Father Kukah and the Pentecostals

    By Festus Eriye
    Published 23/05/2010
    Opinion
    Unrated

says Catholic cleric, Mathew Kukah should not engage in mud-slinging against other christians

Catholic cleric, Monsignor Matthew Kukah, would ordinarily be described as a perceptive contributor to our on-going national discourse. Some would even go a step further to say he is controversial based on a couple of curious positions he has taken over the years. But certain statements attributed to him this week suggest that while he may be brilliant, he is far from infallible.

In a lecture titled: "Nigeria at 50: Challenges and Prospects" delivered at the sixth Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria (ISMN) held in Calabar mid week, Kukah drew the following conclusions about our national journey.

In its 50 years, he said Nigeria has been bedevilled with "politics without principles, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice".

It is hard to quarrel with that. But after taking pot-shots at everyone in sight he rounded on the religious – Pentecostals in particular - whom he accused of preying on the fears of the people. "One of the greatest problems facing the country is criminality masquerading as religion. Pentecostalists are preying on the peoples fear. A man sees ‘vision’ and promises you the ‘cure’. No wonder today we have so many ‘prayer warriors’.

It is not difficult to see why someone like Kukah who is a notable representative of religious orthodoxy in Nigeria would have a problem with people whose choose a path of worship that deviates from the canons of Rome or Canterbury. Over the years people like him from the Christian religious establishment have sought to deride and dismiss the Pentecostal movement as nothing more than an exotic fad that would soon disappear.

But rather than succumb to the vain hopes of the orthodoxy, the movement has gone from strength to strength – to the extent that today – were Nigerian Christians to be polled, a majority are likely to describe themselves as Evangelicals or Pentecostals.

Kukah has diagnosed "criminality masquerading as religion" as a major threat to Nigeria today; what he has not done is point the finger in the right direction. What are the criminal dimensions to the practice of Pentecostalism in Nigeria that he has discovered? They are not going about slaughtering people in the thousands in other to convert them. All they offer is a belief template which people are free to accept without compulsion whatsoever.

Among notable issues that the Catholic hierarchy has had with Pentecostals is their dynamic interpretation of The Scripture. But when you examine their core beliefs in the light of what is written in The Bible, it is impossible to reproach them. Teachings about healings and prosperity are all there in the word of God for all who would approach them with an open mind.

But whether the likes of Kukah believe it or not, miracles are still happening in today’s world. No genuine teacher of God’s principles for prosperity would offer you some pie-in-the-sky doctrine. They would always emphasise holiness as well as the hard work ethic.

Unfortunately, some of the harshest critics of Pentecostalism in Nigeria have never really taken trouble to examine the doctrine. Where you base your conclusions on the excesses of one or two televangelists; or a couple of false prophets, it is hard not to come away prejudiced.

The truth of the matter is that a man with an argument can never win against one who has an experience. I would suggest that respected priests and commentators like Kukah should sheath their swords and take time to study this move of God in Nigeria. It is not wise to denounce Pentecostals as ‘criminals’ just because they think differently.

One would have expected someone of Kukah’s standing in the Catholic establishment to keep his head under the parapet rather than engage in wild generalisations and mud-slinging against other Christians – knowing the trials that his own church is passing through at this period.

All over Europe and America Catholic clergy are under attack because of the child abuse scandals. But we all know that these are the actions of just a few deviants. There are thousands of hardworking priests and nuns who live a holy life and are in no way involved in the mess. Do we now denounce the Catholic hierarchy – ignoring the good the church has done over the years – just because a handful missed it?

Rather than sneering at the efforts of Nigeria’s many ‘prayer warriors’, Kukah should be thanking God for them. It may seem like the rapid spread of Pentecostal churches has not changed their adherents much. But let’s not forget that ours is to pray: it is God that can change a man. We might also add that without the prayers it could have been worse.

The trouble with Nigeria is not flamboyant Pentecostals. The triple demons of ethnicity, religious intolerance and corruption existed long before Pentecostalism became fashionable. Let’s focus on those evils rather than take on scapegoats who don’t deserve the tag.

Two-party by force

Nigerians tend to rally along two broad-based political tendencies. It is that thinking that informed President Ibrahim Babangida’s experiment when he unilaterally set up the National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).

His political factory even manufactured manifestoes, logos and slogans for the two artificial parties. In the end, shocked at the progress his illegitimate children were making, IBB strangled them with his own hands.

On Thursday, members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives – in a throw back to the military days - discussed a proposal to institutionalise a two-party system by legislative fiat. Thankfully, the motion was defeated after a rancorous debate.

Nigerians love short cuts and in our bid to catch up with the rest of the world we embark on the most ludicrous of endeavours. I cannot recall anywhere in the democratic world where the number of political parties was fixed by parliament.

In the US and UK where until now there have been two dominant parties, there is room for others to co-exist and compete. It is that provision of a democratic alternative that allowed the British Liberal Democrats to break up the Labour-Tory power rotation arrangement that had existed for decades.

Choice is at the heart of democratic culture. If Nigerians are inclined to a two-party system then let it evolve. Throwing in independent candidacy is not enough. We should not be hemmed into any fake arrangement simply because we have too much choice. I do agree, though, that the state must withdraw from funding parties. When it does the real number of parties Nigeria can support would emerge magically.

The trouble with the Electoral Act is not the fact that we have 54 political parties on the books. At issue is the determination of politicians to subvert even the most cleverly crafted anti-rigging legislation ever known to man.

If our office seekers would renounce violence and fraud there would be no need for all the superfluous reviews of existing laws. What we have on the books are enough deterrent. Unfortunately, no one ever gets prosecuted and punished for electoral offences and no one is deterred. That is why we keep going round and round in circles.