NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 19th - Sunday 25th May 2025
JIHAD: THE GREAT BETRAYAL
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins (Isaiah 58:1)
With devastating impact, the reality has now dawned on the Christian community in Nigeria that a jihad has been launched in the country. When the alarm was raised eleven years ago, some influential Christian elites described the warning as “fear mongering”, “divisive political tactics”, and “rabble rousing”. Now, with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Nigerians in the grave (many of whom are Christians) and hundreds of Christian communities sacked and replaced with jihadists from the desert while the Christian owners of those lands languish in IDP camps, to say nothing of the countless number of Nigerians kidnapped by Islamist militia all over the country, no conscientious Nigerian will deny the reality of jihad in the country. Those who have been fortunate to escape from those jihadists have often given horrifying accounts, attesting also to their crying their blood-curdling ‘signature tune’ of “Allah Akbar!”
In the circumstances, we cannot stop engaging this matter in the place of prayer as well as in public discourse. As we pray, we also need to be honest with ourselves and ask, “How did we get to this point?” Christians need to look in the mirror and tell themselves the truth, because only the truth sets free. If Christians can honestly answer the question, “How did we get here?” it will be easier to know how to get out. A problem properly diagnosed is only a step away from the solution.
The public engagement of these issues, uncomfortable as it is, might have been unnecessary if the principal actors, the Church leaders, readily responded to counsel and correction. Many well-meaning efforts were made by God in heaven and men on earth to reason with them, but they sadly ignored the entreaties. For example, the Christian Elders (comprising membership from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria) initiated several unsuccessful meetings with officials of the apex Christian body, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on these issues. Those efforts included the setting up of two independent committees to investigate issues in the Church. They were repulsed. In August 2021, God further spoke to another group of Christian elders in Lagos. They had started a weekly prayer meeting for Nigeria since 2014. God instructed them to write a letter to the Church leaders in Nigeria, warning them that He was “ANGRY” with them for their passivity to the horrors unfolding in the country. That letter was dated 26th August 2021. Those prominent church leaders received their letters individually, and the Elders followed up for their response. Regrettably, those elders (and the God who had sent them) were ignored. If those church leaders had responded humbly and allowed a dialogue, the matters would have been handled quietly.
In the prayer call of last week, entitled “The Sons of Issachar”, it was proposed that Church leaders should organise a “repentance and reconciliation” meeting as a prerequisite for divine intervention, as well as to unite the Body of Christ to resist the jihadists. We are still hoping that there shall be a proper and timely response by the Church leaders. The unfortunate general indifference of the Christian leadership when the Church is called upon to take corrective measures has been a major hinderance to healing and restoration in Nigeria.
This week, we seek to answer the question, “How did we get here?” The Nigeria Church is experiencing distress and calamity due to unimaginable betrayals by those entrusted with its leadership. That is a major problem that Christians must contend with. If the problem of compromise amongst church leaders can be solved, every other problem confronting the Church can be solved. The Christian community should be aware that even though these matters of church leaders’ compromise are now in the public domain, those leaders given to compromise have been unrelenting, as if on treacherous auto-drive, unable to stop unless compelled to. Some have built ministries on selfish interest, and others live above their legitimate means. Consequently, asking them to stop the compromises could be tantamount to asking them to commit suicide. Treachery appears to be the major source of income for those.
We shall highlight three kinds of treachery within the Christian leadership, that have brought the Church and the nation into the present bondage and bloodshed. They include actions that Christians see but the dots of which they might have been unable to connect.
1. Wilful transgression to satisfy personal selfish interest
In the runup to the 2015 elections, God made it clear that the jihadist party should not be permitted to form a government. Some Church leaders rose against that warning and worked to ensure that a well-known jihadist became the president of Nigeria. They not only voiced their objections to the word of God, they also wrote a letter to fight what they knew was God’s will. By that transgression, those Church leaders betrayed the Lord Who had called them into the ministry. It was a flagrant “Not Your will, but my will be done.” That betrayal opened the gates of hell into Nigeria. To shut it has become a herculean task. The jihadists now hold political power, and they use the instruments of the State to afflict Christians and Nigerians at large, courtesy of Church leaders.
2. The sin of irresponsibility
When God saw that the complicit actions of church leaders was going to put the jihadists into power, He started putting in place counter measures to mitigate the impact of their attacks and strengthen the Church to resist them. Those structures of divine mercy were neutralized by that leadership, making the jihadists stronger. For example, there was the CAN Trust Fund meant to raise N5 billion monthly to fund Christian advocacy and take care of vulnerable Christian areas, and the Strategy Document meant to initiate structures to strengthen the Church, promote the ideology of democracy in the country above the ideology of Islamism, as well as move the gospel into an offensive position against the ‘enemy at the gate.’ The vision for the Church was “GO NORTH”. Now, Christians are fleeing from the North. The Christian Political Consensus was a landmark initiative of the foresighted Elders, to harmonise Christian engagements in politics in Nigeria. The apparent intentional destruction of that great move ceded political power to jihadists. It smacked very painfully of treachery.
3. Criminal negligence
It amounts to criminal negligence when leaders fold their arms and do nothing while a group of people faces existential threat. In the past sixteen years since the Islamist insurgents have been attacking Christians in Nigeria, church leaders are yet to put reasonable structures in place, locally or internationally, to defend or succour endangered Christians. The last of such efforts was many years ago, before 2016, when a former president of CAN repeatedly went to the US Congress to raise alarm about the unfolding crisis in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Church can do much more than the nothing it has done in checking the excesses of the jihadists. The fundamental problem of Islamism can be resolved in the court. Credible efforts were made in that direction in 2018, but it did not get the support of the Church leaders. Another option was to harmonize Christians to use their demographic superiority in the country to promote democracy and ensure good governance in the land. Rather, church leaders openly threw their weight behind the jihadist political party, dismantled Christian political consensus, and ignored the Christian political candidates.
Apart from making weak and disjointed press statements, which some affirm are drafted in Aso Villa, church leaders have been missing in action. As little as ensuring that the Aso Villa Chapel is re-opened for Sunday worship has been hard. It appears to be a Church without cover, without direction, without succour.
As grievous as those transgressions are, they could have been resolved with a simple confession to God and apology to the Church. Anyone who thinks that that is difficult should recall that a Muslim, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, only last week, came out openly to apologize for a ‘technical glitch’ that affected many candidates in Lagos and in South-Eastern Nigeria in the just-concluded JAMB entrance examinations. That Director General of JAMB openly shed tears and apologized for the trauma that the glitch had caused the students and their parents. While some query whether the tears were sincere and redemptive, at least it brought reasonable reassurance, yet that technical disaster in no way compares to the many deaths and abductions at present in the country on account of blind church greed among leaders and the led.
If a Muslim could come out and accept responsibility for a problem caused by his subordinates, how about Christian leaders who teach repentance and restitution, whose personal infractions caused bloodshed, the death of millions of Nigerians, and calamities all over the country? Could there not be found one Church leader who would take the path of honour and accept responsibility for the disasters that their actions have caused?
This matter is only beginning. The court of heaven shall sit, and the books shall be opened. The betrayal of the Nigeria Church shall not go unaddressed. Too many lives have been destroyed.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
PRAYER POINTS
1) Matt. 16:18
Thank God that the Church is built upon Jesus, the Eternal Rock of Ages, and not on any man. Therefore, no treachery of man shall destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
2) Job 5:12-14
Cancel all plans and conspiracies of the jihadists against the Nigeria Church. Pray that they shall be consumed by their own wickedness.
3) Isaiah 29:6-8
Pronounce the judgment of God against every nation and ethnic group involved in jihad against Nigeria.
4) Mal. 2:7-9
Pray that unless and until they repent, God would execute judgment upon every priest in the Nigeria Church that betrayed the Church.
5) 2 Kgs. 19:32-35
Pray that all the forces of jihad in Nigeria shall be smitten by the power of God.
6. Isaiah 40:1-2
Pray the comfort and restoration of God for everyone in Nigeria who has been attacked by the jihadists, especially Christians.
7. Jer. 3:15
Pray that God would raise credible spiritual leaders in the Church, who will unite the Church and set it on the right path for victory, healing, and restoration.
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DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
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