It is a sacrilege for kidnappers to kill people in the Church - Emuchay
Napo Emuchay, president of the Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) Nigeria region at the first regional meeting in Lagos shared his thoughts with SEYI JOHN SALAU. Excerpts:
OWhat is your assessment of OAIC and what do you think about its future? AIC is striving, we have passed the struggling stage, formative years and our gestation period. But now we are all working on equal terms, at least now that level of recognition that somebody from OAIC can become president. We are working with the principle ‘Nobody’s superior nobody’s inferior, but in terms of experience and years of operation, the mainland churches have an edge over the African churches. If you talk in terms of experience, yes, the Catholics are miles away but others are growing too.
There seems to be a resurgence in the attacks on churches; do you think the Church is capable of protecting its members from such attacks?
It is the duty of the government; one of the functions of the state is to protect her citizens; the Church doesn’t have the prowess; we don’t have the facilities to protect our individual members. We cannot embark on self-help; the Lord doesn’t allow that. We rely on God and prayers and also by taking the necessary precautions, people have to restrict their movement in order to avoid being kidnapped. You only go out if it’s inevitable that you go out; so, people have to restrict themselves and their movement. Again, there is need to take necessary precautions to protect oneself first but if it happens unexpectedly then that’s the bad news. When kidnappers come into the church and kidnap members and even kill people in the process, that is a sacrilege. It is the lack of the fear of God, that will make kidnappers enter the church and kill someone and that is the worst sin. What is the essence of God creating man? It is for man to have fellowship with him and now people turn around and become enemies of God, that’s the highest amount of blasphemy. It is an indignity being offered to God and we are praying that God should change the mind of these people. We do not know who or what is behind them, the Bible says the heart of a king is in the hands of God; God controls every situation but the people who perpetrate this evil, their leaders, the ones supporting them should be very mindful because all of us will appear before the judgement seat of Christ.
Aside prayers, what practical steps should the Church take in terms of tackling insecurity?
For the church where I belong, we have army of salvation in our own tradition, they are like the soldiers in the church, they make sure that everybody who enters the church is searched. There are preliminary measures we have put in place to make sure a stranger does not enter the church and begin to pull rifle against the members of the church. Above all we rely greatly on the power of God through prayers because prayer changes things.
Looking at what is happening in the country, Nigerians are worried and it is as if the government is helpless, what is the way out?
I think if the government doesn’t know what they should do, they should throw in the towel and resign. Let us hold a fresh election and bring in people who are capable, we have heard promises that they have wiped away the bandits amongst other things and at the end of the day the thing is just multiplying. Before, it was only in the northern zone, now it’s more serious in the South-east, South-south, South- West; the thing has penetrated to all parts of the country, I don’t want to say that we are running a failed state but I think the government should wakeup.
Looking at what happened recently in the south- east; some persons have described it as using a sledgehammer on an ant. As someone from that part of the country, what is your opinion on this?
We have to be rational, in whatever we do we must maintain a sense of proportion; some people are venting their rage irrationally over certain situations. You do not do that on human beings, it is the same flesh and blood that is running in our system. I think people should be modest in their reactions. I see the situation as people being vindictive, it is not right in the sight of man and God. Anyone who is doing anything because he or she has the power or what it takes to suppress or manhandle people, should remember that we are all pencils in the hands of God. David in one of his prayers did not pray for the death of his enemies; he prayed for God to set a wicked man over him, someone who is stronger than him so that person will deal with him the way he has been dealing with him. So, I think we have to maintain a sense of proportion when reacting, we should not be vindictive in our response to situations.
What is your take on the asylum plan by UK to members of IPOB as some have
viewed that as an indication that Nigeria was going to collapse?
A lot of views have been expressed on this, people are entitled to their individual opinion but God has brought Nigeria together as a united entity for a reason. I think if we can harness the benefits of the diversity in our unity, everything will be okay but the way it is going now the whole thing is one-sided. When you look at the appointees in the ministry you will see that the whole thing is one-sided, it doesn’t reflect federal character; so, the people who feel marginalised are entitled to cry out. But, we are not saying the people should over-react or take to the guns to defend themselves but there’s a way you will pressurise somebody, he will become defensively offensive. It is getting to that point now, people have run out of patience completely but my prayer is God should intervene, touch the hearts of the leaders- those people whom God have placed in the positions of authority- let God brew their hearts and let them be civil in dealing with their fellow human beings.
Do you think there’s hope for an Igbo as Nigeria’s President anytime soon?
Well, Igbo presidency is a political issue, I’m a theologian; I wouldn’t want to dive into that but I believe if God says that the time has come for an Igbo man, he will be. Did anybody ever believe that a black man would rule America about 30-40 years ago? It wasn’t in their calendar, nobody thought about it but God made it possible and Barack Obama was American President. So, with God all things are possible, our prayer is not on ethnicity, our prayer is that God should give us good leadership, somebody who would be modest, who will lead this country aright. I’m not tribalistic; anybody who God feels can bring this country out of this situation, let God make such person available.
Finally, what is your advice to Christians at this trying times?
Well, let us be hopeful and fear God because that is the whole duty of man to keep God’s commandments. We are in this deep crisis that we find ourselves because we created it; however, there’s a way out given to us in the scripture, 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 which says, ‘If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways...’ God said He will do three things, that He will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and will heal their land. So, if we do our own part of the bargain, God’s promise is a standing promise, if we can keep our part of the bargain God will do his own.
There is hope for us but the wicked must turn from his wicked ways, evil shall have no fellowship with God. If you want divine immunity then you have to be clean, you have to keep God’s commandments and walk according to His precepts.so, the ball is in our court. God is willing, one of our hymns says that ‘any sinner that repents he receives pardon from the Lord’; if we turn from our evil ways God can change our fortune. He has done it in the past, how many years were the Israelites in captivity but at the appointed time when God turned their captivity they were like them that dream, they were laughing, that is our hope that by His grace He will turn the captivity of our nation.