WE CONDEMN PRIMATE HENRY NDUKUBA AND THE SCANDAL CALLED ANGLICAN CHURCH STANDING COMMITTEE, WHILE WE COMMEND THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA

WE CONDEMN PRIMATE HENRY NDUKUBA AND THE SCANDAL CALLED ANGLICAN CHURCH STANDING COMMITTEE, WHILE WE COMMEND THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA

(Being a PRESS STATEMENT BY INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA (ICAC-GEN), February 22, 2024)

The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN), guided by John 8:32; concerned with the current crumbling state of the Nigerian nation; worried by the clawless Amalekite dispositions of the Nigerian Christian leadership; and having read the respective communiqués of the recent conferences of the Standing Committee of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) held from February 5 to 9, 2024 at the Cathedral Church Of Ascension, Boji-Boji Owa, Diocese of Ika, Delta State; and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) held on February 18, 2024 at Abuja, wishes to state as follows:

1. We call upon the leadership of the Nigerian Christendom without denominational bias to humbly reflect on the following verses of the Holy Bible in their sayings and actions concerning the current grave economic, political and security situations of the Nigerian nation:

• Proverbs 29:2—“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
• Ezekiel 3:17 and 18—“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”
• Hosea8:4—“They setup kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold They made idols for themselves that they might be cut off.”

2. We respectfully wish to commend the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) for their resolute stand on the current provocative political, economic and security situation in Nigeria as contained in their February 2024 Conferenced recently held at Abuja. We are particularly heartened by the section of their Communiqué on insecurity which states inter alia:

• “Unarmed citizens are brutally slaughtered on our highways, in their homes, and even in the sacred precincts of places of worship. Killer herdsmen, bandits, and unknown gunmen seem to be on the rampage. Many communities across the nation have been taken over completely by criminals. Families have lost their ancestral lands to armed invaders and land-grabbers. The social and economic lives of communities have been paralysed due to insecurity. Schools have been shut down, and children can no longer continue their education. Farmers are unable to access their farms out of fear of either losing their lives or being kidnapped.”

3. In a similar vein, we commend the Catholic Ecclesiastical Provinces of Ibadan and Lagos for coming out boldly to express their utter revulsion against the current spiraling state of political precipice in Nigeria in their last respective Conferences.

 

• In their communiqué, the Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province stated ipso facto: “Our dear country Nigeria is fast becoming a hostile killing field. The ship of the nation is foundering under the weight of pervasive insecurity, economic hardship due to hyperinflation, and the collapse of the naira, cybercrime, high cost of food, lackadaisical governance, and widespread corruption.”
• In the same vein, the Lagos Ecclesiastical Province stated: “We sympathise with all victims of insecurity: The ongoing slaughter of people in their villages that became notorious since the killings on Christmas eve in Plateau State, in southern Kaduna among others; the activities of kidnappers in Federal Capital Territory; the unknown gunmen in South-east and so-called bandits in north etc. We pray God to grant eternal rest to the dead, healing to the injured and restoration to the displaced.”

4. It is our position that, while speech alone cannot bring the needed solution to our current national problems, but practical action in line with James 2:17—“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”, we however believe that by boldly speaking out they have taken the first step to practical action. We however encourage other Church and denominational leaders to similarly come out from their protective cowardly and shameless cocoons and speak out against the unending slaughtering of their Christian brethren.

 

5. Against the aforementioned background however, the Standing Committee of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) led by its Primate Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba in its February 5 to 9, 2024 Conference help at Boji Biji Owa, Delta State, proved to Nigerians that they are not only insensitive to the current chaotic situation in Nigeria seeded by the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but are morally corrupt and spiritually bankrupt as Christian leaders; bearing in mind that it was the Anglican Church that laid the foundation of the present nation called Nigeria.

 

6. In its statement on the “State of the Nation”, the Anglican Standing Committee stated with outrageous apostasy:

 

“The Standing Committee meeting of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) notes that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is gradually putting in place its plans and policy drive. The Standing Committee meeting therefore calls on the President and government to rise to the occasion of the challenging issues facing the nation.”

 

7. On the vexatious issue of insecurity and mass killings, the Standing Committee in its watery and Federal Government interest-serving position stated:

 

“The Standing Committee meeting decries the constant attacks in Plateau, Zamfara, Ekiti, Ondo, Benue, parts of Imo and Anambra States and other parts of the country. It therefore calls on the government and statutory security agencies to rise to their responsibilities of protection of the lives and property of the citizenry, giving heed to the call for effective community policing.”

 

8. The above reprehensible position of Anglican leadership was in fact a window-dressing of Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba’s earlier position eulogizing the punitive Government of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and telling Nigerians to wait till the next twenty years to be free from their current heinous state of suffering. It should be recalled that Primate Ndukuba had on February 11, 2024 at Abuja told Nigerians in his own words:

 

“I want to appeal to Nigerians to exercise patience by giving this government more time to do what they said they would do. With the problem that we have, it’s not something that can be solved within a day, one month or one year. The magnitude of our problems will take us another 10 to 20 years for us to deal with them.”

 

9. The Anglican Standing Committee informed us that the theme of its conference which was founded on Exodus 32: 25-29 was “WHO IS ON THE LORD’S SIDE: Contending with Apostasy in our Generation.” The question here is who can be more apostate than the Anglican Church leadership, putting into consideration its insensitivity to the plight of the Nigerian masses and rebellious grandstanding against those it is ordained by God to shepherd?

 

10. Finally, the International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN) wishes to state that the Nigerian Church leadership without denominational boundaries has been accomplices to the current state of economic chaos and uncontrollable insecurity which resulted from incompetent and religiously bigoted hands in the affairs of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

 

1. Without prejudice to Goodluck Jonathan’s shortcomings as human, they jointly helped the Muslim fundamentalist Muhammadu Buhari to power against their Christian brother in accordance with the spirit of Judas Iscariot, thereby heralding the current state of sufferings in Nigeria.

 

1. They also sold their birthrights as leaders of the Christian faith in Nigeria for a pot of porridge in the spirit of Esau when they supported Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu— another Muslim fundamentalist who not only ignominiously degraded the status of Nigerian Christians as second-class citizens by appointing another Muslim as his Vice President, but insulted the sacred tradition of Christian leadership in Nigeria by dressing street urchins in the garb of Bishops to attend the unveiling his Vice President Alhaji Kashim Shettima. Up till today the leaders of Nigerian Christendom have not considered that episode as the highest point of abuse and desecration of the sanctity of divine leadership in the Church of Christ. Can such act be taken against the Muslim tradition of leadership by a Christian Presidential candidate?

 

1. Even dogs have the sense of smell of the enemy. When shall the Nigerian Christian leadership develop their sense of smell indicating to them that the Christian population of Nigeria—those they are ordained to shepherd are facing ominous danger of existence as free citizens in the hands of Muslim jihadists as in the old?

Our Conclusion:

The fundamental problem of Nigeria is not the Muslim or Fulani oligarchy who wants to maintain their grip on power by every means both possible and impossible; it is not the armed Fulani jihadists masquerading as herdsmen and bandits or Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) kidnapping, devilishly extorting, killing, maiming and displacing our people from their ancestral lands. A problem becomes no problem to a people when they boldly apply equal or greater force to the problem.

The fundamental problem of Nigeria is a rebellious Church. A Church constructed on the condemnable spirits of Esau, King Saul and Judas Iscariot; a Church that thrives more on the counsel of Ahithophel; a Church of disobedience to its divine commission. A problem becomes a problem to a people only when their leaders reap from the same problem, consider their personal wellbeing above those of their people, and consequently see no reason to bring the problem to order.

This explains why in both the communiqués by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria and the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Standing Committee, there was no specific mention of spiraling cases of Christian persecution or the fact that over nine-five (95) percent of the victims of these kidnappings, devilish extortions, killings and displacements from ancestral lands are Christians. The Church in Nigeria needs internal convulsion to boldly defend the Christians of this nation.

 

 

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD

Odogwu of Ibusa

President