wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Nigeria: Religions need to work for peace, Living Letters say

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>World Council of Churches - News

WCC LIVING LETTERS TEAM CALLS ON RELIGIONS TO WORK FOR PEACE IN  NIGERIA

>For immediate release: 26 May 2010

A World Council of Churches (WCC) Living Letters team has appealed  to
Nigeria's religious leaders to encourage people belonging to different
ethnic and faith groups to take initiatives to promote lasting peace  and
harmony in violence-affected communities.

The international ecumenical team made its appeal as its 15-20 May  visit to
the country came to an end. During the visit the members of the  team were
able to see how ethnic consideration and lack of trust among various
ethnic groups prevail while the authorities are unable to ensure  security
and protection to the people in conflict-affected regions.

After their 4-day visit to the country, members of the team observed  that
there is an urgent need to strengthen the security of Nigeria's  most
volatile regions. The team recommended that “the religious  communities
jointly appeal to the government and the security agencies to be
even-handed in their quest to bring peace to the Central Plateau  State and
neighbouring states and take measures to ensure that there will  be free
and fair elections in the upcoming polls”.

Living Letters are small ecumenical teams visiting a country to  listen,
learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order  to
overcome violence, promote and pray for peace. One such team travelled  to
Nigeria, where in addition to the Central Plateau State, they visited  the
country's capital city Abuja.

At the end of their visit, the Living Letters team met with the  Nigeria
Inter-religious Council (NIREC), an initiative of Christian and  Muslim
leaders set up three years ago to help stem the tide of communal  violence
in the country.

The council comprises of both Christians and Muslims, with administrative
support being provided by the Nigerian government. It is currently  headed
by the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Roman  Catholic
Archbishop John Onayekan, and by the Sultan of Sokoto, Haji Saad  Abubakar
who is the spiritual leader of the Muslim communities in Nigeria.

Members of NIREC present at the meeting included Archbishop Onayekan,
Samuel Salifu, Hajia Bilikisu Yusuf and Aliyu Ocheje. During the  3-hour
meeting the WCC team had the opportunity of sharing experiences  and
comparing notes with the NIREC members on their visit to the troubled
region of Jos.

The members of the Living Letters team told the NIREC representatives  that
the visit of the ecumenical group had been a time of learning, listening
and sharing experiences.

According to Outi Vasko, a WCC Executive Committee member from the  Finnish
Orthodox Church, the Living Letters team visit to Nigeria was very
successful but also demanding since the team was able to meet victims  and
understand the difficulties that they are facing. The visit encouraged  and
strengthened the commitment of the local churches to work for peace.

>Christians and Muslims are "in the same boat"

Archbishop Onayekan commended the Living Letters team for having  travelled
from all over the world to Nigeria. He said the two main religious
communities in Nigeria are in the same boat. Nobody feels like minority
and nobody feels like majority.

Onayekan observed that there was some kind of disconnect between  the NIREC
and the clerics of both faiths at the grassroots level: "There are  many of
my priests who don't consider my optimism for dialogue and this  also
applies to the other side. My conviction is that people living in  the
grassroots don't have problems living together but the imams and  pastors
leading them sometimes send wrong signals by the kind of messages  they
preach."

He also noted that the situation is somewhat difficult for NIREC  because
the people in government had sometimes used the perpetrators of  violence
for their political agendas.

While confessing that NIREC was still in its infancy, Hajia Bilikisu  said
the group had been instrumental in creating a multi-sector alliance  on
issues of development. She stated that NIREC had been useful in  curtailing
the violence in the country but she was critical of the policies  of the
Nigerian government for its tardy response to security issues in  the
troubled regions. “The problem we are having is failure  of security and
failure of leadership”, she said.

Arne Saeveras of Norwegian Church Aid shared experiences of interfaith
cooperation in Norway, where religious groups work together for  peace and
justice. Saeveras suggested that religious communities in Nigeria  should
"jointly advocate for the government to make immediate and sufficient
provisions for security for all communities“.

"As law and order collapse, the security of people is often threatened",
said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the WCC Commission  on
International Affairs. "Overt and covert alliances between political  and
religious organizations often lead to conflicts in communities.  It is in
this context that legal measures to separate politics from religion  should
be pursued as a matter of state policy through appropriate structural
changes or statutory instruments in the country”.

Dr Johnson Mbillah of the All Africa Conference of Churches stated  that the
way towards sustainable peace depends on overcoming mutual suspicions
among divided communities and on restoring confidence and willingness  to
talk across the religious divide.

The Living Letters Team visit to Nigeria was organized by the WCC  in
collaboration with the AACC. The members of the team were:

Bishop Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, vice-president of All Africa Conference  of
Churches (AACC), WCC Central Committee member, Ghana;Rev. Dr Volker
Faigle, Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD);Rev. Dr Johnson Mbillah,
general adviser, Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa
(PROCMURA), Ghana/Kenya;Ms Mbari Kioni, director of advocacy at  the AACC,
Kenya;Archbishop Daniel Okoh, Organisation of African Instituted  Churches
(OAIC), Nigeria;Mr Arne Saeveras, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Norway;Mr
Jan Guehne, Mission 21, Switzerland/Germany/Nigeria;Ms Outi Vasko,
Orthodox Church of Finland, WCC Executive Committee member;
WCC staff:
Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director, Commission of the Churches  on
International Affairs;Dr Nigussu Legesse, programme executive for  Africa.

The team was accompanied by WCC Central Committee members and other
Christian leaders from Nigeria:

Archbishop Dr Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, Church of Nigeria (Anglican
Communion), WCC Central Committee member;Ms Iyabo Oyekola, Church  of the
Lord (Aladura) Worldwide, WCC Executive Committee member;Ms Helen  Ubon
Usung, Presbyterian Church of Nigeria; WCC Central Committee
member;Archbishop Kehinde Stephen, Methodist Church Nigeria, moderator  of
the WCC Continuation Committee on Ecumenism in 21st CenturyRev.  Samuel
Obafemi Ogbe, general secretary of the Christian Council of NigeriaRev.
Babatunde Olusegun, programme director of the Christian Council  of
Nigeria.

(Gbenga Osinaike, the publisher of the Church Times of Lagos, Nigeria,
reported from Abuja.)

More information on the Living Letters visit to Nigeria (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=74bac9a9026e4334b015 )

WCC member churches in Nigeria (Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=37afb670afa9be537d49 )

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,  witness and 
service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship  of churches 
founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560  million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the  Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.