Nigeria's 2023 Presidential Elections and the Forces of Disunity in the

Church

Fellow Nigerians and dear servants of God, please understand that the
perennial challenges of disunity in the Nigerian church is not peculiar to
Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon whose consequences are only much
worse in our clime. Read with me Dr Tony Evan’s recent heart-cry about
the American church,

“How else can we have all these churches on all of these corners in
America with all of these preachers running all of these programs with all of
these members using all of these resources and still have all of this mess. I
would like to suggest that the church, while building great ministries and
great buildings, has missed the kingdom”

Interestingly, not even the notorious tyrant—"Adolf Hitler" could succeed in

his destruction of the German church without the dismantling of the
church’s fabric of unity. Repeatedly, Hitler leveraged on "disunity" as his
preferred weapon of mass destruction against the German church. He
wrote in his book, "Mein Kampf", "the best way to conquer your enemy is to
divide them". Powerful states have always leveraged on “disunity” to
conquer “known” or “perceived enemies.” The World’s leading entrepreneur
of colonialism—the British empire—which exercised extraordinarily strong
hegemonic influences on many African nations, used the weapon of "divide
and rule" to champion their imperialist agenda across the length and
breadth of Africa. And that was Hitler's main dagger to the heart of the

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German Church. According to the detailed account of the events that led to
the collapse of the German Church prior to World War 2, as given by Dr
Erwin Lutzer, Hitler once said, "when you want to tear down a world and
build another in its place, you must first of all separate the supporters and
the members.

In exactly the same way, the Nigerian church is at the verge of another
sinister, "divide—and—conquer—agenda by powerful demonic forces
within the Nigerian socio-political space. By targeting the church—which is
widely divided along the lines of doctrinal differences and political interests,
Satan and his agents within the Nigeria political space have begun to tweak
their strategies to weaponize this current division as a precursor to
capturing the nation’s political climate—just like they did prior to the
2014/2015 elections. To all General Overseers and church leaders in
Nigeria, I write this message with a very heavy heart. I have seen nothing
more lethal than the force of disunity in dampening the spiritual influence of
the Nigerian church within the current Nigerian state. We are so divided
that the very thought of establishing widespread synergy between different
streams of denominations, or even among the “Pentecostals” is a dream
waiting to happen after the rapture. Historically, successive leaders of the
Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
have found this matter, daunting, herculean, and too high a mountain to
climb.
 
This article is not and will never be a holistic, one-cap-fits all attempt at
solving the decades-old problem of disunity in the Nigerian Church.
However, it presents a little attempt at identifying an existential threat to the
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spiritual influence of the Nigerian church in establishing a united spiritual
front for the emergence of God's sovereign will for Nigeria in the 2023
Presidential elections. The problem statement is this: "How do we bring
together the leadership of the RCCG, Winners' Chapel, Deeper Life, Christ
Embassy, Citadel Global Community Church (former Latter Rain
Assembly), Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Mountain of Fire Ministries, Christ
Apostolic Church, Dunamis Church, Salvation Ministries, Day Star Christian
Center and hundreds, if not thousands of streams of Pentecostal
denominations for the sole purpose of enforcing the political will of God on
Nigeria? These are Pentecostal denominations with highly diverse biblical
doctrines, practices, and values. It is for this same reason I have been an
advocate of far-reaching changes and reforms in the Nigerian church—
such that in the wake of a defining moment like this, the church would have
been spiritually prepared to build a very robust and formidable united force
that can weather all demonic storms against the emergence of God's best
will for Nigeria as President in 2023. 

When the forces of political exigencies stretched forth their hands against a
section of the Evangelicals in America—in a bid to use the forces of
socialism within the marriage institution to divide the evangelicals, they
repelled this attack with a common voice, displaying the spirit of unity with
the following signed document—"The Manhattan Declaration"

"We will not bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual
partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from

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proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and
marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar
what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar
what is God's.

Following this declaration, Dr Tony Evans, one of the most outspoken

American preachers—published a book that addressed this subject of
“division” in the American church. He has the following to say to us, “When
the church fails to act in concert with God’s prescribed agenda, then God
often chooses to postpone His active involvement until His people are
prepared to respond”

Also, let me take you back to a more recent history. In the heat of the
preparations for the 2014/2015 Presidential elections, a section of the
Pentecostal movement in Nigeria favoured the candidacy of Dr Goodluck
Jonathan—the incumbent president at that time, while another section
rooted for the emergence of President Mohammad Buhari—the present
Nigerian leader. The divisions and many heated debates and arguments
among leaders of various denominations led to several contentions and
spiritual cracks in the walls of the church, leading to the emergence of a
new wave of church politics and cliques that have, for the most part, done
more damages than good to the unity and progress of Nigeria as a nation.
Things went so bad in 2014 that many clandestine meetings were held by
various segments of the Nigerian church leadership to force and foist their
choices on other segments of the church leadership—a development that
further widened the cracks of disunity in the church. The ultimate

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consequence of this crisis was the labelling of the Nigerian church by many
onlookers and political gladiators as "corrupt", given some rumoured
exchanges of money between some sections of the church leadership and
certain political parties. Labels like this—whether true or false—are the bi-
products of disunity in the church, and they do no good to the image of the
church. 

The role of the church is to pioneer the predominance of the kingdom of

God and its values in the land. The role of the church is to perpetuate the
spread of truth, honesty, and integrity, among others in a nation. The role of
the church is to enforce the will of God on the nation in the place of prayer.
The role of the church is to leverage on unity to bring about a wave of value
system transformation in the land—a development that will then pave the
way for the emergence of upright and credible political candidates at all
levels. This must be done through a concerted mental and spiritual synergy
among all members of the body of Christ—-or at least among most
leadership of the church in manners consistent with biblical standards. It is
an open secret that the current church structure and system in Nigeria is
fraught with enormous contradictions and widespread corruption—most of
which are deeply rooted in the departure of many church leaders from
sound biblical values of accountability, transparency, integrity, and truth.
However, there are still remnants of contrite and credible churches and
ministries in Nigeria that are still doing the work of the kingdom with
sincerity and truth. Thus, while trusting God for a thorough cleansing and
purging of our churches, it is still crucial to our long-term survival that we
begin to push for an upgrade in our present level of unity.

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Where this unity is lacking, at least to a considerable extent, the propensity
for the emergence of wrong leaders in a nation becomes very high. This
was Adolf Hitler’s Christmas gift to the German Church—that paved the
way for his transformation to a full-blown dictator in the 1940s. According to
J.S Conway,

"Under a barrage of accusations and vilifications, the German church grew

more and more confused between their political and their theological
loyalties. Poised between two choices, divided by compromise, and
weakened through internal theological differences, the German Church lost
its collective influence".

And when they lost it, Hitler took over and the nation sank into the abyss—
becoming the geographical trigger for the second World War. Thus, of all
the forces confronting the Nigerian church, disunity is one of the worst of
them. 

I, therefore, suggest with utmost humility of heart and soul, and with due
respect and honor to church leaders and fathers in the faith in Nigeria that
for the sake of posterity, they should endeavor to shun their differences and
come together to establish some forms of synergies. 

First, the leaders of our various churches need to congregate a round table
conference. Differences must be ironed out in the spirit of love.
Compromises must be established. My church is ten million in membership.

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Your church is five hundred thousand in membership; I am a billionaire; you
are a millionaire must all be thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. I am
talking about fathers here, many of whom are now in their 60s, 70s and
80s. Posterity must dominate their minds. Without fostering any preferred
political candidate on anyone, I believe that our father in the Lord—Pastor
E.A Adeboye—the most respected church leader in Nigeria, has enough
influence and weight to call this kind of a meeting.

It is a meeting to broker peace and unity and to establish a working

document and an actionable spiritual direction that all church leaders—or
most church leaders must commit to—something similar to the "The
Manhattan Declaration" by the Evangelicals in America. We must also be
careful with our approach at creating “mechanisms” that will create the
perception that a preferred candidate is being promoted by the church
above other or even more qualified candidates—Christians or non-
Christians.

Second, a united prayer front for the emergence of God's perfect will for
Nigeria must be established. The church must not be apolitical. Similarly,
we must not be partisan. It is about the will of God. This united prayer front
should mirror a situation where leaders of RCCG, Winners' Chapel, Deeper
Life, Christ Embassy, Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Mountain of Fire
Ministries, COZA, Citadel Global Community Church (former Latter Rain
Assembly), Christ Apostolic Church, Dunamis Church, Salvation Ministries,
Day Star Christian Center and others will come together for a joint prayer
movement—executed online and in various national locations to pray for

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the 2023 local, state and federal elections. This prayer movement must be
inter-denominational and must run for an extended period of time under the
joint leadership of all the leaders of Pentecostal denominations—prior to
the coming together of other non-Pentecostal denominations.

Thirdly, I like to bring to our attention that the RCCG’s recent establishment
of a directorate of governance is highly commendable. If run properly, it
should create a strong platform to support home-grown Christian politicians
in their quest to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy. However, the church must
not be partisan. That is where the problem lies. Such a directorate should
be inclusive to support the entire body of Christ—if truly we do not have
any preferred candidate in view. Any perception of the church by other
religious movements in Nigeria as being partisan towards a Christian
candidate will tarnish the image of the church and would without doubt
create needless anarchy and confusion in the polity. I will advise that any
directorate of governance or any of such initiative by the RCCG or by any
other church must provide a level playing field for all and sundry in the body
of Christ. And ministers and church leaders must distance themselves from
using their exalted altars for political campaigns or for promoting the
interests of politicians—Christians or non-Christians.

In conclusion, it is important to note that we have, for the most part,

concentrated on the successes of our personal ministries—rather than
operating from a “kingdom perspective”—which is also one of the critical
challenges confronting the Nigerian church. Personal ministry orientation is
antithetical to Jesus’s kingdom driven orientation that sees every Christian

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faithful as a member of the same body to which all churches must
collaboratively commit to developing and supporting. This is not the time for
individual and segregated efforts towards personal ministry successes at
the expense of a collaborative national transformation orientation.

This was exactly what the majority of the German church leadership were
doing in the 1940s—they threw caution to the wind by ignoring all calls to
unite and save Germany from the claws of Hitler. They all focused on their
individual ministry success, damning the consequences until Hitler
tightened his grip on the nation and sent most of the church leaders in
Germany at that time into concentration camps. In the words of Helmut
Thielicke, a German theologian who witnessed the collapse of Germany in
the 2nd World War, "many of the German Church leaders were fixated on
their personal ministry successes, but they failed to realize that the worship
of success is generally the form of idol worship the devil cultivates most
assiduously. Success is the greatest narcotic of all". 

Over-the-counter human remedies will not fix Nigeria—they will only mask
the real symptoms for a season. It is now time for us to wake up, stand up
and pray up. The destiny of two hundred million people is at stake. This is
Nigeria's last chance at salvaging the nation's political destiny that is
presently in ruins. A nation with some of the most brilliant minds cannot
continue to trail the rest of world in development and competitiveness. The
church cannot exercise any considerable influence when we are this
divided. Let me leave you with this wonderful message by Dr Erwin Lutzer,
the pastor of Moody Bible Church in America, 

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"When Muslim armies swept across North Africa in the seventh century,
effectively wiping out Christianity, the church was so identified by its
edifices, its priestly rituals, and leadership hierarchy that when the armies
destroyed these symbols of Christianity, those few Christians who were left
found themselves unable to survive. The church disappeared without a
trace. The true church can survive without buildings, but not without united
saints"

God bless Nigeria

God bless the Nigerian church

Author

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Ayo Akerele is a passionate and profound teacher of the word by the grace
of God. His itinerant teaching ministry under different Christian
organisations has lasted for many years since he met the lord in the early
1980s. He is the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries (a.k.a
Rhema For Living Assembly) in Ontario, Canada and the convener of the
Believers Fire Conference—a quarterly interdenominational believers
conference—hosted in major cities around the world. 
He is also the host of the weekly Rhema Hour on 32fm—a radio teaching
ministry reaching five million people in Southwest Nigeria, and the
publisher of "The Voice Newsletter"—a monthly teaching outreach to
various states across Nigeria. Ayo Akerele is a public speaker; an
entrepreneur; a leadership expert; a national transformation consultant, and
the author of twelve books. He holds a doctorate degree in employee
turnover, human capital development and organizational tacit knowledge
from the prestigious Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University in
Scotland, and has worked extensively for more than twenty years as a
consultant for multinational corporations in Africa, Europe, and North
America before answering the call to ministry. Ayo Akerele is married and
blessed with children. 

Contact

Dr David Ayo Akerele

Founder, Voice of the Watchmen Ministries, Ontario, Canada

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Director, Flock Keepers International (a leadership & value system
development organization)

Email: ayoakerele2012@gmail.com

www.flockkeepers.com; www.larenj.ca

Instagram handle: ayoakerele

Facebook Page: Ayo Akerele

YouTube Channel: Word Ablaze (@ Dr Ayo Akerele)

Twitter: ayolara

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