House Hold of God Head pastor Chris Okotie, has called for the
resignation of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor as President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria CAN over the $9.3m arms deal scandal in which his
private jet was implicated in.
In a piece titled "$9.3m Scandal: Oritsejafor Should Do The Right Thing'
which was posted on his Facebook page today, Okotie said the continued
relationship between Oritsejafor and the Presidency has caused a lot of
embarrassment to the Christian body and that it was time the elder
clergyman resigned to salvage the respect of CAN. Read his piece after
the cut...
The
recent seizure by the South African authorities of $9.3m found in a
private jet owned by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, CAN, has aggravated the image problem of this
country at a time when the narrative of this government is brimming with
negatives under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The
South African government took the action on the alleged charge that the
undeclared $9.3m found in the plane might have been laundered. This
revelation came when the dust generated by the seemingly dubious
donation of the jet to Pastor Ayo is yet to settle. His friendship with
the President has been at the centre of the controversies that mark his
explosive tenure as the leader of the eponymous religious organization
in Nigeria.
Not
that it is a sin to be the President’s Pal, but when such relationship
becomes provocatively patronizing, or self-serving, it is unacceptable.
The Pastor does not show restraint in the way he goes about, publicly
hobnobbing with the President as if he is the Chaplain of Aso Rock. This
certainly has compromised the integrity of his office as CAN President
and this latest incident is just the climax of embarrassing incidents we
can’t tolerate any longer.
Considering
the collateral damage Pastor Ayo’s close relationship with the
President has done to the Christian community, it is fit and proper for
the Pastor to resign immediately as CAN President to salvage what
remains of the battered image of the association.
This
is without prejudice to the on-going investigation on the matter.
Denials of his culpability by the Federal Government, CAN officials and
his own recent defense, does nothing to reduce the moral burden this
whole saga places on his shoulders. As the titular leader of Christians
in Nigeria, there’s now a serious crisis of confidence on his leadership
and he ought to respond to it by resigning from his exalted position.
That
is what the ecclesiastic responsibility of his calling as a gospel
minister dictates, once he finds himself in a situation where his
continued occupation of public office suffers a moral deficit, on
account of any error of commission or omission. If one may ask: why
should Pastor Ayo’s jet be the one that was chartered for this ill-fated
transaction when there are numerous competitors in that business in
which he is obviously a new player?
It
is very difficult to sustain the argument that a civilian aircraft is
ideal to ferry weapons of war. A sitting President of CAN should never
be involved in any way in the procurement of arms to fight insurgents
like Boko Haram which claims Islamic principles in its war against the
state. To do so is to expose Christians to more deadly attacks.
To
whom much is given, much is expected. The Pastor has the distinction of
being the first and only person to occupy the posts of CAN President,
and President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, until
recently when Rev. Felix Omobude succeeded him as PFN President.
Pastor
Ayo’s friendship with President Jonathan is perfectly legitimate and
nobody should attempt to query such relationship. However, the Pastor
opens himself to criticism of this otherwise normal social interaction
because of his indiscretion in identifying too closely to the President,
in a way that suggests a veiled endorsement of Dr. Jonathan’s policies
and actions by the entire Christian community. He ought to have
identified privately with the President knowing full well that he
carries the mandate of the Christian community at these trying times.
In
a nation of contending faiths, Pastor Ayo literally ignores our
divergent religious sensibilities as he sometimes gets himself involved
in public quarrels with the President’s critics, from the muslim faith
as well as in the opposition. Not all Christians are comfortable with
this posture by their leader, especially at a time of intense
politicking and the sectarian tensions generated by the Boko Haram
insurgents and communal violence involving ethnic minorities with
entrenched religious identities.
The
cumulative effect of Pastor Ayo’s abrasive leadership style has also
polarized the Christian community as evidenced by the current
unprecedented division in CAN. Before now, leaders of this organization
deliberately stayed out of politics in keeping with the traditional
stance of neutrality of the body vis-a-vis the policy postures of
incumbent governments. In fact, former PFN leaders like the late
Archbishop Benson Idohosa and ex-CAN President, Olubunmi Cardinal Okogie
kept governments on their toes during their time.
In
more mature democracies, it is not unusual for public officers to
resign from office when their actions appear to degrade their positions.
And they would not have to wait to be found guilty in circumstances
surrounding their actions before they throw in the towel. In other
words, they could even be victims of circumstances; or in rare cases,
subjects of blackmail. It didn’t matter. Once you are pelted in any way,
you quit to protect the integrity of your office.
That
was the case of Dominic Strauss-Khan who resigned his position as the
President of IMF because he was accused of molesting a maid in a hotel
in the United States. He was eventually acquitted after a celebrated
trial. The Prime Minister of South Korea, Jong Hong-won resigned because
his compatriots were drowned recently in a chartered cruise ship which
carried some students on a picnic. Just last month, the First Minister
of Scotland, Mr. Alex Salmond resigned because he led his country’s
failed bid to gain independence from the United Kingdom. Nobody asked
him to resign; he did so of his own accord because he felt it was wrong
to continue to run a country he launched on a part of an unsuccessful
“secession”.
If
purely secular leaders could do this to affirm their integrity, Pastor
Ayo should take the honourable path by leaving office, not necessarily
because he is guilty as charged, but to restore honour to an exalted
office he has unwittingly degraded because of his unabashed flirtation
with the head of a government that is perceived as one of the most
corrupt in the world. The Bible commands us to “flee from all appearance
of evil”.
Nobody
says Pastor Ayo cannot do business; he could have been in order, if he
does so as the Pastor of his Word of Life Bible Church, WOLBC. But since
his private jet was involved in a transaction gone awry in a foreign
land, while he is still the sitting President of CAN, it is difficult
for him to continue to command the respect of Nigerian Christians of
diverse denominations who constitute the CAN group, regardless of the
defense his sympathizers and the Federal Government tried to put up on
his behalf.
If
this incident had happened in Pastor Ayo’s capacity as the head/founder
of the Word of Life Bible Church, no one could justifiably call for his
head because the Bible teaches that the “call of God is without
repentance”. In other words, regardless of the conduct of a servant of
God, He does not remove them from office or withdraw their anointing.
This is one of the mysteries of the gospel. The Almighty has a way of
chastising his errant servants.
But
here, we are dealing with Pastor Ayo as the leader of CAN; the largest
umbrella of Nigerian Christians. He is condemned to be judged by secular
standards, which, in this case, demands that, having found himself in a
quagmire which calls to question, the sanctity of his office, he must
step down to redeem his image.
The
Pastor should quit the CAN post and return to his church where he could
then recalibrate himself, away from this season of anomie.
Rev. Okotie, a Presidential Aspirant, wrote from Lagos
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