Last week, Nigerians were treated to the sad news of the crisis in the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
The crux of the matter was that the CAN henchmen visited President Muhammadu Buhari and they were given either N25million or N40million (only the giver and the receivers know the true amount) as “transport fare”.
The gift appears to have become a source of concern to many Christians in the country who believe that it is an anathema for Christian leaders who went to the President with a serious message on the state of the nation to have collected a whopping gift that is capable of blinding their eyes.
Nobody has denied that money changed hands during the meeting.
Although the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) felt scandalised by the conduct of the leaders and appears concerned about the mismanagement of the huge sum, my worries are that such gift has not only cheapened the receivers, it also casts them in the mold of the Biblical Judas who sold his master for mere thirty pieces of silver!
For your information, the CAN leaders went to see the President over the heinous activities of the Fulani herdsmen, the wanton killings across the country; the jihadist coloration of some moves by government, the increasing fear and apprehension in the land, the urgent need to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, the Yobe girl still being held hostage by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, because of her Christian faith and many other serious issues bordering on the State of the Nation.
These men of God, if they were in the spirit, would have heard the same instruction God gave to the young prophet from Judah that was sent to deliver a message to King Jeroboam in Bethel.
The instruction was that he should not, for any reason whatsoever, eat anything there, but just to deliver the message and leave. He however, fell to the trick of an older prophet and ate food contrary to the instruction from God. He was slain by a lion on his way out of the city. He never returned to Judah!
CAN leaders went and collected money at a time when their members in Benue State were in a mourning mood over the gruesome murder of their priests and 17 brethren inside a church. They collected money from the President who they ought to have told pointblank that his style of leadership is not fatherly and accommodating enough.
These CAN leaders should not have even waited to eat anything in their host’s house, let alone receiving transport fare; after all, before setting out on such a journey, adequate arrangement ought to have been made to avoid making a non-sense of the message delivered.
It is most certain that whatever that was discussed that day ended at the discussion table without any plan by their host to either implement any good suggestion or correct some ills as they affect the Christendom. They just sold their birthright and ought to be reminded that whoever that breaks a hedge, a serpent will bite.
