Pastor Chris Okotie of House Hold of God , 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.
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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