 |
| Gèneral Buhari Meeting With Catholic Bishops In Abuja Nigeria |
The 2015 presidential campaign of the two main political parties has turned out to be a fierce battle for the hearts and minds of Nigerian Christians. Most Nigerian Muslims (especially those in the North) have already decided whom to vote for.
From the Third Republic, Christians tend to deliver bloc votes to their preferred candidates. The candidates that got the endorsement of the Christian community invariably emerged victors. The Christian community have in the past supported and voted for the Abiola-Kingibe, Obasanjo-Atiku, Yar’Adua-Jonathan and Jonathan-Sambo tickets. They all won.
The power of the Nigerian Church is founded on the biblical principle of the potency of Christian consensus: Whatever issue or decision the faithful collectively agree on, be it spiritual or temporal, it is also established in Heaven. “I tell you with certainty, whatever you prohibited on earth will have been prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven” (Matt 18:18 ISV), “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my father in heaven” (Matt 18:19 NIV). Getting the Church’s support is therefore as good as getting God’s seal of approval.
The two major political parties obviously recognise this power. Both have gone on aggressive charm offensives to woo the Nigerian Church in their desperation to gain priceless Christian votes nation-wide.
President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP, has toured several churches especially in Lagos and have met with many church leaders across the country. There are even allegations by a certain pastor from the North East that the president bribed CAN with the sum of N7billion to buy their support.
General Muhamadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC, has gone a step further. He has once again, as he did in 2011, conscripted a pastor to be his running mate. Even though he professes to be a devout Muslim, he has not prevaricated when he had the chance to attend church services held by Pastor Enoch Adegboye in Lagos or to meet with a group of catholic bishops in Abuja. There are also reports that a group of 25,000 pastors planned to organize a service in Lagos to pray for the electoral victory of the Buhari-Osibanjo ticket.
It is worthy of note that both the PDP and the APC have concentrated their campaign fire on the church, giving little attention to the clergy of other faiths. This underscores the immense potency of the power the Church wields in the contemporary geopolitics of Nigeria.
But today, that bloc Christian vote is less cohesive as it was in 2011. It is evident that the Christian community is divided on which direction to take. The unanimity of 2011 has diminished, even though majority of Christians tend to favour the incumbent president. This division can be attributed to two main factors: the insurgency in the North East and the Osibanjo factor.
The Boko Haram insurgency has adversely affected President Jonathan’s electoral fortunes with respect to the Northern Christian population especially those living in the north east of the country. The insurgency has cost the lives of thousands of Christians; decimating many of their communities in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States. Hundreds of thousands have fled their ancestral lands to seek refuge outside the ravaged region. For all intent and purposes, the North East has been effectively cleansed of its hitherto vibrant indigenous Christian population. Some of these people invariably blame the president for what they perceive as his “shoddy management” of the Boko Haram insurgency. A lot of them will not vote because they have been uprooted from their polling units. The few that will, may likely cast a protest vote against him.
Undoubtedly, the nomination of Prof. Yemi Osibanjo will earn Buhari a fair slice of the Christian electoral bacon in the South West. A scion of the revered Pastor Enoch Adegboye, General Overseer of The Redeem Christian Church of God, one of Nigeria’s largest Pentecostal churches, Osibanjo’s choice is no cheering news for the PDP. Many in the South Western Christian community admire him and regard him as an upright, God fearing academic. His association with Pastor Adegboye is also winning him a lot of supporters in the South West.
In spite of the seemingly diminished unanimity of the Christian political bloc, most Nigerian Christians are deeply conservative. They tend to stick to what they know, what looks like them, talks like and behave like them.
Christian liberals are few. Even fewer are the nominal Christians and pseudo-agnostics, who, even though very vocal on social media, are but less than a drop in the ocean of registered voters. These liberal elements, often educated city dwellers, will cast their votes for the APC, if they are able to tear themselves from their computers and smartphones.
It seems then that at the end of the day, Buhari may not go home with more than just a little slice of the Christian electoral bacon. At most, he would be lucky to catch the bouquet of flowers the bride will throw as Jonathan looks most likely to be the Church’s groom on March 28 2015.
