The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was founded in 1976, and originally only contained the Catholic Church and mainline Protestant groups. However, it later expanded to include Pentecostal churches as well with the primary purpose of uniting Christians and all denominations.
The Vision of CAN is: to be the unifying voice of all Christians in Nigeria, amplifying their views, interests and enhancing the spiritual development of all followers of Christ.
The Mission of CAN is: to connect people to Jesus and one another by helping them to grow their faith, finding the true essence of Christianity and build healthy Christian relationships;
to foster ecumenism by uniting all denominations in the body of Christ so as to promote understanding, peace, unity and mutual respect;
to build a great nation for all people through gospel movement, community formation, social justice and cultural renewal.
The Objectives of CAN are: to serve as a basis of response to the unity of the Church, especially as contained in our Lord’s
pastoral prayer: ‘’That they all may be one’’. ( John 17 : 21); to promote understanding, peace and unity among the various people and strata of society in
Nigeria, through the propagation of the Gospel; to act as a liaison committee, by means of which its member-churches can consult together and
when necessary, make common statement and take common actions; to act as watch-man of the spiritual and moral welfare of the nation.
With the latest election of Benue State CAN officials, a lot of issues have taken a new dimension since the emergence of the new CAN leadership.
Many people in Benue State have shown dissatisfaction with this based on the antecedents of most of those who have taken the leadership of the Christian body in the state.
One of those amongst others whose emergence has faced fierce criticism is Bishop Chivir Chianson who is being elected as the CAN Secretary, Benue State Chapter.
In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, Bishop Chivir already took side without even considering that his church has worshippers from All Progressives Congress (APC), People's Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) including others political parties.
He was extremely against the President-elect, Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the Benue State Governor-elect, Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia the APC and all candidates on its platform. The screenshots I have obtained from his Facebook page are evidence of his extreme partisan politics which would have disqualified him in the first place for being elected as the secretary of CAN in Benue State.
Bishop Chivir has never taken the plight of the good people of Benue State into cognizance. He has never criticized the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom for his blatant refusal to clear the backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities. How will such a person effectively transform CAN?
Majority of the officials of CAN, Benue State Chapter are those who openly and always showed their support for Ortom and PDP.
Their emergence will be at the detriment of the progress of CAN in Benue State if care is not taken. Already, their emergence as officials has already created division within many members of CAN who are supporters and members of other political parties.
CAN's invincibility in Benue State is at the verge of vulnerability if nothing is done to save it now. The emergence of the current leadership is an error that wouldn't have been allowed to happen in the first place.
Bishop Chivir actions against APC and Fr. Alia are against one of the objectives of CAN which is "to serve as a basis of response to the unity of the Church, especially as contained in our Lord's pastoral prayer: "That they all may be one". (John 17: 21). How can someone who displayed such actions unify members of the church who share divergent political views and different political parties?
His actions are also against the mission of CAN which is: "to foster ecumenism by uniting all denominations in the body of Christ so as to promote understanding, peace, unity and mutual respect".
How will such a person who has been all along playing partisan politics be able to unit all denominations ( with members from APC, PDP, LP etc.,) in the body of Christ? How will he be able to promote understanding, peace, unity and mutual respect when such are not qualities he had before his emergence as CAN Secretary?
It is very disheartening that CAN in Benue State has been politicised. An association that should be non-partisan has clergymen who are politicians as its officials.
Let the actions of those concerned in the leadership of CAN at the national level not allow it to be ridiculed because over the years, right from the administration Goodluck Ebele Johnathan, CAN was accused of being politicised which led to some denominations to pull out of it under the national leadership of Ayodele Joseph Oritsegbubemi Oritsejafor, known as Papa Ayo Oritsejafor as the 5th President of CAN.
Since most of those who are officials of CAN in Benue State have always being against Fr. Alia and APC, there are fears that the new leadership of CAN might orchestrate actions that would truncate and put Fr. Alia's government in jeopardy which the ripple effects would destroy the invincibility of CAN in Benue State.
For CAN to make the expected impact and uphold the principles which it was founded, any clergyman who has played partisan politics before should not be qualified to even contest any position in CAN. That is the only way, the lost respect and faith in CAN can be restored.
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