THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL SPACE - *A Mission Field Crying for Attention* - a presentation by Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu at the Online Political Summit organized by The CRM Political Academy to mark Nigeria’s 60th Independent Anniversary on 1st October 2020.
TEXT: Romans 13:1-8
*INTRODUCTION*
More than a century ago, Fredrich Stiller bewailed the lack of good leaders, and articulated his dilemma in these piercing words: *“The critical juncture found none but second-rated actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected, because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage and resolution.”* One would think that he spoke about Nigeria. The predominance of low-rated political actors on Nigeria’s political stage is something that should worry every responsible Nigerian. The principal reason for the dominance of these low-rated actors is the endemic political illiteracy among the populace. Highlighting the danger of political illiteracy, Bertolt Brecht rightly observed, *“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He does not seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn’t know … that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.”* ⁸
Politics is essentially the agreed-upon means by which a society orders its life through the making of public and private decisions. The quality of any decision depends largely on the quality of mind that makes it. If politics is about making public and private decisions that would determine the course of the entire country, then deliberate efforts should be made to recruit some of our best minds and the godliest among us to participate in the political process. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in Nigeria in our recent history. The intellectual and spiritual content of our national politics has been on a downward spiral as scholars and godly people are farther and farther alienated from the mainstream of our national politics. This has come with a heavy price, as succinctly articulated by Plato – *“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”*
Nigeria needs leaders who are God-fearing but also pragmatic scholars, who are adept at navigating between theory and practice, who are comfortable in ivory towers with the intellectuals as well as in the workshop of the local artisans. Men and women who can feel the pulse of God’s heart and let it guide them in their leadership roles.
*WHY ARE CHRISTIANS AFRAID OF THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL TERRAIN?*
Politics in Nigeria is outstanding for its bad-temperedness. The prevailing law that governs political actions is the law of the jungle that shows no regards to the ethics of civilization. For us to create a respectable political culture, we must find ways to persuade cultured and respectable men and women to get involved. Again, Nigerian politics today is biased towards the personalities of the politicians – who they are, where they come from, what is their religious affiliation, and not on the quality of their political thoughts, policies and civility. This makes politics of ideology very difficult in our polity. With a total absence of ideology in our political dictionary, politics as practiced in this country has been a war fought with brute force and big money. This ought to change; but by who? The other obvious reason Christians stay away from politics in Nigeria is the nemesis of a faulty political theology. Theology drives human action. People act in accordance to their beliefs. A wrong theology would therefore translate into wrong practice. The majority of Nigerian Christians see politics as dirty and something that should be avoided by any person who is serious about making heaven. This line of reasoning is traceable to the political theology that was bequeathed to the Nigerian church by the western missionaries. Dr Ndu Akuchie in a lecture in Owerri attributed this to *“unbiblical dualism,”* which *“dichotomized the thinking of Nigerian Chris-tians into spiritual and secular.”* This unfortunate theological construct he argued, *“erected an order, which excluded economic and political concerns from the missionary message”* and that resulted in a distorted and grossly restricted understanding of true biblical Christianity. The economist R.H. Tawney decried this faulty theology when he said:
*To divorce religion from matters of social organization and economic activity which occupy nine-tenths of the life of the nine-tenths of mankind, on the grounds that they are common and unclean, is to make them unclean and ultimately to destroy religion in the individual soul to which you have attempted to confine it. It must be the task of Christianity … to overcome that divorce. It must overcome it not in order to secularize the Church but in order to spiritualize the society. It is not a question of allowing economic interests to encroach on spiritual interests, but of dedicating man’s struggle with nature, which is what … his industry is, to the service of God in order that it may no longer be a struggle with his fellowmen… The whole distinction between the life of the spirit and the fabric of society is a false antithesis … We must beware of the not uncommon fallacy of saying that what we desire is a change of heart, while meaning that what we do not desire is a change of anything else.*
However, contrary to the fallacy of “unbiblical dualism,” God holds an integrated view of the Christian life on earth. Hence, the Bible directs, “Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:17, The Message Bible). If God demands that we live every detail in our lives to honour Jesus, that must have included our participation in politics. It is then clear that the bifurcation of Christian life into secular and sacred is certainly not the will of God for us. Apart from the fact that a small percentage of Christians participate in politics, the most telling of the Christians apathy towards politics is most evident in the seeming shyness or obvious lack of will for those who participate in politics to do so as witnesses to their faith. Most Christian politicians do not see their participation in politics as God’s calling to showcase the character of Christ as His representatives and ambassadors of the King of Heaven. To them, politics and Christianity run on parallel lines and must be kept as immiscible as possible. It is therefore not uncommon to hear them retort, “this is politics and not church,” when they are challenged with the responsibility to live up to their Christian faith.
*THE NECESSITY FOR CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS*
This brings us to the heart of our discourse - why should Christians see politics as a mission field that is languishing for lack of political missionaries? So much can be said on this but let me just highlight four key points I feel are very fundamental:
1. *Stewardship of power*:
Political power is next to God’s Power and it is God-giving
The dictionary defines politics as “the science or art of political governance” and Political as “exercising or seeking power in the government or public affairs of a state, municipality etc.” Since politics is concerned with power that has capacity to directly or indirectly control the behaviour of the people in the society, it is then a necessary tool that followers of Christ can use to drive positive good in our nation. The Bible clearly declares, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this that power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11, NKJV). God delegates power to people to enable them execute His will on earth by empowering the poor, the voiceless and those on the margins of the society. The poor are poor not because they are lazy as is often assumed but because power is tilted against them in the favour of their oppressors. The Bible affirming this says, “Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless” (Eccl 4:1, NLT). Christians are needed in politics to ensure the restructuring of power relations in favour of the poor (Amos 2:6).
2. *Healing and preservation of the political process*
Our Lord Jesus conceptualized Christian influence in the world as salt and light – calling them the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). The salt and light - metaphors of the believers, bespeaks of their capacity to penetrate and permeate society without losing their unique identity. Salt is best positioned to achieve its purpose when it dissolves in the food it is meant to season. If the salt is placed in the same container but refuses to engage the food in very intimate ways, its influence and effect would never be felt. In the same vein, the light is only useful as it engages darkness. The church that is preoccupied with self-preservation will not fulfil the mandate to serve as the light of the world. The fear of being contaminated with the world has kept the church in a self-protective custody within its walls, to the negligence of the society, instead of leading the war against evil and advancing righteousness despite the opposition of the enemy. The parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) acknowledges divine awareness of the coexistence of good and evil in the human society and goes on to show that God knows how to deal with that situation. Hence, good people and bad people can coexist in a political milieu provided the good ones do not jettison their goodly characters to take up the evil character. Any thought that good people can ever find a safe haven where they can retreat to isolated purity under the sun is at least a delusive fantasy.
3. *Promoting the pre-emuinence of Christ in the government*
The Bible makes it very clear that God wants Christ to have pre-eminence in every sphere of life on earth (Colossians 1:15-18). God is a principal stakeholder in governance. The Bible informs us that the government will be upon the shoulder of Christ and that the increase of His government and peace shall have no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). The resting of government upon the shoulders of Christ is indicative of the responsibility the believers are expected to shoulder by their participation in the political process. Later on, in Isaiah we have this revealing scripture: “For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us” (Isaiah 33:22). You can see the three arms of government mentioned in the verse defining the scope of God’s interest in human government:
- God as Judge (judiciary) –He is interested in the administration of justice and honest interpretation of our laws by the courts.
- God as Lawgiver (legislature) –He wants to see that just and righteous laws are made that guarantees fairness to all irrespective of status.
- God as King (the executive) –He desires to see effective stewardship and equitable distribution of our commonwealth.
Christians, being God’s children are most qualified to represent God’s interest in these positions, however they have to get there through political processes.
4. *Modelling an alternative political culture*
Politics derives its character from politicians. One cannot give what one does not have. An evil man cannot deliver righteous governance. We must therefore insist on the imperative necessity for good and Christlike Christians to get involved in politics if we must experience transformation. The prevailing political culture around us is marked by ostentation, arrogance, and crude power. The Christian is needed in politics to model an alternative culture that will be marked by the character of Christ manifesting love, simplicity, humility and kindness. No matter what anybody feels about it, the lifestyle of our political leaders set the benchmark of what is ideal. It is very unfortunate that a lot of times when Christians get into political offices, they tend to lose the character of Christ and flow with the dominant culture of profligacy. The only way to change this is to push many strong Christians into the political class and create a forum where they can continue to receive spiritual help and to keep them accountable. It must be noted as Professor Hagher observed, *“a politician can only bring to bear on political practice his own worldview, which is a product of his beliefs, education and concept of right and wrong.”* For Christians to become true witnesses for Jesus in politics, they must be specially prepared for that role through intentional discipleship programme.
*CONCLUSION*
We need to remind ourselves that God has so designed nature that it does not tolerate a vacuum. If the good refrain themselves from participating in politics, nature will fill the gap with whoever is available. Recall the parable of Jotham:
*8 “The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, Reign over us!’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honour God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 10 “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’ 12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers both God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 14 “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, Then come and take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’* (Judges 9:8-15).
In conclusion, let me remind us of the immortal counsel of Chester Bowles that *“Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.”* This statement should resonate very deeply with every Nigerian. Our current breed of politicians has shown again and again that they lack the capacity to be entrusted with our government. We must therefore rise to the occasion and do whatever we can to save our government from the hands of the breed politicians that now parade the corridors of power in our nation. Our first line of action will be to work hard to locate and recruit into the political space men and women of godly character with relevant competencies to steward our commonwealth for our common good and entrench the rule of law in our polity. You are the one we are looking for! ️
TEXT: Romans 13:1-8
*INTRODUCTION*
More than a century ago, Fredrich Stiller bewailed the lack of good leaders, and articulated his dilemma in these piercing words: *“The critical juncture found none but second-rated actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected, because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage and resolution.”* One would think that he spoke about Nigeria. The predominance of low-rated political actors on Nigeria’s political stage is something that should worry every responsible Nigerian. The principal reason for the dominance of these low-rated actors is the endemic political illiteracy among the populace. Highlighting the danger of political illiteracy, Bertolt Brecht rightly observed, *“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He does not seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn’t know … that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.”* ⁸
Politics is essentially the agreed-upon means by which a society orders its life through the making of public and private decisions. The quality of any decision depends largely on the quality of mind that makes it. If politics is about making public and private decisions that would determine the course of the entire country, then deliberate efforts should be made to recruit some of our best minds and the godliest among us to participate in the political process. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in Nigeria in our recent history. The intellectual and spiritual content of our national politics has been on a downward spiral as scholars and godly people are farther and farther alienated from the mainstream of our national politics. This has come with a heavy price, as succinctly articulated by Plato – *“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”*
Nigeria needs leaders who are God-fearing but also pragmatic scholars, who are adept at navigating between theory and practice, who are comfortable in ivory towers with the intellectuals as well as in the workshop of the local artisans. Men and women who can feel the pulse of God’s heart and let it guide them in their leadership roles.
*WHY ARE CHRISTIANS AFRAID OF THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL TERRAIN?*
Politics in Nigeria is outstanding for its bad-temperedness. The prevailing law that governs political actions is the law of the jungle that shows no regards to the ethics of civilization. For us to create a respectable political culture, we must find ways to persuade cultured and respectable men and women to get involved. Again, Nigerian politics today is biased towards the personalities of the politicians – who they are, where they come from, what is their religious affiliation, and not on the quality of their political thoughts, policies and civility. This makes politics of ideology very difficult in our polity. With a total absence of ideology in our political dictionary, politics as practiced in this country has been a war fought with brute force and big money. This ought to change; but by who? The other obvious reason Christians stay away from politics in Nigeria is the nemesis of a faulty political theology. Theology drives human action. People act in accordance to their beliefs. A wrong theology would therefore translate into wrong practice. The majority of Nigerian Christians see politics as dirty and something that should be avoided by any person who is serious about making heaven. This line of reasoning is traceable to the political theology that was bequeathed to the Nigerian church by the western missionaries. Dr Ndu Akuchie in a lecture in Owerri attributed this to *“unbiblical dualism,”* which *“dichotomized the thinking of Nigerian Chris-tians into spiritual and secular.”* This unfortunate theological construct he argued, *“erected an order, which excluded economic and political concerns from the missionary message”* and that resulted in a distorted and grossly restricted understanding of true biblical Christianity. The economist R.H. Tawney decried this faulty theology when he said:
*To divorce religion from matters of social organization and economic activity which occupy nine-tenths of the life of the nine-tenths of mankind, on the grounds that they are common and unclean, is to make them unclean and ultimately to destroy religion in the individual soul to which you have attempted to confine it. It must be the task of Christianity … to overcome that divorce. It must overcome it not in order to secularize the Church but in order to spiritualize the society. It is not a question of allowing economic interests to encroach on spiritual interests, but of dedicating man’s struggle with nature, which is what … his industry is, to the service of God in order that it may no longer be a struggle with his fellowmen… The whole distinction between the life of the spirit and the fabric of society is a false antithesis … We must beware of the not uncommon fallacy of saying that what we desire is a change of heart, while meaning that what we do not desire is a change of anything else.*
However, contrary to the fallacy of “unbiblical dualism,” God holds an integrated view of the Christian life on earth. Hence, the Bible directs, “Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:17, The Message Bible). If God demands that we live every detail in our lives to honour Jesus, that must have included our participation in politics. It is then clear that the bifurcation of Christian life into secular and sacred is certainly not the will of God for us. Apart from the fact that a small percentage of Christians participate in politics, the most telling of the Christians apathy towards politics is most evident in the seeming shyness or obvious lack of will for those who participate in politics to do so as witnesses to their faith. Most Christian politicians do not see their participation in politics as God’s calling to showcase the character of Christ as His representatives and ambassadors of the King of Heaven. To them, politics and Christianity run on parallel lines and must be kept as immiscible as possible. It is therefore not uncommon to hear them retort, “this is politics and not church,” when they are challenged with the responsibility to live up to their Christian faith.
*THE NECESSITY FOR CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS*
This brings us to the heart of our discourse - why should Christians see politics as a mission field that is languishing for lack of political missionaries? So much can be said on this but let me just highlight four key points I feel are very fundamental:
1. *Stewardship of power*:
Political power is next to God’s Power and it is God-giving
The dictionary defines politics as “the science or art of political governance” and Political as “exercising or seeking power in the government or public affairs of a state, municipality etc.” Since politics is concerned with power that has capacity to directly or indirectly control the behaviour of the people in the society, it is then a necessary tool that followers of Christ can use to drive positive good in our nation. The Bible clearly declares, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this that power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11, NKJV). God delegates power to people to enable them execute His will on earth by empowering the poor, the voiceless and those on the margins of the society. The poor are poor not because they are lazy as is often assumed but because power is tilted against them in the favour of their oppressors. The Bible affirming this says, “Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless” (Eccl 4:1, NLT). Christians are needed in politics to ensure the restructuring of power relations in favour of the poor (Amos 2:6).
2. *Healing and preservation of the political process*
Our Lord Jesus conceptualized Christian influence in the world as salt and light – calling them the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). The salt and light - metaphors of the believers, bespeaks of their capacity to penetrate and permeate society without losing their unique identity. Salt is best positioned to achieve its purpose when it dissolves in the food it is meant to season. If the salt is placed in the same container but refuses to engage the food in very intimate ways, its influence and effect would never be felt. In the same vein, the light is only useful as it engages darkness. The church that is preoccupied with self-preservation will not fulfil the mandate to serve as the light of the world. The fear of being contaminated with the world has kept the church in a self-protective custody within its walls, to the negligence of the society, instead of leading the war against evil and advancing righteousness despite the opposition of the enemy. The parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) acknowledges divine awareness of the coexistence of good and evil in the human society and goes on to show that God knows how to deal with that situation. Hence, good people and bad people can coexist in a political milieu provided the good ones do not jettison their goodly characters to take up the evil character. Any thought that good people can ever find a safe haven where they can retreat to isolated purity under the sun is at least a delusive fantasy.
3. *Promoting the pre-emuinence of Christ in the government*
The Bible makes it very clear that God wants Christ to have pre-eminence in every sphere of life on earth (Colossians 1:15-18). God is a principal stakeholder in governance. The Bible informs us that the government will be upon the shoulder of Christ and that the increase of His government and peace shall have no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). The resting of government upon the shoulders of Christ is indicative of the responsibility the believers are expected to shoulder by their participation in the political process. Later on, in Isaiah we have this revealing scripture: “For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us” (Isaiah 33:22). You can see the three arms of government mentioned in the verse defining the scope of God’s interest in human government:
- God as Judge (judiciary) –He is interested in the administration of justice and honest interpretation of our laws by the courts.
- God as Lawgiver (legislature) –He wants to see that just and righteous laws are made that guarantees fairness to all irrespective of status.
- God as King (the executive) –He desires to see effective stewardship and equitable distribution of our commonwealth.
Christians, being God’s children are most qualified to represent God’s interest in these positions, however they have to get there through political processes.
4. *Modelling an alternative political culture*
Politics derives its character from politicians. One cannot give what one does not have. An evil man cannot deliver righteous governance. We must therefore insist on the imperative necessity for good and Christlike Christians to get involved in politics if we must experience transformation. The prevailing political culture around us is marked by ostentation, arrogance, and crude power. The Christian is needed in politics to model an alternative culture that will be marked by the character of Christ manifesting love, simplicity, humility and kindness. No matter what anybody feels about it, the lifestyle of our political leaders set the benchmark of what is ideal. It is very unfortunate that a lot of times when Christians get into political offices, they tend to lose the character of Christ and flow with the dominant culture of profligacy. The only way to change this is to push many strong Christians into the political class and create a forum where they can continue to receive spiritual help and to keep them accountable. It must be noted as Professor Hagher observed, *“a politician can only bring to bear on political practice his own worldview, which is a product of his beliefs, education and concept of right and wrong.”* For Christians to become true witnesses for Jesus in politics, they must be specially prepared for that role through intentional discipleship programme.
*CONCLUSION*
We need to remind ourselves that God has so designed nature that it does not tolerate a vacuum. If the good refrain themselves from participating in politics, nature will fill the gap with whoever is available. Recall the parable of Jotham:
*8 “The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, Reign over us!’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honour God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 10 “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’ 12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers both God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 14 “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, Then come and take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’* (Judges 9:8-15).
In conclusion, let me remind us of the immortal counsel of Chester Bowles that *“Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.”* This statement should resonate very deeply with every Nigerian. Our current breed of politicians has shown again and again that they lack the capacity to be entrusted with our government. We must therefore rise to the occasion and do whatever we can to save our government from the hands of the breed politicians that now parade the corridors of power in our nation. Our first line of action will be to work hard to locate and recruit into the political space men and women of godly character with relevant competencies to steward our commonwealth for our common good and entrench the rule of law in our polity. You are the one we are looking for! ️
THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL SPACE - *A Mission Field Crying for Attention* - a presentation by Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu at the Online Political Summit organized by The CRM Political Academy to mark Nigeria’s 60th Independent Anniversary on 1st October 2020.
TEXT: Romans 13:1-8
*INTRODUCTION*
More than a century ago, Fredrich Stiller bewailed the lack of good leaders, and articulated his dilemma in these piercing words: *“The critical juncture found none but second-rated actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected, because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage and resolution.”* One would think that he spoke about Nigeria. The predominance of low-rated political actors on Nigeria’s political stage is something that should worry every responsible Nigerian. The principal reason for the dominance of these low-rated actors is the endemic political illiteracy among the populace. Highlighting the danger of political illiteracy, Bertolt Brecht rightly observed, *“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He does not seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines, all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn’t know … that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.”* ⁸
Politics is essentially the agreed-upon means by which a society orders its life through the making of public and private decisions. The quality of any decision depends largely on the quality of mind that makes it. If politics is about making public and private decisions that would determine the course of the entire country, then deliberate efforts should be made to recruit some of our best minds and the godliest among us to participate in the political process. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in Nigeria in our recent history. The intellectual and spiritual content of our national politics has been on a downward spiral as scholars and godly people are farther and farther alienated from the mainstream of our national politics. This has come with a heavy price, as succinctly articulated by Plato – *“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”*
Nigeria needs leaders who are God-fearing but also pragmatic scholars, who are adept at navigating between theory and practice, who are comfortable in ivory towers with the intellectuals as well as in the workshop of the local artisans. Men and women who can feel the pulse of God’s heart and let it guide them in their leadership roles.
*WHY ARE CHRISTIANS AFRAID OF THE NIGERIAN POLITICAL TERRAIN?*
Politics in Nigeria is outstanding for its bad-temperedness. The prevailing law that governs political actions is the law of the jungle that shows no regards to the ethics of civilization. For us to create a respectable political culture, we must find ways to persuade cultured and respectable men and women to get involved. Again, Nigerian politics today is biased towards the personalities of the politicians – who they are, where they come from, what is their religious affiliation, and not on the quality of their political thoughts, policies and civility. This makes politics of ideology very difficult in our polity. With a total absence of ideology in our political dictionary, politics as practiced in this country has been a war fought with brute force and big money. This ought to change; but by who? The other obvious reason Christians stay away from politics in Nigeria is the nemesis of a faulty political theology. Theology drives human action. People act in accordance to their beliefs. A wrong theology would therefore translate into wrong practice. The majority of Nigerian Christians see politics as dirty and something that should be avoided by any person who is serious about making heaven. This line of reasoning is traceable to the political theology that was bequeathed to the Nigerian church by the western missionaries. Dr Ndu Akuchie in a lecture in Owerri attributed this to *“unbiblical dualism,”* which *“dichotomized the thinking of Nigerian Chris-tians into spiritual and secular.”* This unfortunate theological construct he argued, *“erected an order, which excluded economic and political concerns from the missionary message”* and that resulted in a distorted and grossly restricted understanding of true biblical Christianity. The economist R.H. Tawney decried this faulty theology when he said:
*To divorce religion from matters of social organization and economic activity which occupy nine-tenths of the life of the nine-tenths of mankind, on the grounds that they are common and unclean, is to make them unclean and ultimately to destroy religion in the individual soul to which you have attempted to confine it. It must be the task of Christianity … to overcome that divorce. It must overcome it not in order to secularize the Church but in order to spiritualize the society. It is not a question of allowing economic interests to encroach on spiritual interests, but of dedicating man’s struggle with nature, which is what … his industry is, to the service of God in order that it may no longer be a struggle with his fellowmen… The whole distinction between the life of the spirit and the fabric of society is a false antithesis … We must beware of the not uncommon fallacy of saying that what we desire is a change of heart, while meaning that what we do not desire is a change of anything else.*
However, contrary to the fallacy of “unbiblical dualism,” God holds an integrated view of the Christian life on earth. Hence, the Bible directs, “Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:17, The Message Bible). If God demands that we live every detail in our lives to honour Jesus, that must have included our participation in politics. It is then clear that the bifurcation of Christian life into secular and sacred is certainly not the will of God for us. Apart from the fact that a small percentage of Christians participate in politics, the most telling of the Christians apathy towards politics is most evident in the seeming shyness or obvious lack of will for those who participate in politics to do so as witnesses to their faith. Most Christian politicians do not see their participation in politics as God’s calling to showcase the character of Christ as His representatives and ambassadors of the King of Heaven. To them, politics and Christianity run on parallel lines and must be kept as immiscible as possible. It is therefore not uncommon to hear them retort, “this is politics and not church,” when they are challenged with the responsibility to live up to their Christian faith.
*THE NECESSITY FOR CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS*
This brings us to the heart of our discourse - why should Christians see politics as a mission field that is languishing for lack of political missionaries? So much can be said on this but let me just highlight four key points I feel are very fundamental:
1. *Stewardship of power*:
Political power is next to God’s Power and it is God-giving
The dictionary defines politics as “the science or art of political governance” and Political as “exercising or seeking power in the government or public affairs of a state, municipality etc.” Since politics is concerned with power that has capacity to directly or indirectly control the behaviour of the people in the society, it is then a necessary tool that followers of Christ can use to drive positive good in our nation. The Bible clearly declares, “God has spoken once, twice I have heard this that power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11, NKJV). God delegates power to people to enable them execute His will on earth by empowering the poor, the voiceless and those on the margins of the society. The poor are poor not because they are lazy as is often assumed but because power is tilted against them in the favour of their oppressors. The Bible affirming this says, “Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless” (Eccl 4:1, NLT). Christians are needed in politics to ensure the restructuring of power relations in favour of the poor (Amos 2:6).
2. *Healing and preservation of the political process*
Our Lord Jesus conceptualized Christian influence in the world as salt and light – calling them the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). The salt and light - metaphors of the believers, bespeaks of their capacity to penetrate and permeate society without losing their unique identity. Salt is best positioned to achieve its purpose when it dissolves in the food it is meant to season. If the salt is placed in the same container but refuses to engage the food in very intimate ways, its influence and effect would never be felt. In the same vein, the light is only useful as it engages darkness. The church that is preoccupied with self-preservation will not fulfil the mandate to serve as the light of the world. The fear of being contaminated with the world has kept the church in a self-protective custody within its walls, to the negligence of the society, instead of leading the war against evil and advancing righteousness despite the opposition of the enemy. The parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) acknowledges divine awareness of the coexistence of good and evil in the human society and goes on to show that God knows how to deal with that situation. Hence, good people and bad people can coexist in a political milieu provided the good ones do not jettison their goodly characters to take up the evil character. Any thought that good people can ever find a safe haven where they can retreat to isolated purity under the sun is at least a delusive fantasy.
3. *Promoting the pre-emuinence of Christ in the government*
The Bible makes it very clear that God wants Christ to have pre-eminence in every sphere of life on earth (Colossians 1:15-18). God is a principal stakeholder in governance. The Bible informs us that the government will be upon the shoulder of Christ and that the increase of His government and peace shall have no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). The resting of government upon the shoulders of Christ is indicative of the responsibility the believers are expected to shoulder by their participation in the political process. Later on, in Isaiah we have this revealing scripture: “For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us” (Isaiah 33:22). You can see the three arms of government mentioned in the verse defining the scope of God’s interest in human government:
- God as Judge (judiciary) –He is interested in the administration of justice and honest interpretation of our laws by the courts.
- God as Lawgiver (legislature) –He wants to see that just and righteous laws are made that guarantees fairness to all irrespective of status.
- God as King (the executive) –He desires to see effective stewardship and equitable distribution of our commonwealth.
Christians, being God’s children are most qualified to represent God’s interest in these positions, however they have to get there through political processes.
4. *Modelling an alternative political culture*
Politics derives its character from politicians. One cannot give what one does not have. An evil man cannot deliver righteous governance. We must therefore insist on the imperative necessity for good and Christlike Christians to get involved in politics if we must experience transformation. The prevailing political culture around us is marked by ostentation, arrogance, and crude power. The Christian is needed in politics to model an alternative culture that will be marked by the character of Christ manifesting love, simplicity, humility and kindness. No matter what anybody feels about it, the lifestyle of our political leaders set the benchmark of what is ideal. It is very unfortunate that a lot of times when Christians get into political offices, they tend to lose the character of Christ and flow with the dominant culture of profligacy. The only way to change this is to push many strong Christians into the political class and create a forum where they can continue to receive spiritual help and to keep them accountable. It must be noted as Professor Hagher observed, *“a politician can only bring to bear on political practice his own worldview, which is a product of his beliefs, education and concept of right and wrong.”* For Christians to become true witnesses for Jesus in politics, they must be specially prepared for that role through intentional discipleship programme.
*CONCLUSION*
We need to remind ourselves that God has so designed nature that it does not tolerate a vacuum. If the good refrain themselves from participating in politics, nature will fill the gap with whoever is available. Recall the parable of Jotham:
*8 “The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, Reign over us!’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honour God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 10 “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’ 12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers both God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 14 “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, Then come and take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’* (Judges 9:8-15).
In conclusion, let me remind us of the immortal counsel of Chester Bowles that *“Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.”* This statement should resonate very deeply with every Nigerian. Our current breed of politicians has shown again and again that they lack the capacity to be entrusted with our government. We must therefore rise to the occasion and do whatever we can to save our government from the hands of the breed politicians that now parade the corridors of power in our nation. Our first line of action will be to work hard to locate and recruit into the political space men and women of godly character with relevant competencies to steward our commonwealth for our common good and entrench the rule of law in our polity. You are the one we are looking for! 🇳🇬⛪️😇🙏🔥
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