Christians’ participation in politics, divine mandate —Revd Okomogho

Revd Austin Okomogho is the Director, Ministry of the Great Commission Movement (GCM) for all West Africa. Okomogho, who was in Nigeria for the dedication of the new Lagos Centre of the Africa Centre for Theological Studies (ACTS), an International Leadership University, located at Ilupeju area of the state, speaks on the activities of the body he leads, among other issues.
BOLA BADMUS provides excerpts:

what is  GCM about?

It is an international, interdenominational Christian organisation that serves the different denominations of the church in focused areas of evangelism. Our desire is to give every person alive an opportunity to be able to hear the gospel of Christ very clear in the language they can understand and give the opportunity to be able to follow Christ, to be able to grow in their relationship with Christ, such that they themselves, because of the power of the gospel they have experienced, become agents of transformation for their communities wherever they are. We believe that if a person comes in contact with Christ, his life would not remain the same; his life would have a tremendously positive impact on the society.

We do our work in different ways. We work among university students because we see that what they seek is direction in life. Much more than that, if they are not grounded sufficiently in the understanding of their relationship with God and we don’t help them to do that, we may find ourselves in the same kind of conundrum we have found ourselves at this time.

We also work with churches to equip members of the different churches to train them in evangelism. We have an initiative like the ACTs which is actually focused on equipping leaders to reflect deeply about the issues facing our society, as people who are Christians, and see how they can offer themselves to become agents of transformation of our communities. It is about addressing our societal issues based on the quality of their relationship with Jesus Christ.

When was this movement founded?

The movement started in Nigeria in 1969 here in Lagos. It was started by Reverend Yemi Ladipo, who had returned from studies in the UK at the time with his wife. They started with the students at the University of Lagos because they wanted to have great input in the country with the gospel. It was from there in Lagos that the headquarters moved to Jos in 1973; since they had a national vision, they wanted to be at the centre of the country to be able to spread the gospel. There was no Abuja at that time.

How would you rate GCM’s impact?

For the time that we have served, we have had different strategies that we have used in reaching people. One of those strategies has to do with the showing films about the life of Jesus. We have actually gone to every corner of the country, showing this film about the life of Jesus Christ and helping people come into relationship with Christ and there have been testimonies. According to records, more than 50 million people have seen the movie, so we have that nationwide impact. Many church denominations in Nigeria also collaborate with us in training leaders and impacting communities.

What is your take on calls that Christians leaders should join politics, what do you think about it?

If you are Christian and you are Nigerian, you don’t have a choice than to be involved in politics because the political process is how you contribute to the transformation of your country. All of us are involved in politics at every level. You are involved in politics of household; you cannot walk past a dilapidated school building in your community and blame somebody else when you also live there; you cannot blame the president for the garbage dump in front of your house. It is your responsibility as a believer to engage your own community, that is, to mobilise your own people to transform that unit.

It is also your responsibility if you are a Nigerian to be involved in leadership positions, whether by standing for office or voting for people. I would say that if you are Christian, it is your responsibility to be very aware of the people involved in politics in your area. Having said that, the Great Commission Movement is involved in the transformation, but is not partisan to any political ideology and it is our ideology not to be partisan in any way. Members in their private lives can be partisan. The organisation does not stand by any political party. We do believe that every Christian should be involved in politics as mandated by God.

Considering your close relationship to the people, in the light of the current economic situation, what recommendations would you offer?

We believe Nigeria as a country is a divine creation of God. All of the circumstances may look accidental, but we don’t believe God was functioning accidentally. All Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic or religious diversity must embrace the fact that we have a nation created by God and given to us and that all of us have a role to play. They must be able to pull together as a people. Our belief is that a relationship with Christ Jesus can significantly help a person or mandate a person to connect. A united people is what we believe is going to help us address our affairs. We should pursue the glory of God in Nigeria. We have a great future together and we are actually better together.

And once we recognise that and we all come together and make our contributions, we would transform our country.