The Church of Nigeria has banned politicians from using its pulpits as platforms for “promoting partisan views or spreading political propaganda,” after an attack-laden speech delivered by a regional governor at a July 6 service in Abuja, the national capital.
After consulting with his fellow bishops, Archbishop Henry Ndukuba issued a series of guidelines on July 11 that “affirm the importance of maintaining a welcoming and respectful atmosphere while safeguarding the Church’s neutrality, core values, and divine mandate.”
“The church must diligently avoid speeches, conduct, or events that may incite division or foster political bias within the body of Christ,” he said.
While affirming that church services are open to all people, including politicians, the guidelines call for prior discussions with any guests who are invited to speak to the congregation about the expectation that “the church is not a platform for promoting partisan views or political propaganda.”
Church leaders must also refrain from making politically aligned statements and from eulogizing or exalting guests “in a manner that might bring the Church into disrepute.” Using the lectern when speaking is discouraged, as “it has been consecrated for the reading of God’s Word.”
The guidelines follow widespread criticism of remarks by Nyesom Wike, a Federal Capital Territory minister, at St. James Anglican Church in Akosoro, a wealthy district of Abuja. His made the remarks during a thanksgiving service for the completion of projects funded by the government of President Bola Tinubu.
In video clips that quickly went viral, Wike attacked Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate in a presidential election set for 2027, and disparaged Nigeria’s condition before Tinubu rose to power in 2023.
Wike blamed church leaders for Tinubu’s decision to break with longstanding tradition by choosing a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate. He suggested that Christians, by failing to support the ruling All Progessives Congress had effectively excluded themselves from the highest echelons of power. Power-sharing tickets, which paired Christians and Muslims, had been common, even expected, for decades, as a way of securing social cohesion.
The Church of Nigeria’s new guidelines seek to restore social trust in the church, which has traditionally enjoyed widespread respect in Nigerian society. In this country where 63 percent of the 237 million population lives in poverty, citizens look to the government for employment, while the church gives hope and succor to the believer. Many are of the opinion that there are two viable “industries” in the country—government and religious institutions.
Critics say the church’s complicity in party politics endangers its ability to win souls and offer prophetic critique.
In politics since 1992, Dr. Emeka Nwajiuba is an Anglican Church member who served as a cabinet minister, and sought the presidential nomination of the All Progessives Congress, in the buildup to the general election in 2023.
“Across many denominations, the church wants bigger, nicer buildings, the clergy wants posh lifestyles—their children should go to the best schools,” Nwajiuba said. “The priests are constantly under financial pressure. To live and maintain these lifestyles, the politicians and businessmen, especially those politicians who have cornered a large chunk of the commonwealth, are the most feted for monetary donations. Money and those who possess or have it have always been objects of adoration. To get these, the church would avail them their pulpit, the lectern, and podium.
“It may not be sufficient to simply decree these out of the church. The church would need to do serious introspection, a reorientation; change the mindset of both the clergy and the laity through a ‘structured reorientation’—teachings that are consistent with the Scriptures,” he said.
The Nigerian Church’s recent move echoes similar steps taken by the Anglican Church of Kenya in March, when Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit refused to allow several politicians to speak at the consecration of a bishop, and decreed that the donations of politicians to churches would no longer be acknowledged with fanfare and that political speeches should be made outside of church services.
K.C. Nwajei is a freelance journalist based in Nigeria.
