“The Church must continue to exercise her prophetic role and be the voice of the voiceless, so that everywhere the human dignity of every individual will be acknowledged, and that people will always be at the center of all government programmes.”- Ecclesia in Africa, 1995
The above quote by Pope John Paul II at the end of the 1995 African Synod fully captures in a nutshell, the role of the Church in politics and governance. Being the voice of the voiceless entails being more than a passive observer but acting actively as the champion for the ordinary people. Evangelization the Synod concluded must promote “initiatives which contribute to the development and ennoblement of individuals in their spiritual and material existence.” This involvement of the Church in how the people are governed is buttressed by Pope Francis in his September 16, 2013, daily homily at Santa Marta where he rejected the idea that “a good Catholic doesn’t meddle in politics.” According to the Supreme Pontiff, Politics, by the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. And suggesting how the Church can get involved he added “instead of simply complaining, we should offer ourselves – our ideas, suggestions, and most of all our prayers.” Our history in Nigeria is replete with many instances where the Church has stepped up and played a pivotal role in politics and governance. For instance, when in 1979, soon after coming to power then President Shehu Shagari proposed to set up a Bureau of Islamic affairs in the presidency, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) opposed this move and argued that such an act infringed on the secular status of the country. The idea was ultimately dropped.
During those dark years between 1993 and 1999, the Church in Nigeria mobilized Catholics to pray by incorporating into the Catholic liturgy the “Prayer for Nigeria in Distress.” But it didn’t stop there. It also acted as a strong voice of condemnation for the junta and advocated for democracy. The Bishops’ Conference and the Catholic Secretariat through the Justice Development and Peace Commission of the Church (JDPC), fought actively for the restoration of democracy in the country. The activism of several young feisty and intellectually sound priests, like then Fr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Fr. George Ehusani, Fr. John Uba Ofei and Fr. Iheanyi Enwerem, among others during those years, is well documented. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the Church has continued to play a key role in helping to build democratic ideals and strengthen institutions of governance in the country. Sunday sermons on many pulpits across the country are often socio-political awareness building sessions, raising the consciousness of the laity about their rights and responsibilities and mobilizing them to act for the common good. Just recently, the Church spearheaded the campaign for voter registration, urging congregants to go out and obtain their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). Some churches went out of their way to facilitate the process by arranging with INEC to have registration sessions in their premises, while others denied parishioners without their PVCs entry into the church as a way of pressuring them to get registered.
The Church goes further to encourage her members to vote during elections and to support the right candidates who can deliver good governance to them. And as key stakeholders in the outcome of elections, the Church through the JDPC also acts as election observers, partnering with other civil society groups to ensure the sanctity of the ballot and the enthronement of free, fair and credible elections. The Church remains a strong voice against bad governance and various societal ills. The authoritative and blunt communiques of the CBCN as well as the many punchy interventions of individual Church leaders in their public commentary highlight the failures of government while pointing to the deteriorating state of the common man. And because the Church is often itself a victim of the failures of governance as seen in the spate of killings and kidnapping of the clergy in recent years, Catholic priests and bishops have also carried out protests marches across various cities drawing attention to the sorry situation in the country and speaking truth to power. In June this year, over 700 Catholic priests bearing placards held a peaceful protest during the burial of one of their colleagues who was killed by bandits in Kaduna State. There are those who hold the opinion that politics and governance is ‘dirty’ and thus the Church should not get involved in it but should rather focus on evangelism. But the Church cannot extricate itself from society and thus has a responsibility of cleaning up the process in line with the injunctions of scriptures. In Matthew 5:14 Christians are called as the lights of the earth. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Equally Matthew 4:13 says “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” It is thus a scriptural charge for Christians and indeed the Church to provide light to the world and help the earth sustain its ‘tastiness’ by influencing politics and governance positively. In his seminal work “Summa Theologica,” St. Thomas Aquinas adopted and expanded on the four cardinal virtues first expounded by Plato namely; justice, courage, temperance and prudence and added to them the Christian virtues of faith, hope, charity, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, honesty, accountability, long-suffering, patience and faith. Christians who make up the Church must therefore be seen to bring these virtues to bear in their participation in politics and governance. When this is done, politics would no longer be seen as ‘dirty’, our society will be better, and the Church will be fulfilling that call to be the voice of the voiceless.
• Sylva Nze Ifedigbo @nzesylva writes from St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.
