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The Revolution Of August 5 Is A Clarion Call To All Religious Leaders Especially Christians By Nicholas Ibenu Jr.

August 4, 2020

Nowhere in the world do Christians have a more visible and obvious responsibility to be salt and light, to embody the will of God, than when humans are disenfranchised, treated unjustly, unfairly, dehumanise, strangle them in poverty, release fire and brimstone on them, steal their resources, incarcerate them in prison, pervert justice, which is a total conclusion of saying, treated less than fully human in a sovereign nation.

We all owe a moral obligation to be out tomorrow the 5th of August, 2020 for the peaceful mass protest nationwide to end the anomaly in our great nation. I know one thing that is most certain about our religious brothers is that they always said that protesting against our political leaders is a form of protesting against God.

I will take this opportunity to go a bit further in explaining civil disobedience. It is a religious duty most especially the Christians’ duty in civic affairs to hold powers to account when there’s injustices, oppressions and dehumanisation in every society. History has demonstrated that there is more than one way of doing that, and one of this way of course, is participating or organising massive protests against unjust government.

Christians have continually formed the selfish habit of saying, “If you don’t like the system of governance, move to a different place,” or “He’s your president and you owe him your allegiance.” This is a sin against God and against humanity. The nation belongs to all.

In as much as Christians owe their deep allegiance to God, but not to whoever is in public office. And when we see injustices being done in the society in a systematic mistreatment of others supported by the regimes, Christians have a moral duty before God on civil disobedience.

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When we align any political regime with the divine realm it is called “civil religion.” Though In as much as it's common in American politics where so many theories have habitually treated civil religion badly. The Christians have a moral duty to frown at it because we Christians follow the life of Jesus.

This is not the middle ages, where God puts kings on the throne and they rule by Divine right. God is not superintending our election process. God did not put President Muhammadu Buhari in the Aso Rock any more than God put Dr Ebele Jonathan, the Yar'Adua, Obasanjo and so many others. We as a people put them there. And all Christians both religious leaders have the obligation to hold to account all those we voted into public office.

Biblically for those who are Christian, in the sermon on the mount, (Matthew 5-7), Jesus did not only critique Roman oppression but he took off the table Jewish political countermeasures. The “kingdom” Jesus is about the kingdom of God which is neither something “up” nor an attempt to “make Israel great again” but a transformation of God’s people to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” (Mathew 5:13-16).

Jesus’s kingdom is not “of this world” as he always tells Pilate in John 18:36;

Jesus’s kingdom is here on earth and now! Even as much as Jesus' cause is politically unaffiliated, he holds the moral duty to civil disobedience in an unjust society.

The “kingdom” Christians are about is one where we pray to God as Jesus prayed, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Christian’s number one political priority is to be instruments of manifesting God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven,” and that is a full-time job that requires much wisdom that does not only transcends parties and politics but is a clarion call to critique them.

Nowhere in the world do Christians have a more visible and obvious responsibility to be salt and light, to embody the will of God, than when humans are disenfranchised, treated unjustly, unfairly, dehumanise, strangle them in poverty, release fire and brimstone on them, steal their resources, incarcerate them in prison, pervert justice, which is a total conclusion of saying, treated less than fully human in a sovereign nation.

I could continue to go on and on but let me conclude by citing the last example of moral disobedience. Let's take a look at the Apostle Paul. In his context, following Jesus meant de facto not giving his unquestioned and full allegiance to Rome. Calling Jesus “Messiah” (Greek: “Christ”) was to call him the true and anointed king (which is one of the things that made the Romans so nervous about him). Calling Jesus “Lord,” as Paul does about every other sentence, is to say in effect that Caesar, the regime, is not.

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), let us stop making a butchery of our conscience by being deluded with prayers without actions. Let us move in masses to demonstrate our shameful conditions as a people. The nation belongs to all of us and we owe the moral obligation to hold our leaders accountable for abuse of resources. Our people are dying daily unjustly, our democracy is not lucid, our soldiers have continued to be slain in the Boko Haram war, our sovereignty is at stake with the Chinese Government. There's nothing more to prove the treachery of this administration than moving all out on the 5th of August 2020 in a mass protest in demonstration of these shameful conditions.

Nicholas Ibenu Jr. Is a computer forensics investigator and human rights activist.

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Phone: +2348028413077