INTER-RELIGIOUS COUNCIL OF SIERRA LEONE
3RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY
8TH DECEMBER, 2020, BANK COMPLEX, KINGDOM, FREETOWN
PRESENTATION
THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS
IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL COHESION
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Once upon a time, a Bishop was preaching in a Cathedral. Everybody listened and applauded spontaneously but when he said, “I am your humble servant,” the congregation went into a deep quiet as if they were in a cemetery. Some of his listeners wondered why the Bishop should call himself a servant because they could not reconcile the concept of “Bishop servant” to their original concept of Episcopal leadership. After all, the Bishop has a driver, a cook, a dry cleaner, a secretary and everybody calls him, “My Lord.” The Bishop was uneasy. Could it be that the people did not believe him or that they did not understand him? Could it be that his actions in practical life contradict his words? Could it be that his relationship with people negates the principle of service? Has he clouded his vocation to service with a faulty and Machiavellian authority? He needed to find out through a thorough examination of conscience. At last, he decided that he would give a full lecture on leadership, with the theme: “Who is a Servant?”
Today, here in Sierra Leon, you have requested me to speak on “The Role of Religious leaders in National Development and Social Cohesion.” It is important to know that first and foremost, a leader is a servant. It is through humble service that a leader can enable development and social cohesion. The fact that you qualify this concept of leadership with “religion” implies that there are different types of leaders among which you have “Religious Leaders”. The Bishop in our story asked his domestic workers. “Why did the people react the way they did when I said, “I am your humble servant?” he asked! One of them responded, “My Lord, a Bishop is greater than any President of a country. He is God’s representative on earth. He is another Christ and he has the fullness of the priesthood. So, how can he be a servant?” Then the Bishop asked, “If I take care of you and remain available to you, do you take that as service?” One of the workers responded, “My Lord you are really helping us. Even those who are not Christians come to you and you help them.” Then the Bishop asked, “Is that not service?” The worker responded, “That is service but, My Lord, does that mean that you are really a servant?”
It became clear to the Bishop that many people had grown up to perceive a Bishop as a Religious leader akin to a venerable monarch. It became clear to the Bishop that service and servant do not mean the same thing to people. He was happy that the reaction was not based on the action of his daily life and relationship with others. This gave him the courage to proceed with his enquiry. In one of his lectures on leadership, the Bishop asked: “What is the name of a person who drives a vehicle?” A woman answered, “Driver”. “A person who works in the farm is called what?” A young man answered, “Farmer”. Next was the real question, “A person who renders services is called what?” An old man responded, “a Servant”. The Bishop continued: “Is a Bishop a servant when he renders services by preaching, working in the office, building schools, giving scholarship to those who cannot afford money for education, giving free medical services to the sick who cannot afford hospital bills?” There was silence! Suddenly an elderly couple who had benefitted immensely from the Bishop stood up almost in tears, “My wife and I testify that if not for you, our children would have been roaming the streets by now! If not for you, by now we would have died of starvation hence we see you as a father and not a servant.
The Bishop paused and then gave a biblical definition of a Religious Leader using the manifesto of Jesus’ mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). This means that whoever is called to leadership must be prepared to be a servant like Jesus who came to serve and not to be served (Mark 10:45). The Pope is called the servant of the servants of God because he is the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Recall that some people were not comfortable with Jesus as a servant (Mark 10:45) so they wanted to make him a king but he escaped and withdrew into the mountains (John 6:15). While some people enjoyed hero-worship, Jesus refused to be an earthly king saying, “I came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
A Religious leader is not a political godfather whom the party members address as “My Leader.” The leader must live out his or her name. If you are called a “Reverend Father”, be a father to your followers, if you are called a “Bishop”, be a shepherd to the people. “His Lordship” does not mean “lord it over them” with authority. Rather it means, show them the love of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The title of the Pope, “His Holiness” means that the Holy Father must radiate the holiness of God to the world. The title, “His Grace” means that the Archbishop must allow the grace (gift) of God reach all levels of human beings. Every leader is called to service. Human beings lead at different levels and each person even the Security at the Gate is a master in his duty. It is when these levels of leadership are translated to service that we can have categories such as:
The Old Testament identifies service with kingship. King David is called “my servant whom I have chosen” (Psalm 89:20). Prophets were also regarded as, “My servant the Prophet” (Jeremiah 26:5; 44:4). The servant in a biblical sense portrays the king and the prophet as human beings called and chosen to serve God and humanity. Prophet Isaiah uses the word, servant in a communal sense: “You Israel my servant” (Isaiah 4:8) to indicate that the servants were the people of Israel. This embodies an idea of the mission of Israel to the world as the institution of their collective history.
Prophet Isaiah identifies the servant as a person who is uniquely called by God to promote justice, love and peace. “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him; he will bring fair judgment to the nations. He is not heard in the street; he does not break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick. Faithfully, he presents fair judgment; he will not grow faint, he will not be crushed until he has established fair judgment on the earth, and the coasts and the islands are waiting for his instructions” (Isaiah 42:1-4). In this context, kings and prophets represent a leader with the virtues of justice, humility, courage and wisdom to give instruction to the nations. Above all, “the leader” must depend on God for guidance and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The servant takes positive risks trusting that his or her strength is in God (Isaiah 49:5).
Peter applied the title “servant” to Jesus. “You are Israelites and it is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13). Paul exhorts servants (apostles) and those who work for God never to do anything except in the name of Jesus such is service rendered to God. Paul exalts the Colossians saying, whatever your work is; put your heart in it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord you are serving (Colossians 3:24).
We could compare the relationship of the servant (Prophet) and Israel with that which exists between Jesus and the Church. Jesus is the servant who brings Israel to fullness. The Church is the body of Christ, and every Christian is a member of that body. The Bishop is a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:17). St Augustine said in one of his sermons: “Today, by the graces and mercy of God, your Bishop is ordained, and therefore, we must say something to exhort ourselves, to instruct him, and you. What must first be understood by one who is set over the people is that he is the servant of many. He must not disdain this, he must not, I say, disdain to be the servant of many, for the Lord of lords did not disdain to serve us.” So, a servant is a person who serves irrespective of position and title. If a political leader in any nation work for the common good as a servant, that nation would be a heaven on earth.
It is the society that forms a nation. We cannot talk about national development and social cohesion without examining the categories of people that live in every given society. These are the people that the Religious leaders will work with. The religious leaders must also seek for self-awareness to discover who they are. According to the ancient Greeks, there are three kinds of people in any society, namely, the Idiots, the tribes’ people, and the citizens. The idiot is self-centred. He is only concerned with his personal interest at the expense of the common good and common wellbeing. He has no character, no knowledge and no skills to contribute in a flourishing society or community. He is all out for his personal pleasures and his personal treasures. He is an upgraded barbarian who cannot contribute to the national development or enhance social cohesion.
The tribe’s people do not necessarily mean belonging to a certain tribe but a person with a tribal and a tribalistic mentality. They are not able to think beyond their small tribes and their small groups. For the tribespeople, the primary, only and ultimate allegiance is to their tribe, their tribe is their god and their religion is tribalism. Tribes people are always afraid of things that are different or are a little alien to them. They are always suspicious and fearful. And they always deal with different people and difficult situations with intimidation, with force and with violence. The ideal person for tribes’ people is the warrior, because tribes’ people are a war making people.
The Citizen is the ideal person. This is not about legal status or political status or the circumstances of birth and parentage. It is about the ideas and ideal of citizenship. The citizen is someone who has the skills and the knowledge to live a public life and a civility. He cares about the common wellbeing. He recognizes that he or she is a member of a commonwealth and thus strives for the common good. He knows his right in a society but also knows his responsibility to society. The citizen can fight for his right but always with respect for the rights and interest of others.The Citizens make up a civilized society. They settle their differences with civility, they produce a civilized society, a society that truly lives up to the meaning of the name society of friends and friendliness
On the 20th of October, 2011, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, called an extra ordinary meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to discuss the state of the nation. In that meeting, he called on the Religious leaders to use religion to promote peaceful coexistence in Nigeria. President Jonathan counseled that the pulpit should not be used by Religious Preachers to promote hate speeches as that could lead to violence and killing of innocent citizens. This concern of President Jonathan was taken seriously by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council and became part of the agenda of the meeting of NIREC at Ilorin on December, 2011. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also warned against hate speeches by political aspirants, party faithful and other stakeholders during political campaigns.
Even with the warning of INEC and the statements by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) that religious leaders should not be partisan or show preference for a particular political candidate, the 2015 elections had records of some Men and Women of God who took over the political space akin to the professional prophets of the Old Testaments of the Bible. Some Religious Preachers became either professional Seers for some politicians or campaign agents for the highest bidders making money a form of deity. The relationship that should existbetween Religion and Politics should not be a kind of symbiotic and mutual extortion. Religion and politics have a historical relationship for the wellbeing of the citizens. The religious and political leaders have complementary roles to work as agents of God in National Development and Social Cohesion.
The religious leaders have the vocation to promote mutual relationship between the people and those God has chosen as political leaders. This relationship is captured in Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). The governing authorities in Paul’s letter are the ideal leaders who are conscious that they are elected by the people for the people. A true politician is a fellow citizen with the people and a servant of the citizens. The Prophets directed the kings to serve the people in justice. They encourage the kings who were truly servants of the people and rebuked the kings who exploited the people. The true prophets did not relate to the kings for material rewards. The prophets did not make themselves act as if they were God. They only acted as God’s agents for the good and welfare of the people. Their mission was to lead the kings and the people to the vision of the true God. It will be difficult to separate religion and politics as long as the politician seeking a political office is a religious adherent.
Both the Religious leaders, Secular leaders and the citizens must seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. By so doing, every other thing will be given to them (Matthew 6:33). God changes times and seasons. God alone deposes kings and raises up others to replace them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning (Daniel 2:21). The people through credible elections are therefore God’s instrument to choose a credible leader or to remove a bad leader. Consequently, whoever sell votes or take part in electoral fraud is betraying the gift of God in him or her to share in the king making role of God. For God to use any government to save a nation, the people must reject the devil who wants to rule the world through his agents. Some people believe that to be successful in politics, the politician must belong to a secret cult of Satan. Politicians can prove this wrong by putting God first in their political ambition. The politicians must prove that they are called to be Saints and Nationalists. Religious leaders have a role to play in ensuring that political leaders do the needful for national development and social cohesion.
It is sad that some people are still obeying Satan by promising to change stones to bread for the people who have no wisdom to respond that “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Some people today desire a religious or political ruler who can show that he or she is powerful and can-do extraordinary things like jumping down from the top of the pinnacle whereas, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” So many now obey the devil who promised them the wealth and luxury of the world saying, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” Many do not have the faith like Jesus to say, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Matthew 4: 1-11).
A government can give meaning to the life of the citizens by doing the will of God with the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The political history of some nations has shown that promises are like butter with which some politicians prey on the electorate as if they were eating bread. We must not be deluded to think that a change in government will transform the nation into paradise. What every nation actually needs is a change of attitude and interior conversion to be better human beings who care for the common good. Jesus lived by words and example in correcting the pagan world. The apostles continue in this spirit by giving clear evidence to the gospel’s transforming power with their witness of life and responsibility to government (Romans 13:1–2).
The mission of Religious leaders is to change the hearts of the people by words and actions. A Religious leader must be a model in transforming the hearts of people by ensuring that the politics within religion is ideal and worthy of emulation by the secular world. Otherwise, the voice of the Religious leaderswould not be strong enough like the true prophets to correct the ills of the society. Religious leaders must be a model through ecclesiastical governance to have the moral courage to preach against the sins that are putting the citizens in pains and penury. Political parties cannot be the Savior of any nation as long as inter-party differences promote hatred between brothers and sisters. The salvation for all mankind has been manifested in Jesus Christ.
The words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Councils could apply to all Religious leaders: “The Christian who shirks his temporal duties shirks his duties towards his neighbour, neglects God himself and endangers his eternal life”. This reminds me of the statement of the great Philosopher, Plato that, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Socrates told the youths of Athens, that “The wise who refuse to rule should prepare to suffer the rule of idiots.” Eric Arthur Blair, whose pen name is George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic whose work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism and outspoken support of democratic socialism told the English people that, “A people who elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims but accomplices.” The clergy is not advised to take part in partisan politics and active business in the worldly sense but has the obligation to support the laity in carrying out the mission of the Church in the civil society. The aim is to produce not just a Christian president but a good President whose aim is to be a saint like Saint Louis of France who was a secular leader. In our meetings of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), the Co-Chairman, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has repeatedly said that the political leaders in Nigeria belong to either of the major religions in Nigeria.
If the Christian in leadership position does not want to bring shame to Christianity and the Muslim in leadership position does not want to bring shame to Islam by promoting the values and virtues of their various religious, then, we shall have a society that is free of corruption and all forms of crime. It is expected that the Muslim leaders should encourage Muslims to participate actively in partisan politics to promote peace which is the core value in Islam. In the same way, the traditional rulers and their council of elders should encourage their people not to bring shame to their various traditional communities. Some religious adherents follow their scriptures as guide to live on earth in preparation for heaven. The Holy Bible and the teachings of the Church serve as manuals to guide the conduct of Christians. If human beings open up to obey and follow the teachings of their various religions in the context of the good traditional values, we can grow a better nation.
Religious leaders must wake up and make a difference in national development, social cohesion and all aspects of life in the civil society. Religious leaders must speak truth to power to conquer hunger which is one of the strong dividers in human existence. Abundant food is a strong connector that brings people together. Hunger has turned some people to slaves, thugs and hero worshippers. Even the devil knows the danger of hunger and how food can make some people foolish in worshiping creatures in preference to the creator. Poverty has made some poor people worshippers of the rich. Imagine how the devil wanted to distract Jesus with food. “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time, he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into bread. But Jesus replied, Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone (Luke 4:1-4). The desire to turn stone to bread is a serious source of conflict. Some are ready to take human life to occupy leadership positions to amass so much wealth that would enable them keep the poor as perpetual slaves. Even the climate change in the world today is the effort of the human person to turn stone to bread. This has affected green vegetation, aquatic life, deforestation and environmental pollution which have become parts of the dividers in the world.
Hunger is a product of injustice in the distribution of resources. This is why it is very sad that injustice in Nigeria has taken a ‘structural’ form of conflict and violence. Greed for power and governance has made politics appear like a very serious divider at all levels of human existence in Nigeria. The Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone must assist the political, religious and traditional leaders to be peace builders in a way and manner that they must resist the temptation to take sides in contributing to the larger justice and peace issues. This is the time to act locally and think globally. No single level, activity, person, organization is able to bring peace in isolation of others hence the call for collaborative effort. The situation we are now in the world calls for vertical and horizontal capacity.
There are so many questions that are crying for answers. These questions need the attention of a true leader who is not just a servant but a person of integrity. The modern world needs people of influence, simplicity, and sense of justice that can give peace to the world. The world needs a leader that has the capacity to do what is right no matter the conditions and circumstances. The world needs leaders who can work the talk, nurture his followers, empower the people and listen to them. The greatest warrior in the world is a person who can control and conquer his or her temperaments. A leader who can bring about social cohesion must have emotional intelligence with the ability to understand with the heart. Everybody needs somebody hence the leader must learn the value of empathy to be sensitive to the feelings of others. A religious leader should grow above all these to the point of assisting the followers to navigatethrough troubles, problems and difficulties. He needs enough communication skills to lead in a way that he must be exemplary. It is my prayers that the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra-Leone may be a vanguard in bringing peace to the nation, contribute to national development and bring about social cohesion in Sierra-Leone.
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and the Secretary General of the West Africa Inter-ReligiousCouncil. He was the Director of the Department of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria and a Consultor in the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, Vatican City.
