Reflections On Clergy Politics In Nigeria By Nengak Daniel Gondyi

I used to cringe every time I heard
the interjection “Holy Shit!” I
thought it was vulgar and
blasphemous since things should
not be both ‘holy’ and ‘shit’. Now I
don’t cringe anymore. Actually, it is
a ‘descriptive phrase’, not a mere
interjection. Let’s deconstruct it:
some things could rightly be
referred to as ‘holy’ such as the
things pertaining to the church;
conversely, some other things could
be referred to as ‘shit’ or ‘shitty’
such as the shitty remarks the boss
made about your draft. Okay, so
what happens when ‘holy’ matters
take a ‘shitty’ outlook? You have
Holy Shit. And there is one brewing
right now in the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN).
A little refresher course is in order.
First Nigeria is a secular state for
ultra-religious citizens. This means
that while we subscribe to a host of
gods, saints, prophets, scriptures,
general overseers, and ‘babas’; we
agree to defer only to our
constitution. So we leave our gods
at home when we perform our civic
duties. At least that was how it was
meant to be, in theory.
But in actual practice, Nigeria is a
holy state – note, I did not say a
theocracy even though a large
chunk of Nigeria theoretically is
governed by Islamic law. A prime
requirement for the holiness of the
state is the role of the clergy. So we
have the Nigerian Supreme Council
for Islamic Affairs and the Christian
Association of Nigeria towering
somewhat above the Constitution
and very close to God. A little lower
down, you have a host of religious
conglomerations competing for
attention and for money to buy
private jets and limousines (I don’t
know what the babas do with their
own loot though).
As an act of obeisance to our holy
state, we say opening and closing
prayers (often addressed to different
gods) before we sing our national
hymn in civic functions. Well-
dressed clergy compete and
cooperate favourably with our
political elite for the national cake:
so you have the clergy at political
functions, and the politicians
reciprocate by paying regular
‘official’ visits to the places of
worship. Of course the press is
eager to follow the politicians into
the church or mosque with cameras
and we get to know who said amen
and who didn’t to which prayer, etc.
Also, a huge chunk of our budget
goes to the gods by way of
‘honorarium’ to clergy and also
sponsoring long trips for clergies
and their friends to go tour the
Middle East for state sponsored
pilgrimages.
So it was breaking news when the
Catholic Bishops Conference in
Nigeria threatened to decamp from
the Christian Association of Nigeria
which is more or less a political
party where you have to own a
church before you can join. And why
would the holy fathers leave? Well,
they don’t like the way Papa
Oritsejafor is governing the affairs of
their party. I respect these holy
fathers; they did not say “thus
sayeth the Lord, the Catholics shall
decamp”, instead they voiced
unhappiness with “recent attitudes,
utterances and actions of the
national leadership of CAN which in
our opinion negate the concept of
the foundation of the association
and the desire of Our Lord Jesus
Christ.” This sounded a little more
than plain old dislike for
Oritsejafor’s style and how CAN has
become an extension of the ruling
PDP; it is a suggestion that current
leaders of CAN need to repent. But
to be exact, the Catholics are not the
only ones unhappy with Oritsejafor’s
CAN; the Muslims too, made a few
comments a while ago.
That Oritsejafor beat Bishop (now
Cardinal) Onaiyekan in a holy
election and forced the respected
father out of the leadership of CAN
did not help matters. Nor did the
Lord’s decision to bless Oritsejafor
with a jet recently. So the Catholics
are quietly mulling over the decision
to leave and maybe join/form the
spiritual ‘Opposition’. Suddenly, the
‘Public Relations Officer of the 19
Northern States of CAN and Abuja’,
Mr. Sunny Oibe has a few thoughts
about the Catholic fathers. If you
thought he was calling them to
“reason together” or to pray it out,
or to reconsider the position of CAN
vis-a-vis Jesus Christ then you are
wrong. He told the press that “the
Catholics are arrogant and known
for double standards”. Mr Oibe is
really not happy with the Catholics,
he wonders, “Why is it that when
Catholics were in the leadership of
CAN, every bloc supported them but
now because power has changed
hands, they are threatening to pull
out and causing confusion?”.
Unfortunately, “The problem of
Catholics is that they always display
arrogance of knowledge. They don’t
want to be under anybody but they
want everybody to be under them”.
Obviously Brother Oibe has been
watching the Catholics long before
they considered leaving CAN; in
plain language therefore, he implies
that the Catholics could go home
and do it to themselves.
It is amazing how the conversation
among these holy folks adopts the
low threshold of etiquette
established by Nigerian politicians.
We are coming close to the days
when we have to take out the
secularity clause from our
constitution and place the clergy
officially above the political elites.
As it stands, even the atheists (who
believe in nothing) believe that
Nigeria is NOT secular. Religion has
had far too much influence on what
happens and what does not happen
in Nigeria. Unfortunately, we see a
collusion of interests and bad
manners between the religious and
political elite who are, frankly, all
politicians.
So just before our clergy get down
to the business of hurling chairs at
each other or before they slug it out
like Dino Melaye (which is not very
far ahead), I ask Nigeria to pray.
Well, it is not in our tradition to
solve any problems that we have not
prayed about. So we should pray
that God in His infinite mercy will
deliver us from the burden that this
religion is placing on our state. It
would help also if we have a No-
Clergy Day in Nigeria – that one day
when all Nigerians will ignore all
priests and clergies of all kinds and
attempt to seek enlightenment from
their scriptures alone. And, next time
anyone criticises you for “washing
your dirty linen in public”; look to
our fathers in CAN. Very exemplary.
Nengak Daniel Gondyi is a Nigerian
researcher. He presently studies
International Migration and Ethnic
Relations at the Malmö Högskola in
Sweden. He maintains a weekly blog
with youthhubafrica.org.
Contact:
nengak.daniel@gmail.com