Niran Oluseye, Ikeja, Lagos State, noluseye2001@gmail.com: I’m not surprised at all the spin-doctoring and cover-ups being employed by the Lagos State Governor’s wife, Bolanle Ambode, in order to hush the whole sacking of the Chapel of Christ the Light chaplain, Venerable Femi Taiwo. What does surprise me though, is the unfortunate ‘verdict’ by the leadership of the Lagos chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
They claim to have a verdict, but have yet to conclude a “thorough” investigation. If this is the case, how come witnesses, congregants, haven’t been questioned officially? How come the congregants themselves haven’t issued a statement? No formal fact-finding visit to the church was made before the verdict. So, how on earth did they come to it?
I will tell you how come – Nigeria! Leaders expect the best from the followers but rarely are willing nor ready to do the same and usually they get away with it. Impunity! People in authority, always expect they can do what they like without any recourse. Fear! No one wants to stand up for the truth. And that is really what all this is about: The Nigerian factor.
Does CAN actually believe that it was Governor Akinwunmi Ambode himself who sacked the chaplain? Before we go on, let’s make it clear, it wasn’t. It was Bolanle, the governor’s wife who sacked him. And that is the problem. No one, CAN inclusive, seems to get that this is about nipping abuse of power in the bud. Nobody that I’m hearing is saying that this is a great opportunity to address a major Nigerian disease – the abuse of power!
CAN says this issue has been blown out of proportion. What? It’s truly unfortunate that they do not see the dangerous underpinnings that led to this dispute in the first place, namely, yep, you got it – the abuse of power and its cousin, megalomania, plus the blatant disrespect of the house of God because of the over-inflated ego of the wife to the governor.
We should, as a people, see that Bolanle’s abuse of power is the primary problem with political office in Nigeria. We should see the opportunity to publicly discuss this ill and send a message to others of Bolanles ilk, who feel that public office is a birth right, a monarchy in 13th century. Finally, we must see the irony in all this is that Bolanle DOESNT even hold political office!
Kindly let me repeat that the issue is quite simple and if anyone from CAN bothered to actually investigate properly by asking the actual witnesses and the church as a whole, they would see that firing the chaplain is actually not the issue. It’s the reason behind it that irritates everyone.
What we care about is that a man, doing his job was fired for no other reason than making the mistake of not calling the governor’s wife out first for anointing during a regular church service. In a civilised polity, Bolanle would be made to apologise. Not exonerated after behaving so appallingly. But hey, we are in Nigeria, are we not?
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