Yes, politics has come and gone. There is always a winner and a loser. And it must be accepted that way or as the language goes or resort to court. They stood their ground against the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Yet they won. Politics is a game, not a religious affair. Religion is only an aspect of politics and not a whole. In all honesty, I didn’t like our approach. There is a need for negotiations in politics; the politics of populations is also vital.
There is a need for deliberate planning In politicking by us, the Christians, without emotions.
The church is not incapacitated yet because the Senate president and other important positions are there. Thanks
Rev Father Polycarp Lubo
CAN Chairman, Plateau State.

The Church first failed through its own DISUNITY and internal DIVISIONS before the Elections. It got wider during the elections when she allowed herself to fall prey to political divisions via ethnic and tribal sentiments.
I advise the Church to DISCOVER herself, DEVELOP her own political will and strategy, DEPLOY its machinery or leave the political field for the infidels to manage and bear the consequences.
Apostle Elijah Emmanuel,
Ita-Maga Ikorodu, Lagos.

The Church in Nigeria has woefully messed up, no thanks to the leaders at the forefront of the Church’s organisations, notably CAN and other bodies. Initially, the Church posed a figure of being apolitical. Later, when we realised that with our holiness and light if we don’t wake up, we will indirectly be allowing unholiness and darkness to direct our affairs. After the decision to be involved, we weren’t well organised. We allowed strangers, spies, stooges of the children of darkness, posing as Christians, to infiltrate and penetrate our internal meetings. Christians are powerful, but we behave as if we don’t appreciate our values. Some of us are so insensitive to the Holy Spirit that we cannot discern the plan of the wicked at every junction. Mammon is a tool in the hands of the devil and his cohorts. Christians allowed our spirit to be polluted by Mammon’s nature, hence, the apparent powerlessness.
ADESOJI, MOSES ADIO-SAKA
Mercy Way Ministry,
Lagos Nigeria.

There’s a misconception of the people about CAN. CAN never consider who to vote for during the just concluded general elections. Remember, CAN is an Association, and within the Association, you cannot force the members to take a decision. All our churches comprise all members of the political parties. Therefore, the power of choice is individually induced.
Christianity primarily prepares candidates for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, realising that our stay here is temporary. The Holy Bible enjoins us to pray for those who bear rule over us and pray for good governance. We are to serve as checks and balances. Through the Holy Bible, Christian leaders must be in an advisory capacity. The moment we take a definitive step like those prophetic merchandise witnessed recently, we expose ourselves to ridiculous situations before the public and our congregations. Therefore those who went beyond the Biblical directions have themselves to blame.
Therefore the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not powerless, rather the church came out bold with heads high up except the commercial Prophets you find in Numbers 23.
Overseer Aluko

Happy Easter Monday. This topic is multi-dimensional. I’m a conservative who believes in the prophecy of God to direct his church. Since we all saw what happened in the last eight years and the election came we lost our consciousness to ethnicity and money. Let’s wait and see again. The good Lord will keep us alive by his grace to bear the testimony when the dance starts. I don’t like commenting on political aspects of the matter, it’s more of a public debate with no results expected.
Pastor Mike Adunade

The church of Jesus Christ is in no way POWERLESS; if the Christians actually understand the kingdom of GOD in which the church is the expression of God’s kingdom on earth, The world at large would be Heaven on earth,, be as it may… This lack of understanding of who we are and who we represent on earth (Nigeria) is what is making the church to look powerless in the scheme of things in Nigeria… 1stly, in understanding the church, we have to study the shadow of the church, which is the Jewish nation in the scriptures.. We need to understand the xcteristics of the church, which include
1) Holiness ( total obedience to God’s instructions)
2) unity
3) love for the people
4) Prayer for the nation’s leadership…
When the church (clergy and laity)…..whenever the church fails to exhibit these characteristics the power of God will be short-circuited & the church will be ordinary…just like what has just happened in the 2023 Presidential Election… The enemy of the church (devil) has been able to lure the church (clergy & laity) away from the above xeracterist core value that makes the church strong..
One, the church( clergy /laity) is full of abominable activities that make us disobedience to God; these wrongful acts give the enemy access to
(2) divide the unity of the church using tribalism, this then leads to hatred for one another.
Lastly, the church is more selfish in prayers( it is I, me, myself) that is full in our prayers,, this 4prong attack is what the enemy used to make the church look ordinary in the concluded presidential election.. Although God always has remnants that HE can use to alter things in a client nation like Nigeria… Because Nigeria is a client nation( in God’s agenda for global evangelism), God will Spring last minute surprises in His mercy to show to the world HE IS THE GOD OF THE CHURCH
Favour A James Babatunde

Muslim political leaders are more politically savvy than Christian leaders. They know that onions, what they want and how to get same and hold to it. Bearing in mind the already assumption, right or wrong, that the Muslims are more in numbers, the tendency to use this to dominate the Nigerian political space if Christians are to be politically relevant in Nigeria. My expectation from our so-called pastors before the 2023 election is to be neutral and agitating against Muslim President/ Vice in future elections and to become a pressure fighting for a new order as Gov. Wike & Co. fought for Southern President, and it finally becomes a reality.
In the same vein, the Christians, through CAN and other bodies fighting for a balance of religion coming 2027.
Rotation of Presidency is already established and settled once and for all, eight years south, eight years North. This is precisely what the Christians should be agitating for through constitutional review or other ways that when the nominated president is Muslim, the vice must be president and vice versa. This is the only way Christians can hold either of the positions easily in the political space of the future; otherwise, politicians continue to hide under political exigency to treat Christians as second fiddle.
Funsho Adegoke, USA

Though the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) opposed the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the APC, the announcement of the party as the election winner cannot mean that the Church is powerless or politically incompetent. I will give two reasons for this position.

First, it is debatable and highly unlikely that the APC won the election. This is obvious from the unacceptable manner in which the INEC conducted the presidential election and the widespread rejection of the results.

Second, even if we assume that the APC won the election, the leadership of CAN probably proved itself powerless and politically incompetent, not the Church. This is because, while the leaders of CAN who opposed the Muslim-Muslim ticket are Christians, they are not the Church! Besides, many Christians also voted for the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket and ‘won’ with their party. It was ill-advised, therefore, for the CAN leaders to take their decision and make it the position of the Church, which ought to have been apolitical as a Body!

Finally, the assumption of the CAN leaders that a Christian president is the will of God for Nigeria or that Nigeria would be better off with a Christian leader is simplistic and unsubstantiated. At best, I believe the agitation was borne out of the flesh or mere rivalry. I think the CAN should have sought the will of God in the elections and simply aligned with it. In every nation, God can raise and use even non-Christians to fulfil His will (like Cyrus in Isaiah 44:24-28), just as many Christians in positions of power may not fulfil God’s will.
Rev. Anonymous

Thank you for your consideration, sir, I am sorry I cannot speak as a CAN official in Lagos nor can I give my opinion on what is still ongoing about the elections. Until we get the outcome of the courts, what we say or do not say will prompt the outcome. However, if what transpired during the elections is widely accepted by all, we will not have recourse to these submissions and opinion polls you request now. The Catholic Church and CAN Nigeria hierarchy shall make their respective statements when all is set. Thank you, and God bless.
Matthew Ogunyase

The results of the 2023 elections in Nigeria could not have been otherwise. Even immediately after independence, the Nigerian state has been in a state of flux, and this does not exclude the Christian community.
I have read over and over again the CAN’s position and directives on the 2023 Elections, my conclusion is that there is a lack of proper appreciation of the political context of Nigeria.
The irony of the situation is that the Church in Nigeria has all the 5 elements required to be an influential factor in a democracy yet she is weak. This weakness is borne out of the application of a wrong model. If the Nigerian Church is to be able to operate from a position of strength and determine political outcomes, there must be a paradigm shift. Of course the Church in Nigeria is not powerless. However, she lacks the necessary understanding of her position.
Iyanda Tunji