El-Rufai had tweeted on Sunday, January 28, that: “If Jesus criticises Jonathan’s government, Maku/Abati/Okupe will say that he slept with Mary.”
Reacting to the issue, the Christian organisation warned El-Rufai that “if he persists in such matters, making such derogatory commentaries, he must prepare himself for a very forceful and vigorous reaction from the Church and Christian community in Nigeria”.
Speaking through its General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, CAN warned that the “maturity and dignified restraint of the Christian populace in the face of inflammatory and provocative statements should not be taken as licence for unbridled assault”.
“We urge his religious leaders and political associates to advise him to be far more sober and circumspect and put a padlock on his mouth before he lights the candle that sets our country on fire”, the body said.
“On our part, we urge the Christian community and our Christian youths to continue to be restrained and to always seek peace, love and harmony in spite of the provocation that they are facing from the likes of Nasir El-Rufai and those he represents”, he said.
In another development, the Chairman of South-West Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Magnus Adeyemi Atilade, has called for an end to the raging press war by some national leaders of the organisation.
In a statement in Lagos yesterday, Atilade said the war should stop without delay before any damage was done to the entire Christendom, adding it was capable of polarising its members nationwide.
According to Atilade, if the crisis was allowed to persist, it might erode the vision, mission and objectives of CAN’s founding fathers, stressing that what the current leadership should do was to dialogue instead of engaging in press war.
The South-West CAN leader pointed out that Christians would be shooting themselves in the foot if they engaged themselves in unnecessary friction or rancor when there was a common enemy, Boko Haram crisis facing them frontally.
Atilade, president of Christian Welfare initiative (CWI) and chairman, South West Zone of Organised African Instituted churches (OAIC), said CAN should put its house in order instead of precipitating crisis that could consume the entire organisation if not properly managed and allow outsiders to meddle into its internal affairs.
Archbishop Atilade further stated that a house divided against itself can never stand. United we stand, divided we fall. CAN was founded by our forefathers to bring all Christians of all dominations together so that we can be one and indivisible entity.
“Christ gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, all our differences should be settled by dialogue. Therefore, let there be peace and unity in CAN. Let there be no more press war over CAN. We should stop washing our dirty linens in public”, he said.
Atilade drew the attention of the stakeholders to Apostle Paul when he said Christians have been reconciled with God through Christ. Therefore, CAN leaders must strive to reconcile their differences.
It would be recalled that there had been press war among CAN leaders at the national level over the decision of the Catholic Church to temporarily suspend their membership of CAN.
Mr. Sunday Oibe, spokesman for the 19 Northern states and Abuja branch of CAN, has blasted the Catholic Church leadership for taking the decision to suspend their membership of CAN.
The Catholic church on the other hand has accused the CAN leadership’s approach to national issues as rebellious in style and fiery in character, a trend it said, did not promote the much needed religious unity and peaceful co-existence the country needs at these trying times.
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112034:can-flays-el-rufai-over-statement-on-jesus&catid=1:national&Itemid=559
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