ADDRESS BY BOLA ADEWARA AT BREAKFAST MEETING WITH CAN PRESIDENT

ADDRESS BY DEACON BOLA ADEWARA, EDITOR E-LIFE MAGAZINE AND PRESIDENT, CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CPAN) AT A BREAKFAST MEETING WITH THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CAN) HIS EMINENCE REV. DR. SUPO AYOKUNLE ON CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO GLOBAL PERSECUTION, TAKING PLACE TODAY MAY 28TH, 2019 RADDISON BLUE HOTEL, IKEJA LAGOS NIGERIA.

I welcome you all to the press parley with the national president of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), His Eminence, Rev, Dr. Supo Ayokunle organised by Christians Press Association of Nigeria (CPAN) and hosted by the Lagos CAN here at Raddison Blue Hotel Lagos.

We are glad to have with us the CAN president, the father of Nigerian Christians, who despite his busy schedules found time to be here with us to address not just the press, but Christians in Nigeria on how to respond to global persecution. CPAN has chosen this topic in view of its currency, not just in Nigeria, but all over the world.

Though so many pundits have asserted that the killings we see in Nigeria is not targeted at Christians alone and that those who kill others are not necessarily from the opposing faith camps, but from facts available to us, from what we see clearly before us, that is not the truth. Boko Haram is a not fellowship in the Anglican Church, neither is ISIS a department the Nigerian Baptist Convention. We know their roots. We know where they come from. From the political body language of the opposing camp, there is a deliberate and concerted effort to subjugate the Christian faith and its adherents. CPAN says this without fear of anybody that the facts available to us directly points at this.

According to Free Encyclopedia, “The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith at the hands of both the Jews from whose religion Christianity arose and the Romans who controlled many of the lands.

It should be noted that the very first victim of persecution was the founder of the faith itself, Jesus the son of God. Despite the fact that He came to die to take away our sins, He and His disciples witness untold hardship in the course of their duties.

When Jesus left, the combined effort of the Jews and the Romans culminated into a worldwide saga of unfettered persecution which kicked off with the killing of Stephen and this led to the dispersal of the disciples around the world. All the 12, with the exception of John the beloved, suffered martyrdom.  Since that period till date, Christians are persecuted by various governments including the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the form of the Armenian Genocide, the Assyrian Genocide and the Greek Genocide, as well as by atheistic states such as the Soviet Union, Communist Albania, North Korea, Kenya, Mali and our dear country, Nigeria.

I need to draw your attention to the fact that, the persecution Christians faced is not limited to the bodily harm inflicted on them. Persecuted also is the Holy Book of the faith, the Bible. If you all know the battles the Bible went through to survive till date, then it would be clear to all and sundry the agenda of the devil and his cohort against the faith.

I shall streamline my speech to our experience in Nigeria, our Jerusalem, to elicit a response from our father in the Lord, the CAN president. In the 1960s and perhaps till the 1970s, we lived in peace in Nigeria. Governance was, to a large extent, devoid of religious undertones, interpretations and open skirmishes.  In 1985, from nowhere came one Mohammed Marwa, aka Maitatsine who began an insurrection in Kaduna town. The Maitatsine group was not a Catholic organisation. I was not told. I witnessed it live. Though the government of the day acted swiftly to quell the insurgency, but the field of play was prepared and since then, the macabre dance has not stopped.

Our biggest fear at CPAN is the response of Christians in Nigeria to these killings which is gradually become genocidal. As I said earlier, apologists of this regime for whatever they gain from there, would say not only Christians are being killed, but we can only speak for ourselves because he who feels it knows it. Everybody knows where the shoe pinches him. I am a Christian before anything. My constituency is the Church. I can’t abandon the Church of God and mount sentry at the gates of other faiths that are largely an accomplice in our destruction.

My president sir, CPAN believes that the Nigerian Christians are utterly directionless as it were. Unlike before, we now have so many splinter organisations claiming to represent Christians in different locations. There is no synergy between our leaders and the people. Many pastors in various churches are concerned with their personal agenda of empire building while the persecutors, sophisticated and well coordinated in their agenda, are moving forward.

I want to commend the current president of CAN for his forthrightness and ability to confront issues headlong. At CPAN, we have noted your so many courageous responses and interjections in our country, your positions to defend the stand of Christians and get for the Church what should go to the Church in elective positions and appointments. We have on records a list of your accomplishment.

We do not object to your return to office to complete the good work. But we dare seek a more virile CAN like we had in the days of Anthony Olubunmi Okogie. In a season of anomie like we are now, Nigerian Christians seek for a more virile CAN, a constant rapport with the Church not only in the political field, but also in ecumenism. 

So many Nigerians do not know the powers and duties of CAN. Many Nigerians think CAN has the power of a policeman to arrest fake pastors, close down churches with the gusto of a military leader. Don’t blame them. Nigerian Christians are the most gullible in the world and in their utter gullibility, Christians have seen so much in the hands of these pastors. Though CAN has no such powers, but an organisation can be as strong as the leadership envisions it.

Mr. President, we appreciate you so much. We do not stand in your way. We are ready to work with you to achieve the dreams of the Church in this season of anomie. We invited you here to direct us on how to achieve this… Christian Response to Global Persecution.

Thank you, Mr. President and gentlemen of the press.