Nigeria Election: Lessons for the Church

The Nigerian elections have come and gone. Nigeria, the largest democracy in Africa, conducted its Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, and Governor and State Assembly elections on March 18, 2023. However, the outcome of the elections became highly controversial, resulting in outrage among the opposition and the general population. Eighteen political parties presented candidates for the presidential elections. Of the 18, three were the major contenders: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Gregory Obi, candidate of the Labor Party (LP)

A lot of unsavoury developments have trailed the elections across the country. The same old stories  of religion, ethnicity, violence, rigging, blackmail, terror and killing played out during the campaigns and during the election days across the country. What are the lessons for the church:-

The first lesson for the church and Christians is that while the Nigeria state is suppose to be a secular state with a clear separation of church and the state, believers must know that their call to the preach gospel and be ambassadors of Christ is a higher their civic responsibility to politics and political parties, and we must therefore not discredit the gospel of Jesus on the altar of political expediency.

Many believers who are usually timid and lazy when it comes to evangelism went all out to campaign for their political parties and candidates, they spent their own money in producing campaign materials, and went to the difficult terrain to campaign for their candidates, many of these believers  will not dare go out for evangelism or mission trips. Many believers who will not use their social media platforms to share gospel messages used it to promote banal political ideologies. Does this word of Jesus mean anything to us “If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mk 8:38

The second lesson is that we must protect the sacredness of the pulpit by not exposing our pulpit to politicians who are casual and seasonal visitors to the church and want  to hijack the pulpit during the election to advance their political platform and agenda, most of our churches violated this spiritual rule either because of our affinity to the party or because of our sympathy to a particular politician. Anytime we become so emotional to allow pulpits to be politicized, we not only whittle down the authority of the pulpit but also the efficacy of the gospel and reduce the respect for gospel ministers. Another strange trend in the last election is churning out of prophecies and counter prophecies for and against opposing candidates and political parties most of which are just crass opportunism. We should know that we are not in theocracy where leaders are appointed by thou saith the Lord, we operate a democracy where majority of the vote cast is what really count. Where a man of God is sure of what he thinks the Lord is saying to him, he should do well to keep it private and pray but the sad reality is that most of these merchant of prophecies are looking for cheap popularity and the embarrassment of church, this must stop.

The third lessons is that as believers elections gives us opportunity to manifest fruit of the spirit and extreme self control in the face of unnecessary provocation but again many of us failed the test by the way we responded to our political opponents, most of us became intolerant of our political opponents, we became abusive, insultive, vulgar and rude both online and offline and politics should gives opportunity to express our christlike character and speak the truth in love.

The fourth lesson is that as Christians in diverse and multicultural country like Nigeria we must go beyond primordial sentiments like tribal, religion and regional sentiments to embracing value based politics like character, competence and integrity but several of us believers were caught up with these base sentiments as particular tribe were shamed, beaten and prevented from voting, these are not only anti-democratic but also ungodly.

Finally we must remember that election has come and gone and  life, relationships, network and interactions must continue after election and we have the responsibility as believers to response to the challenge of building a new Nigeria in righteousness,  patriotism and accountably everywhere we serve, work and live as believers representing Jesus well and not becoming an embarrassment to the gospel.  

Ultimately beyond politics our call to the great commission is superior and eternal and we cannot give it less commitment we are giving to politics or any other thing.Our commitment to the great commission must be an all consuming commitment that cut across every nation, tribe and language. So if God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, then we must be politically open to work all the tribes in and build a nation we could call our own. Christians  cannot be party to ethnic politics because God is calling us to reach everybody with the gospel.  

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV)

-Opeolu Olufemi