Send Sambo to negotiate with Boko Haram- Bishop Umunna tells Jonathan

Walter CarringtonBishop Leonard Nwoma Umunna is the General Overseer and the Presiding Bishop of Bible Life Church Cathedral (BLCC) which he founded in 1982 with headquarters in Ajegunle area of Lagos. Bishop-Leonard-Nwoma-Umunna. Umunna was called to ministry in the 60s and by the leading of the Holy Spirit has remained in the Ajegunle suburb where the church has grown to the shame of those who believe that nothing good can come out of The Jungle City. He has established several other business concerns including schools, hospitals, music school and studios among others in the neighborhood. In this interview with Sam Eyoboka, the bishop spoke on several national issues including Boko Haram. Excerpts…

 

The abducted Chibok girls have spent over five months in captivity and Boko Haram is still on rampage capturing communities in the North Esat. What is your take on these?

 

Chibok, Gwoza, Bama, all put together tells us that they have politicised our lives. When the Chibok school girls were abducted, some people did not believe because they said it was all politics and that certain people wanted to use it to discredit government and all that. A situation where government sees every comment, no matter how reasonable, from the opposition as a ploy to pull down government is condemnable. Again, opposition must not be seeing only the negative aspect of government.

 

They must not only dwell on criticism. Again, reaction time of government to crisis is not always prompt, except when certain people’s lives are involved. This really does not help the image of government. What we have seen over the years is that whenever a relation of any government official is involved in some of these problems, concerted efforts are made to rescue such people as quickly as possible.

 

So the opposition people are asking: ‘Why hasn’t government been able to do so in the case of these Chibok girls? If I were the president, the steps I would have taken in this matter would endear me to the people. In the Yar’Adua administration we heard that Jonathan, as vice president, had to go to the Niger Delta Creeks to pacify the then militants.

 

I don’t think the president has thought of drafting the vice president, Namadi Sambo to personally go to go speak to the Boko Haram members. That is what leadership is all about, sacrifice. I think measures must be put in place either in the constitution or wherever, that whosoever becomes governor or president must not politicise our lives. There are certain things that should not be brought under political interpretation at all.

 

The Constitution must compel elected public office holders to do certain things, take certain actions under certain circumstances even if it will involve their lives. This was why I felt unhappy when I heard that the recommendations of the National Conference would again be subjected to the Federal Executive Council. I said for what reason?

 

These are the same people who have been there for years doing nothing; they travel abroad and see how human society operates, they come back here and continue the same way they have been.

 

They can’t import all those good things they see abroad and apply them here for the good of the country. The National Assembly on the other hand, is it not a group of the people who have been there without the desired impact? They could not sponsor the bill to effect the correct changes in the Constitution, but they allowed all that billions of naira to be spent on a conference, what do they have to say on the outcome of the conference?

 

Will you see the recent outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) as a divine affliction, a plague or just one of those diseases?

 

It is both spiritual and a physical matter. I see it as a plague like the Boko Haram. I see it also as physical because of our inability to be hygienic enough to ward off such things. Ebola was discovered in West Africa in 1976 in Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan; now just making its entry into Nigeria through Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American citizen.

 

Ebola is a disease of a virus nature but it first presents itself like bacteria such as malaria with severe fever, weakness (tiredness), joint pains and extreme dehydration. But when it gets to the secondary stage, there will be emission—vomiting, blood coming out from the mouth, noses and other openings in the body; diarrhea etc. It is important to let our people know that when one is having such primary symptoms, that the best thing to do is to report to a medical personnel because at that point it is not yet a death sentence.

 

It can be easily tackled. I told my prayer warriors that there should be no laying of hands on anybody who has come down with the secondary symptoms. I also told them that when ministering to someone whose nature of sickness is not yet determined, they should wear masks and hand gloves.

 

Those who come in contact with people with primary symptoms of fever, weakness of the body, joint pains etc should thoroughly wash their hands in running water (tap water) with good disinfectants such as hand sanitisers. They should also maintain a high degree of hygiene always as their cleanliness is next to godliness. In the event that somebody with the disease, that person should do him-/herself a world of good by going to the designated institutions or appropriate medical facility. So, to halt the spread, there’s need for proper and urgent information.

 

 

 

As a result of the development, summer lessons in schools were stopped by government which also had ordered postponement of school resumption. Do you think such level of precaution is necessary?  

 

There’s nothing you do in this world that you’ll not get divided opinions. Some will be speaking out of knowledge, some out of ignorance, some from God, some from Satan, and some from human point of view. If anybody should see what is happening from only the religious point of view, the fellow should understand that not all men have faith.

 

I run a group of schools. I don’t endanger the lives of pupils and students. I am an overseer of a large church, and I do not also want to endanger the lives of new converts or those with little faith. I try to follow the Word of God in line with medical realities. People must be ready to obey all the rules of medical experts.

 

Now, disobeying government in order to prove you are exercising faith is not the best way to go. That does not mean we should not manifest faith, all I am saying is that while doing so; while praying, we must be very careful so that we do not endanger the lives of other people by not heeding simple medical instructions.

 

There is this thinking that if government and the opposition can collaborate the way they did to tackle Ebola, the Nigerian nation would have made a lot more progress over the years. What is your take?

 

The collaboration we saw is because Ebola cuts across political lines. It is a matter of life and death. So, when life is involved, politics takes a back seat. It is life before anything else. Life has no duplicate. But beyond that, I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the type of politics we play in Nigeria.

 

I just came back from America; you see, over there, government educate people to be health-conscious, to take precautionary measures. Government in those climes takes proactive action to forestall danger, but here we are reactive in our approach to issues. Unless things have gone bad we don’t act.

 

There, people are following healthy measures and are living a healthy life. It is unfortunate that here in Nigeria people are benefitting from the calamities of others. They are making gain out of other people’s misfortunes. It is not the right thing to do.

 

 

 

At every seminar and workshop, the refrain is that the major problem of Nigeria is bad leadership. Ahead of 2015 election some people are calling on churches to show more interest in politics by urging their members to vie for elective positions. Do you think time is ripe for such a thing giving the kind of politics being played in the country?

 

I will say yes and no. Yes, for those who are mature and can hold their own ground. No, for those who are naïve, sentimental and could even be bought over. The kind of politics that is being played here is the type that allows people to cheat on you and your children through your votes. There is no transparency.

 

And people pay attention to things that do not matter. Forgive my use of what happened recently in Ekiti to illustrate my point. Somebody is busy trying to give them good education and other necessary things, but they judged him through their belly. The way of politics in Nigeria now; in fact, Africa in general, is not what a spiritually matured Christian can just dabble into.

 

It is not the best of times for a good Christians to go into the murky waters of the Nigerian politics. By the way, I have repeatedly said that if you are a pastor you shouldn’t try it at all because a God-called pastor is greater than any president in the world.

 

What we see here is that those who have been proven to do well are not being given the opportunity to occupy higher positions, but those who have no track record of (good) performance are the ones being selected to occupy leadership positions. That’s where the problem lies. The right thing should have been for Christians to align themselves with the civil society organizations to sanitise the society, make people accountable, and ensure that we run politics the right way.

 

Or if they are going into politics, they should come out as a united body. They should present their manifesto in unity. By so doing, they withstand negative influence of those who may want to compromise a principled person who is trying to go into politics. A broom stick is easily broken, but a bunch is not.