Dr. Bolaji Akinyemi, a public affairs analyst and nation-builder has charged the Church in Nigeria to brace up to the responsibility of playing the opposition in the President Bola Tinubu administration of Nigeria in which he says Christians are the minority in the country.
In this interview with Christian Benefits on President Tinubu’s one year in office as Nigeria’s leader, Akinyemi rates the Tinubu’s administration low. He says Nigeria will not experience true hope until God’s turn (Olorun lokan against Emilokan) to lead the nation.
However, the political commentator and an apostle of Jesus Christ acknowledges a slight security improvement in some parts of the country in the one-year-old administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Excerpts.
How will you rate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one year in office; has he met your expectations in his first year in office as Nigeria’s president?
First, I want to appreciate you and other media professionals who give us the privilege of expressing ourselves and putting us in the hands of Nigerians and beyond; because when we write or talk and no one is publishing us we wouldn’t be where we are today. There are several people whose thoughts and opinions might be richer and better than ours, because they don’t have the platforms for their expressions nobody hear about them. But our voice is being heard, and it is you our media friends that make this happen. Now, to the question, when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came in as Nigeria’s President a year ago, expectations were high but not for me because I knew that the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was the most terrible Nigerians have ever experienced.
How has this impacted on President Bola Tinubu administation’s one year in office?
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was one of the people who drafted General Muhammadu Buhari into the race for Nigeria’s presidency in 2015 basically because he needed to succeed Buhari as Nigeria’s president. The best president Asiwaju could have succeeded was no other person than General Buhari. Asiwaju needed someone whose pedigree would be for him a stepping stone into the presidency. But Asiwaju himself never expected the eight years of Generally Buhari’s presidency would be as terrible as it was. Of course all Nigerians know how terrible the Buhari administration was. it was a colossal disaster!
What is your view of the various events that threw up Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s president a year ago?
Most Nigerians know the events that happened towards Asiwaju’s ascension as Nigeria’s president last year May 29, 2023. One was the drama in Abeokuta where Asiwaju said, Egbe kini yi wa. Emilokan. You don’t make such a statement except there have been some discussions and agreements. People may ignore that statement as may be one of his many political jabs but those of us who know Asiwaju as a strategic communicator knew that there were quite a number things fishing behind the stage. We saw all the other dramas surrounding the election. I took a position before the election against the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. Today, I will say we stand justified by the many things happening across the country in the one year of Tinubu administration. The killings in Benue, the killings in Plateau and the killings in Southern Kaduna are the effects of the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. All these places are predominately Christian areas. The most embarrassing aspect of the spate of killings is the silence of the Church. Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is not talking about it. Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) is not talking about the killings in these predominantly Christian areas in the first year of President Tinubu’s government.
What do you expect the Church to say to the killings in these predominantly Christian areas as you said; in the first year of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidency?
It is unfortunate that these two leading Christian bodies in Nigeria; CAN and PFN, do not understand politics. The wisdom of democracy demands that majority will have their way and the minority will have their say. Within the context of Nigeria’s structure today, Christians in Nigeria better accept the fact that we are the minority. and as the minority our responsibility is to be in the opposition. So, we should be talking because that is what we are left with. We cannot be part of the table where things are divided or shared. How many of the appointees in this government got their appointment on the basis that they are representing the Christian community. It was convenient for them to tell us that the President of the Senate, Godwin Akpabio is a Christian. But Akpabio as a person will serve the interests of the President, the APC caucus and the political class. These are the dynamics in politics that the Church in Nigeria is sadly and unfortunately ignorant of.
Does the Church in Nigeria have a structure as her mouth piece to promote her interests?
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is the structure. CAN have five blocs. PFN is one of the blocs in CAN. Last year 2023 PFN established what it called the Directorate for Politics & Governance (DPG). After the 2023 election, what has the DPG been doing since then to promote the political and general interests of Christians in Nigeria under the government of President Tinubu in the first year of his administration. The DPG is supposed to be giving us monthly reviews of the activities of the government. The interests of the Church cannot be served by people that are running errands for the government. There are so many things wrong with the Church in Nigeria vis-à-vis the structure we call CAN. Before the last election, there was a directorate at the national level which was managed by Bishop STV Adegbite. He was also the unofficial campaign spokesperson for Asiwaju during the election campaigns. We, the Church, really don’t understand politics and those that do are taking advantage of the structure to fester their personal interests, and they are getting away with it. The offices are there but with poor supervision and the naivety of those who sit on top of CAN’s structure. They can’t speak to those who are erring and beat them to shape. That’s why we are where we are.
What went wrong with the DPG that it has become inactive since after the 2023 election?
The truth is the body language of the people who were involved. That portfolio was created to serve the presidential interests and ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,and as soon as he became the president, there was no need for the platform again. We have seen the turn of man (Emilokan). It is time to see the turn of God if we want to achieve real hope and positive changes in Nigeria. God is not religious. He’s the one who ordains leadership. So, if a leadership is failing we have to take it back to God.
Can PFN build on the DPG in a way that it will be useful to the body instead of individuals?
You can’t build any meaningful thing on uncertainty and falsity. The foundation of the DPG is faulty. We have to pull it down and rebuild it from the scratch if we really want it to be useful for the collective interests of the body of Christ in Nigeria. (Continues)