Hope expressed for controversy-free leadership, as Daniel Okoh officially takes over as CAN President

Okoh’s recommendation by an Electoral College which was set up to screen and suggest candidates for the offices of the President and Vice President, respectively, as presented by the blocs that have rights of nomination was in line with the provisions of the 2021 CAN constitution as amended.

Okoh, the General Superintendent of Christ Holy Church International, Onitsha, emerged as the new spiritual leader of CAN, after getting a 100 per cent vote of all 259 delegates who participated in its 12th General Assembly and is expected to serve a single five-year term.

The new CAN President, in his acceptance speech, charged President Muhammadu Buhari to quell the rising insecurity in the country.

According to him, the need for CAN to respond appropriately to national issues became imperative, even as he assured that the apex Christian organisation would continue to participate actively and effectively in nation building.

The DEFENDER reports that since the tenure of Ayo Oritsajefor up to the just ended two-term tenure of Rev Samson Ayokunle, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was enmeshed in serious image crisis as it lost the trust of most members of the Muslim Ummah with whom the Christian leadership in the country should work together to move the country forward.

But CAN went ahead to tell many stories locally and to misinform international community including United States of America’s Congress about things generally proved to be unverifiable and untrue.

Essentially, the CAN, which was faced with several criticisms of turning the religious body to unregistered political party, contracted foreign lobbyists in some US Senators, who wrote to State Department on unbelievable tale that democratically elected President Muhammadu Buhari, his constitutional armed forces and members of his Fulani tribe and religion of Islam were, purportedly, persecuting the Church and killing Christians in Nigeria thereby demanding their own country be so blacklisted as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), lacking freedom of religious practice.

Some concerned citizens, especially Muslim and Christian political party supporters, who do not see anything wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have expressed hope that the new leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), under Archbishop Daniel Okoh, will face issues of nation’s good and do things that, in collaboration with Muslim Ummah leadership of Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, will begin to let the impact of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) be felt in the tolerance and peaceful co-existence projected to exist among and between members of Islamic and Christian religious faiths in the country.

They also called on the new CAN leadership to stop influencing the South-concentrated Christian dominated media and Civil Societies to do selective reportage, an unprofessional and unchristian behaviour they said played role in the division that would-have-been-positive Nigeria’s diversity has suffered over the years under the past consecutive administrations of the group.

One of them, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said: “Our expectation from the honoured Archbishop Daniel Okoh is that he will restore the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) back to its position of honour that it used to be under leaderships such as of Cardinal Anthony Onaiyekan of the Catholic faith. We are tired of situation where religious leaders, who should help purify our political playing ground for ethics and Godfearingness, are the same ones that polluted the political space in ways that saw us divided against ourselves as we have experienced.

“What most religious leaders, and this also goes to Muslim leaders, should know is that God does not make mistakes. It is particularly pointed out in Qur’an chapter 72 Surah Luqman where God says his not making mankind of one religion is in the show of his sovereignty.  He says if he had wished, he would have made all of us to profess one faith. While that is the stand on religion, God does not joke on matter of ethnicity. He said our colours and tribes are merely means of identity not things for us to wage war against another or discriminate against ourselves. However, they are also elements of test and whoever fails will definitely earn his wrath. God saves us from hellfire made possible by tribalism and racist arrogance.

“And if you look at it, both Muslims and Christians are from one indisputable source, of parents and of faith. Then if this is correct and, of course, God does not lie, then all that are causing religious crisis by way of intolerance either in the South West, North, employment discrimination and forceful conversion before help thereby causing anger, hate and unrest in the land of Nigeria are ignorant, sinners and must change for the country to move forward.

“We want the new CAN President to work with leadership of Islam in the country to make themselves helpers towards one another so that they can provide rightful guidance for politicians who have the powers of state to rule over all of us. The new CAN President should do less of activist thing that was known with his recent predecessors and be partners in progress to political leaders who are leaders of the country because, it is when you are friendly that they will listen to your good advice.  Once you are considered as a secret threat and unfriendly, there is nothing you will say, no matter how Godly it can be, they will not listen to you. New CAN leadership must avoid this.

“Finally, things that Muslims do based on dictates of the practice of their Islamic faith, Daniel Okoh leadership of CAN must not interfere if it wants peace to rain because there is no way you can stop Muslims from being Muslims, just like there is no way Muslims can stop Christians from being Christians.  What is expected for both faiths is not for one to advocate for secularisation of Nigeria but show tolerance. Conversion from one’s religion should stop being condition for anyone to help the other. If Alhaji Aliko Dangote were to be that religiously biased, there will no Christian in the whole of Dangote conglomerates. If Femi Otedola were to be that religiously intolerant, there will be no Muslim in his company.

“One of the tasks before the new CAN is to engage in serious programme of preaching religious tolerance and ensure that no member insult any member of other faith on the basis of his or her religion.  In fact, whereas it is not even specified in the Qur’an although it is stated in the Shari’ah the consequences of blasphemy, it is clearly stated in the Bible and so this CAN must take it as responsibility to educate his members on how to live peacefully and security assured in a mixed society. Wishing Archbishop Daniel Okoh a very successful tenure,” he said.