Sometime ago, in my church, We had a bible study session about God’s expectations for Nigerian Christians in Nigerian Politics. A particular point of discussion that came up was about how Christians have failed Christ and God with their conduct in leadership roles and politics in Nigeria. As expected, we all did the regular bible thumping about how Christians are not doing enough, and why we (as Christians) should be doing more to “change our society for God.” In the end the consensus was that, despite the fact that we have tried this Christian in politics thing in Nigeria for decades and we have not managed to get Nigeria to be embody true Christian values, or even get one single politician like our dream biblical politician, Daniel, if we pray more, and also encourage more Nigerian Christian soldiers to go into the spiritual war front that is Nigerian politics, we will eventually turn Nigerian into a land where politics will embody Christian values. With this smart and very original bit of insight, We happily shared the grace and each went home rejoicing.
However after the service I couldn’t help but wonder why with all the strong prayers of Christian leaders in and the faithful Christian soldiers sent into the war, Christianity in Nigerian politics hasn’t been quite “Veni Vidi Vici!”. Our Daniel, who will change things around, has simply not shown up. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the problem isn’t the Nigerian system, it is Nigerian Christianity that has just been sending its warriors to be swallowed by the black hole that is Nigerian politics for nothing. What makes it worse is that all our pastors and priests and G.Os are just engaging in optimistic Bible thumping instead of pausing to think about what they are doing. I finally came to the conclusion that as long as Nigeria exists in its current form, the Daniel we are expecting will never come. What we will get is what we have been getting all these decades, (1.) “faithful” Christians getting sent into politics and getting swallowed up by the corruption, and (2.) unscrupulous and sleazy personalities taking advantage of the Christian agenda to get themselves elected so that they can partake in the looting and stealing.
The answer to why we have not turned Nigeria into a Christian nation in spite of decades of bible thumping is simple, the ideals of Christianity are simply not compatible with the realities of Nigeria or any other democracy for that matter. The unalloyed truth is this, Christianity (and Judaism before it) was not created to work with democracy. Therefore these earnest attempts by us Christians to turn the country into a Christian nation is just us wasting our time. One of the problems with us Nigerian Christians is that we have not decided if we want a developed nation or a Christian nation. By virtue of our faith and optimism, we tend to believe that both are either the same, or that with enough prayers, the former can lead to the latter. And we persist with this belief even though there is nowhere in the world where it has ever been achieved. Modern Israel, despite the fact that she has used the Christian agenda to turn herself into everyone’s favourite spoilt brat, is not a Christian nation. Even ancient Israel whom Jehovah specifically called his people never accepted his values. The Old- Testament is one long documentary of the Jews and Yaweh bickering like the wives of a polygamous man, with Yahweh often getting frustrated and killing some of them, or just sending them into slavery. In essence, we haven’t quite grasped the idea that the reason why we (Nigerian Christians) don’t have the results we want is that we are applying a model which 1.) does not fit our situation and 2.) has never worked anywhere. But somehow we believe that if we add in enough prayer and fasting and faith, we can somehow create a stable structure out of the mismatched and faulty materials we have.
The truth is that Yahweh in particular, and deities in general are not democrats, and they never hesitate to say so. The whole of Exodus 20 is Yahweh saying “I am in charge here, you are not allowed to challenge me, these are your instructions and there is no room for dissent”. Ancient Israel was a first a theocracy before it became a theocratic monarchy, it has little similarity with a republican democracy like Nigeria, trying to merge the two is like trying to fill your car’s petrol engine with diesel and praying it will work. You are just going to end up with messed up engine and a dead car. The frank truth is that looking through the Bible, it is obvious that Yahweh either didn’t envisage a world where he would not be the only one divinity to believe in (which is impossible given his omniscience), or perhaps he saw that world but decided that he is too big to care about the competitors, so he ignored them. The result is that followers of Yahweh (in this case Christians) are not prepared by the Bible to deal with people who do not share their faith in Yahweh. The shameful conduct of prominent Christian leaders in the 2019 elections cycle is testament to this. The people who follow the Bible’s teachings to the letter about dealing with foreigners/people of other faiths are those fanatical Christians that everyone avoids/ hides from when they come around. The rest of us who try to be more social have to use our discretion and hope Yahweh has not penned our names in the book of sellouts .
The Bible, in its current form, has nothing on dealing with strangers beyond either trying to convert them, or “getting away from among them and leaving them to perish.” The closest Jesus Christ got to solving that problem was to ask his followers to “live in peace with all men,” which isn’t really saying much.
This is why a person who is trying to conform to a rigid biblical ideal will make a poor democrat, and a Christian who tries to be a fairer democrat and be more accommodating of people of other faiths who have dissenting opinions will inevitably offend his bible thumping “brothers” and “sisters” who will accuse him of “hypocrisy” and “compromise” and “not standing for God in the face of tyranny”. This brings me to the issue of the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor, “Pastor,” Yemi Osinbajo (this is not trying to defend his decisions, I am just using him as an example here), who has been accused several times by his fellow Nigerian Christians of not speaking up against tyranny, and of colluding with his principal Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim, at the detriment of his own faith as a Christian leader. Now I love to pose a challenge to those who hold this view, and that challenge is to mention just one Vice President of a Republic in the bible that Yemi Osinbajo can use as a role model (there isn’t one), or just one chapter or verse where the Bible prescribes what you should do if you are elected Vice President of a multiethnic, multi-religious society like Nigeria (there isn’t any either) and your principal does not believe in Yaweh.
So Biblically, Yemi Osinbajo is pretty much on his own. Yet his own “brothers and sisters in Christ” won’t give him a moment of respite from all the accusations of hypocrisy. Again I am not saying Yemi Osinbajo has no faults of his own, or that Christians don’t have legitimate issues to complain about in the four years that he has been Vice President of Nigeria, what I am saying is that the man deserves to be cut some slack from all the bible thumping. It is hypocritical and extremely unfair to complain that someone is not doing what the Bible says when said bible does not in fact say anything about what he should be doing.
In conclusion, if as a Christian, you are fasting and praying with faith for Nigeria to become a nation where Yahweh is the only deity in charge, you are just wasting time and energy that can be put to a more productive use elsewhere. You have to discard the bigotry and xenophobia that you are hiding under Christian faith and accept that you have to “compromise” with Muslims and Atheists and “idol worshippers” in order for Nigeria to become the “land flowing with milk and honey”. Nigeria is a democratic republic and no Kingdoms, divine or otherwise is coming into her.
This is the word for today. Now, we shall share the Grace in fellowship.
Thoughtivity. com 