By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Christians leaders have urged the Christian community in the country to swiftly and firmly respond to the same faith presidential ticket of one of the parties in the coming 2023 general elections.

They advised Christian leaders and adherents of the faith to fully understand the political landscape and be emboldened as leaders of the faith to embrace participation in politics and political leadership.

This was contained in the list of resolutions reached in Makurdi at the end of a one day Christian Recovery Alliance of Nigeria, CRAN, organized discourse for Christians in Strategic Political Leadership CSPL, with the theme, “Christians in Strategic Political Leadership for Recovery of Nigeria.”

In the document which was signed by Pastor Qrisstuberg Amua, Gideon Inyom and Evangelist Brahms Ikyuan the participants observed that “Nigeria is bleeding with a cocktail of multi layered challenges and fault lines with religion foregrounding several of the fault lines. That the country has never been divided as it is today.

“Nigeria is today a failed state and the rebirth/recovery of the country lies with the Christians; thus advised Christian leaders and adherents of the faith to understand the true nature of the threatening political landscape especially with today’s electioneering cycle and be emboldened as leaders of the faith to embrace participation in politics and political leadership.”

They took note of “integrity for Christians in political leadership, especially to the extent of justice, equity, probity and accountability to the nation, to encompass a more inclusive system that allows all the key players to work as a team to realise their dream.

They also observed that “Christians in Nigeria have been slow at reading the landscape to grasp the larger picture; that most are yet to appreciate the fact that the same faith ticket is a statement by Nigerian Muslims which must have an immediate and firm response and the 2023 elections represent the right time for that response.

The discourse cautioned that the Nigeria must “avoid the Lebanon Trap; and the key to success on this is in how well Christians will organize themselves. That the consequences for missing on this opportunity for we Christians and our children are too high; thus Christians must think ‘globally’ and act ‘locally,’ never forgetting that everything is about statecraft, stealth, blood, money, organization and power.”

They also noted the need for “Christian lawyers to guild up to sacrificially challenge the variance in Nigeria’s constitution with respect to Sharia and the non-sharia legal system.

The discourse pointed out the need for “Christians to shed uncooperative, non-sacrificial attitudes towards goals and the culture of denominational differences that is reflected in the disunity amongst adherents of our faith.”

Declaring the discourse open earlier, one of the Conveners and a Trustee of CRAN, Pastor Qrisstuberg Msughter Amua, said the event was convened to act as a trigger point to initiate and discuss on the way forward to the challenges facing the country and also have Christians play strategic roles in political participation in the country.

In a keynote address the Vice-Chancellor of University of Mkar, Prof. Zacharys Gundu who cautioned that Nigeria was bleeding because of several challenges and fault lines which he said included religious fault lines, noted that “we have never been this divided as we are today in the country. But the recovery of the country is in our hands.”

In another presentation by one of the Conveners and Trustee of CRAN, Gideon Inyom who is an experienced Resource Person on the topical issue of “Muslim-Muslim Ticket and its Implication on the Christian Faith urged Christians to assert themselves in politics and play vitals roles in the affairs of the country.