When the Northern Pentecostal Bishops delegation met with All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu a few months ago, Reverend Danjuma Byang expressed sorrow for being there.
According to reports, the cleric wrote his regret in the WhatsApp group “Blunt Truth,” where he also described the events of the meeting.
The bishops had been charged with accepting millions of naira in branded gifts and “transport money.” When reached, Byang verified his attendance and revealed that the religious leaders had come to see him in order to air their complaints with the northern administrations.
It is a smear effort, he declared. I did go to the meeting, and I did write a brief report about it. I’m shocked that they only found the transportation funds I claimed to have gathered there. I’ll send you the report I created, please.
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“It is true that the Northern Pentecostal Bishops, under the leadership of Archbishop John Praise Daniel, who is the National Vice President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and chairman of Northern Pentecostal Bishops, called for the meeting in Abuja,” Byang wrote in the report he titled “The Northern Pentecostal Bishops’ Meeting With BAT.” About 100 persons attended the meeting, which was expanded to include all Pentecostal Archbishops, Bishops, and Apostles from the North.
He claimed that Bishop Jonas Katung, one of the organisers, had extended an invitation because Katung believed that the church in Nigeria frequently engages in exclusionary politics, which frequently have serious repercussions.
“He (Katung) said there is nothing wrong with interacting with all political aspirants and candidates, even with those we do not share in their manifestos or those we believe are not likely to win, to hear what they have to offer and have the chance to express our fears and challenges if they ultimately win the elections,” the embattled cleric continued.
“This made much sense to me and I decided to attend the meeting. And I thank God I did! “Bola Ahmed Tinubu personally came to the meeting without much fanfare.”
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He spent about an hour trying to persuade us that during his entire political, public, and private life, he had never been a bigot who discriminated against Christians, and he provided numerous examples to support this. Additionally, Tinubu clarified that his selection of Senator Shettima Kashim as his deputy was made solely as a political ploy to win the election, not out of anger or contempt towards Christians in the North. Therefore, he urged everyone concerned to make an effort to minimise the role of religion in Nigerian politics and government.
“After the speech, I was one of the three attendees, who were permitted to respond by way of comments and questions. I appreciated the points he had made, but made him realise that the situation in the North was quite different from what obtained in the South.
“I told him that Christians in the North were not happy with his choice of another Muslim from the North to deputise for him for good reasons. I explained that in the North, there is a deliberate agenda to marginalise Christians from the public square and to annihilate Christianity in due course, if possible. I said there are at least eight states with a majority Christian population and a few others more which are roughly equal in population between the two faiths. But these are our experiences:
“In this government, there are more than 30 ministers in the Federal Executive Council from the North and Abuja, but we have only two Christians, who are ministers among them. Christians find it hard to acquire land documents to build churches or even to renew the ones that have expired.
“Christians are not allowed to preach their faith in government-owned media houses in some states. The teaching of Christian Religious Studies (CRS) and or Bible Knowledge (BK) has been banned in public schools in many states, including Borno, in which the ban was done by the man he had chosen to deputise for him.”
“Christian students are denied admission into public universities and other tertiary institutions and the few admitted, are denied their choice of some professional courses like medicine, engineering, law, accounting, which are needed for Nigeria’s development.
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“I had to stop because of time constraint. I then asked him that if by any means we supported him and he wins the election, how would he redress these challenges? The applause I got after my question showed that I spoke the mind of almost everybody in the hall.
“The two other speakers also raised issues about what he had for us as Christians in the North if he wins. In his reply, he appreciated the issues raised. Obviously, some of them were eye openers to him. But he said for political exigencies, he wouldn’t divulge what he planned doing, but that he had heard them and would surely act on them, if elected. He said all he wanted the Christian community from the North to do was to identify capable men and women with integrity to present to him for engagement in his government if he becomes President.
“In closing, the convener thanked BAT for coming and the comments he had made and told him to consult widely among Christian leaders in the North, who are still grieving for what they perceive as rejection and despising Christians in the North, among whom he did not find anyone capable to deputise for him. He also asked him to ensure he recovered occupied Christian lands and communities violently taken over and occupied by terrorists, if he becomes President in 2023.
“At the end, breakfast was served, with some campaign souvenirs like towels, tea mugs, notebooks and some transport money to all attendants.
“It must be emphasised that Archbishop John Praise Daniel and Bishop Katung, the conveners of the meeting, made sure that BAT did not leave the meeting thinking that the Northern Pentecostal Bishops had endorsed his candidacy for the office, but wished him the best of luck.
“Thanks for your time.”
Rev. Byang told The Guardian that the above was what he wrote on the WhatsApp group, stating: “But you can see that the main thing I said was never reported, only that he gave us money.
“The truth is that I don’t know how much Tinubu gave John Praise. And I don’t know how much each person got, but the TP (transport fare) I got could hardly bring me back to Jos and fix my car due to the badness of the road to Abuja.
“The error of judgment I mentioned was to explain to my people how indeed I shouldn’t have accepted to attend the meeting, if doing so, would be misinterpreted as has been done.”
But The Guardian had on Monday reported that PFN (PFN) disowned the ‘Pentecostal Bishops’ Forum of Northern Nigeria’, which met with Tinubu on Friday in Abuja.
The move followed the uproar generated by the single faith ticket adopted by the ruling party for the poll. Denouncing the clerics’ parley on Sunday, Deputy National Secretary of PFN, Bishop David Bakare, submitted that such a group does not exist within the Fellowship.
“There is nothing in PFN that is region-based like Southern or Northern Pentecostal Bishops.
“The PFN was not part of the meeting with the presidential candidate that was highly politicised. We are, however, aware of the ripples in the public domain about this matter. I am speaking officially to clarify that PFN has nothing to do with that,” he had asserted.
