The Concerned Christian Forum of
Nigeria, CCFN, has called on the National President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Samson Ayokunle, to resign his position
within seven days.
In a press conference on Tuesday,
convener of the coalition, Rev. Prince Thompson, said the President of CAN had
become a tool in the hands of politicians.
The group said the current CAN
leadership has made recent days traumatic for Christians in Nigeria.
According to the coalition, the
faith of Christian faithful has never been so bashed in the history of the
country as it has been in that space of time courtesy of the leadership of the
body.
It, therefore, issued Reverend
Ayokunle-led executive seven days to hand over the affairs of the association
to an interim committee to run its affairs pending when a new election will be
conducted.
According to him, “It is tragic
to point out that the desecration of our faith by CAN did not just begin in
these recent days. It has been on for a while now.
“The politicisation of
Christianity began under the previous leadership of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who
sadly became the official spokesperson for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,
and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Things got so ugly that the
President of CAN became an errand boy. Note, not just any errand boy but one
that was being sent to buy weapons and launder money.
“CAN’s leadership under the
current President, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, was highly anticipated to be
reformists enough to return the association to its lost glory, for it to carry
out a practically cleansing of CAN to free it of the dirt clinging to it from
wallowing in the mire with swine.
“Our hope in Reverend Ayokunle
being able to deliver CAN from the shackles of materialism have been dashed.
Beyond having our hopes dashed we are being made despondent because his under
his leadership ‘the high places were not taken away’ but they were rather made
higher. Truth is being sacrificed on individual private altars built to glorify
self.
“On top of whatever we, at that
time, accused the Pastor Oritsejafor leadership of, Reverend Ayokunle’s tenure
has visited the affliction on Christendom a thousand folds.
“Not only did he continue to
desecrate the divine mandate of the association by deploying it as an arm of
the PDP he has added the evil of hatred by actively promoting Islamophobia.
“CAN overnight became a vehicle
for teaching believers to hate other humans that made after the likeness of God
image simply on account of their present religious subscription.
“Even when we differ from Muslims
in terms of creeds, the solution is not to promote hatred that can lead to
crisis that would lead to the shedding of innocent blood on both sides.
“What the spirit led us to know
is that we have a burden of evangelism to convert those that are touched to
believe in salvation through Christ Our Lord.
“We will not convert them by
launching a vitriol against them, we will not make them appreciate the love of
God by becoming abusive and criminalizing their existence.
“Interestingly, we will not
convert them by merely talking about the gospel of salvation. Our ability to
make converts of those that are yet to know Christ is by portraying Christlike
actions that will be more convincing than hours of empty talk.
“A situation where President of
CAN has become a tool in the hands of politicians and champion for
ethnic-sectarian bigots in the country is a border that should never have been
crossed but that is precisely where Christianity in Nigeria is now camped.
“The situation is so bad that
there are so many allegations about the Reverend and his associates have been
collecting money from politicians and keeping same for personal gains in
exchange to speaking according to scripts given to them by these politicians.
“There is no doubt that by all
standard he has failed in his responsibility as a father to all and has allowed
selfish agenda to rob him of being a channel for the flow of God’s words.
“This is why CAN as currently led
is incapable of evangelizing through actions. The leadership cannot even lead
believers by examples because their compromises are well known to the faithful.
“To the extent that the first and
most important thing in Christendom is to propagate the Gospel of Christ, we
categorially declare that the leadership of CAN has lost that vision.
“It cannot even convince
Christians to follow the direction it is laying out how then can it be a
vehicle for winning more souls for the Lord and protecting the interest and
welfare of members, the same members it is even polarising along political
divide.
“We have come to the realization
that the violence to the body of Christ cannot be allowed to continue for
longer lest there will be more atheist and agnostics than Christians by the
time Reverend Ayokunle’s leadership of CAN completes its tenure.
“The Concerned Christian Forum of
Nigeria therefore demands the immediate resignation of Reverend Supo Ayokunle
as CAN President.
“Our demand entails that the
entire CAN Executive resigns with the President to allow the association
replace them with a leadership that will chart a course that conforms with the
ideology upon which CAN was founded.
“If the rejected CAN executive is
at a loss as to why it has to go, it only needs to look to the existence of our
forum. Had CAN pursued the agenda of uniting Christians across the various
sects, denominations and persuasions, we would not have need to form this group
pressure the leaders into the doing the needful.
“We give the Reverend Ayokunle
executive seven days from today hand over the affairs of the association to an
interim committee to run its affairs pending when a new election will be
conducted.”
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