The Oscar Romero lessons for Nigeria (2)
IN what appears like a classic case of momentary loss of memory or even deliberate forgetfulness, president Buhari fired his missile at religious leaders who get involved in politics but in a collective amnesia, his supporters forgot that he had only just received the pastor and other high profile Islamic preachers who had gone to the Villa with the Kano State Governor Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje on a goodwill visit. Buhari stated thus: “Having recognized the role our religious leaders have been playing so far, I appeal to them to eschew partisan politics and appeal to their respective members to read the manifestos of each political party, discuss and pray for God’s guidance before casting their votes.” He continued his tirades, “Religious leaders should not be seen to involve themselves in partisan politics or political controversies, otherwise they risk losing their status and public respect.”
However, in the year 2015, just before the election, a popular Catholic priest in Enugu Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka had praised Buhari and urged Nigerians to vote for him. The then opposition candidate and current president expressed excitement at this endorsement. Mbaka was amongst the first sets of supporters that he hosted in the Presidential mansion in Abuja upon assumption of office.
Away from the conversations around the criticism of religious leaders made by President Muhammadu Buhari, what should worry us as Nigerians is the impacts that the visits to Buhari makes in the way the nation is administered. Is the nation governed in the fear of God and is equity and equality of all citizens being observed? What about the concentration of all strategic offices in the hands of Moslems and mostly Hausa/fulani?
Clearly, if those religious leaders such as the vice president and the litany of those who thronged the presidential palace would take their time to speak truth to power directly to the president, then by now the level of killings still going on targeting mostly Christian farmers would have abated. Kaduna is in turmoils now even as many have been slaughtered but the federal government looks on. Plateau state has been severally attacked and hundreds of Nigerians murdered because of their religion but the central government had failed to bring the killers to justice.
It is not shocking however that majority of the religious personalities who visit the presidency do go there to chase after what they can grab for themselves. Most Nigerians are known for cashing on to every opportunity and access they can have to the seat of power to maximise personal profits. Religious preachers are also afflicted by this virus of pursuit of selfish gains. The vice president has recently stated that religious leaders do intervene to stop the government from adopting decisive steps to tackle corruption amongst political office holders. Closely following the Vice President’s disclosure is what the Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Dr. Tunde Bakare, said in Lagos about how religious leaders troop in to see president Buhari just for photo opportunities and to be featured in the media.
Bakare said that Nigerians must speak truth to power and put aside what he called the culture of hypocrisy. Bakare knocked the religious leaders who he accused of failing to take advantage of their visits to Buhari to convey the true feelings of the people about the perceived excesses of those in power. He said this on Sunday at the Thanksgiving service to mark the 16th anniversary of Foursquare Gospel Church, Asokoro Abuja.
He said, “Look at the nation; look at those playing god; look at the godfathers who loom larger than life because of the level of authority they have. They forget that God brought them there and he has a way of removing them. “When Samuel (in the Bible) entered the city, the king trembled but when some pastors visit Aso Villa, they are the ones shaking. All they want is photo opportunity (with the President),” he said.
Quoting from the Books of Genesis 6:12 and Phil 4:10 – 14 and 18, Bakare noted that the problem of corruption was not peculiar to Nigeria but insisted that the solution to the challenge must be people-driven. “There is so much corruption in this country. But show me a country in the world which has no corruption. What is the solution? We are the answer to the dilemma of Nigeria but we keep playing church. We are the reason Nigeria is the way it is. You and I are responsible,” he stated. He observed that the country was experiencing internal hostilities because certain individuals felt superior to the rest of the people. This is exactly where the teachings and the power of personal examples displayed by Archbishop Oscar Romero should be internalized and externalized by the religious leaders in Nigeria.
This is for the very reason that Nigeria currently is in turmoils and witnessing the type of human rights abuses and killings that took place in El Salvador when Romero who has just been canonized a saint, lived and worked as the voice of the poor. Julian Filochowski, the chair of Romero Trust captured the heroic lifestyles of Archbishop Oscar Romero in a piece in which he took time to discuss the teachings of the illustrious cleric which can be summed up as “option for the poor.”
Archbishop Romero was the voice of the voiceless poor. A life lived out in El Salvador, a Catholic country named after Christ the Saviour. A marksman’s bullet killed him in the middle of mass on March 24, 1980. No one was ever prosecuted. There was disbelief and despair across the land but especially in the poor communities amongst the simple rural folk and city dwellers he had loved so dearly, defended so courageously and for whom in the end he gave his life. In 1977 there was a Gethsemane experience for Romero. As he prayed beside the body of the murdered priest, Rutilio Grande, he realized that if he were to follow this through to its final consequences it would, as he wrote, “put me on the road to Calvary”. And he assented; he made a fundamental option for the poor and it took him to his martyrdom.