Rising from an emergency meeting in Kaduna to deliberate on the proposed plan by the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy on the downstream sector, a group which identifies itself as Concerned Christians in the North yesterday said that the removal of subsidy, as being advocated by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the CAN president, is ill timed and insensitive.
The CCN in a communiqués made available to LEADERSHIP at the end of it meeting and signed by its Chairman, Yahuda Peter Marsa, argued that the federal government’s plan is insensitive “because it is an outright addition to the sufferings of the Nigerian masses”.
They also said that the support for the removal of fuel subsidy by Pastor Oritsejafor was insensitive, saying “the CAN’s National President did not act in consonance with the reality of the situation of things in Nigeria.”
“Most disturbing to us is the much publicized endorsement of the Federal Government’s action by the leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) as was relayed by its National President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.
“Our meeting was not borne out of any political, geographical or religious sentiments; rather it was conceived purely on national and common good and towards the betterment and welfare of all Nigerians irrespective of creed. After some critical assessment, consultations and analyses from economic experts, we arrived at the following resolutions:
That national leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) under Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor did not act in consonance with the reality of the situation of things in Nigeria, by their hasty endorsement of government action on fuel subsidy. From his dispositions and body language, the CAN president is using the umbrella body of the Christians in charting a different aspiration from what we used to know of the organization,” the communiqué read.
The group alleged that “CAN has been brought to ridicule and has been denigrated by those who know little or nothing of our religion and even the richly-cherished history of CAN because of the activities of its present leadership. We know how our parents and grand-parents worked under Northern Christian Association of Nigeria, which was formed on the 11th April 1964, as a response to critical issues at that time; it was the same spirit that continued till the 27th of August 1976 when the Christian Association of Nigeria was established in Lagos. From then on it has been a pro-peoples sympathetic association until now.”
“We also wish to state categorically, that the best way of supporting President Jonathan, is to speak the truth at all cost and not to blindly support everything the government plans to do. We may support Jonathan as a Christian, and bear some of his challenges but on this issue he is wrong and going astray and desperately in need of redemption.
“For the CAN president Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, we wish to draw his attention that posterity is a strong scale in measuring all the actions of mortals and the rest of us including him are not free from it,” they said.
According to them “as concerned Nigerian Christians and patriotic citizens we hereby dissociate ourselves from this action. It is purely his volition and agenda. We are against all other government policies that are unpopular. What President Jonathan needs are people who are truthful and honest because there will certainly be a day of reckoning. More so, President Goodluck Jonathan should disregard bootlickers and prophets of doom, and to abort this proposed decision of removing fuel subsidy.”
Concluding, the group advised the CAN president that “a religious leader should be careful in deciding when to remain silent and be sure to say something useful when deciding to speak. In this way, he will avoid saying things that would better not be said, or left unsaid.”