letter Rain Assembly, reacting to the development then, said mockingly. ‘’They have signdled the campaign by going to kneel down before Pastor Adeboye. See I am not saying that pastors should not pray for presidents, that man was representing an office; a whole nation, crumbling before men of God because of political advantage they think they can get. Bakare added,’’By going to kneel down in the open before the pastor, the man did not even recognize the dignity of his office. If it were a private thing it is okay for you to CRAWL or KNEEL but it is a whole Nation. THAT OFFICE HAS BEEN DIMINISHED BY A MAN WHO DOES NOT KNOW THE WORTH OF IT AND DOES NOT DESERVED TO STAY THERE FOR ONE MORE DAY’’. The Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to stop making policy pronouncements in churches. He urged politicians to go and meet the people in the villages where they are living in abject poverty. Archbishop Kaigama offered the advice while talking to SaharaTV over the weekend. As the actual political battle draws nearer and the major actors desperately seek prayers and support of brethren, religious purists are afraid that unless caution is taken now, campaigns may be manipulated by callous politicians to the image of the CHURCHES/HOLY GROUNDS and possibly worsen division based on religious beliefs. The fear is deep as Nigeria approaches the 2015 election year. We are only concerned by the chosen venue to vent such anger. A CHURCH IS A HOUSE OF GOD, NOT A CAMPAIGN GROUND WHERE WE CAN THROW MUDs. HAPPY SUNDAY! HAPPY SUNDAY!! HAPPY SUNDAY!!!
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 07:38:47 +0000