By Sam Eyoboka

THE Christian Community was Friday, May 11, 2018 thrown into confusion when news of sudden passage of another dogged defender of the Christ-ian faith, General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Musa Asake, 66, two days before a scheduled medical trip abroad, filtered in.

Musa Asake

Christian leaders may now have to evolve new strategies in their quest for religious harmony after the sudden death of the bridge builder, stabilizer  and passionate Christian leader, 73 days after the demise of the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese, Most Rev. Dr Joseph Danlami Bagobiri, another dogged fighter for the faith.

According to the CAN president, Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle’s account, the fearless fighter for religious harmony had departed without appropriate farewell message to the Christian Community he spent his entire life defending.

Ayokunle described the deth as “a great loss” that is “really shocking. It’s quite unfortunate. It caught all of us napping especially for somebody who is not 70 yet. So unexpected and no one imagined that this kind of unfortunate thing would happen.

“It’s a rude shock to me. I was bewildered. My prayer is that God will comfort his immediate family. Infact, when I woke up this morning I sent a mail to him concerning CAN Trust Fund,” Ayokunle said.

Director of Legal and Public Affairs of CAN, Barrister Kwamkur Samuel, described May 11 as “a black Friday for the Nigerian Church,” as CAN has lost a rare gem, a leader of the Church, father and brother.

“Dr Asake was an experienced teacher, passionate preacher and administrator per excellent who worked as General Secretary of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) among so many responsibi-lities held within and outside the Church. He was a fearless and outspoken Church leader who had put his life on line for the persecuted church. He shall be greatly missed,” said Elder Kwamkur Samuel.

Great vacuum

The Public Relations Officer of Northern Christian Elders Forum, NCEF, Elder Sunday Oibe, who had worked closely with Asake, told our correspondent that the news “came to us as a rude shock. Rude shock in the sense that this is a man who is harmless, passion-ate for the Church in this country, non-assuming, a man who knows how to be under authority, who doesn’t pursue materialism, leave sacrificially for the Church.

“It’s shocking, particularly I have been in touch with him, only to hear that he’s dead. It so devastating! The entire Church in the North, particularly those of us belonging to the Northern Christ-ian Elders Forum are still in shock, not knowing what to say,” Oibe lamented.

According to Oibe it’s more painful coming a few months after a similar passage of another illustrious son of Southern Kaduna, Catholic Bishop Joseph Danlami Bagobiri. “But we leave everything in the hands of God Who we cannot question, Who knows the best for all of us. Our prayer is with the immediate family, the children. God will grant them the fortitude to bear this devastating irreparable loss.”

Church must wake up now

On his part, the General Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Apostle Emmanuel Nuhu Kure introd-uced a new twist when he said, Asake’s death came a few days before he was due to proceed on a medical trip overseas.

“We spoke with him the previous Monday when he called me to complain about his health and that he was unable to raise enough money to fly himself over-seas for a needed surgery.

“So I told him, I was on my way to Kenya and when I return in one week, I was going to raise some money for him and rally round all the people I know to fly him out of the country latest by May 11. “I didn’t know that my coming back on Friday would coincide with the announ-cement of his death. It’s all the more painful because it’s like all the champions are going one after the other,” Kure, who hails from the same Southern Kaduna lamented.

“And these are true people who know the history of everything relating to the struggle. They are the custodians of the facts. Where do we go looking for those facts, especially at a time we were trying to assemble writers to chronicle the different migrations to Southern Kaduna?” he stated.

“The Church in Nigeria will have to revisit our structure and rebuild the way they do things if they want to survive the coming 10-15 years,” Apostle Kure lamented, saying there are already threats about the next 10 years whether the Church would not be overwhelmed.

According to him, with some of these dogged fighters fighters going one after the other, the Church must now begin to do a rethink.