Isaiah Magaji Jirapye is the newly elected chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Taraba State Chapter. In this interview with some correspondents in Jalingo, shortly after his swearing in, he spoke on his programmes, how he would lead a dialogue to end the Tiv/Jukun crisis, among other issues. NATHANIEL GBAORON was there. Excerpts:
You were recently elected the chairman of CAN Taraba State chapter, how do you feel?
First of all, I give God the glory because he is the owner of life; he controls any activity that happens both in heaven and on earth. It is only God that enthrones and dethrones; it is only God that gives people the opportunity to become something and to get to any position. I appreciate God for the process of the election that happened last Saturday, how peaceful and calm it was. I also want to thank the Christian community in Taraba for trusting in me. I see this election as a trust; I see it as people agreeing with you and am still seeing myself as not qualified to have been voted if not for the mercies and grace of God. So, I want to thank the Christians in Taraba State for the trust they have given me and I want to put it on record that I will not betray the trust by the grace of God.
What agenda do you have for CAN in Taraba?
Talking about my agenda for CAN in Taraba State, I have only three issues to look at even though they may be simple; they involve and include so many things. Number one is to build on the unity of the body of Christ in Taraba. When people live in a society they may have their differences but to some extent and by the grace of God, the body of Christ in Taraba is still one; whether we have challenges or not, the body of Christ is still the body of Christ. So I will build on the existing unity and take it further. The road map to achieve that, to me, is to call first of all the heads to a round table so that together we can decide the way forward and God will lead us. I believe he is the God of unity; he will give us the way forward; I am sure.
Number two is to look into the holistic development of the Christian community in Taraba. Holistic development in the sense that we will work towards revival That’s on the spiritual aspect, to make sure that the church in Taraba is repositioned on the spiritual platform to please God and to be what the body of Christ is supposed to be on the spiritual realm. This can be achieved by organising crusades, seminars and revival programmes that will involve all Christians. On that note, I am also targeting the singing groups that we have in CAN, talk about the choir, the music aspect of it, the boys’ brigade and any group that exists within the body of Christ, how we can bring them together and try to hold programmes from time to time to see how we can bring revival because once these people catch the fire of revival, it will go everywhere. On the infrastructural aspect, we have the guest house, offices and the church.
I will try to make sure that we put some infrastructural touches to them to look the way they should. From my administration we will also look into the empowerment of our women and youths. Women and youths are the livewire of society, neglecting them will amount to messing up the whole thing. My own ministerial life in the church, I have always focused on empowerment because if you teach people spiritual things and their bodies are weak, they don’t have food to put on their table and they don’t have anything to do, they may be sitting there physically but not connected with you. So, I believe in a holistic approach to issues that a man is a connection of the spirit and body, if you deal with the spirit only and leave the body you still have a lot of work to do and you may not even achieve anything reasonable. So, the two must come together. We must make sure we look for ways to raise resources to create small, small businesses for our women and our youths and any amount that we are able to get must be used for that purpose.
We will also try to see how we will organise them and train them on certain skills that will empower their lives so that people will be engaged in doing some things. When somebody is properly engaged he will not allow himself to be used by anybody to foment trouble. We will look into that aspect with all seriousness by the grace of God. And then we will try to look at the case of IDPs, many of our Christians are displaced, not only the Christians, including Muslims. When it comes to benevolence we will reach out to even the Muslims because we are Tarabans; we are not here to fight each other; all these fights here and there are misplacement of priority because God has not authorised anybody to take up gun against his brother, but there are some motives that move people into this kind of thing and we will make sure that those things are removed from our society by the grace of God.
No man can achieve that without God helping him. We will also have to look into the holistic development of our Christian community to make sure that where Christians are not in agreement with each other, we will bring to their notice to know that peace is the most important thing to pursue because if everybody lives in peace, people will go about their normal businesses to earn a living. But if we keep fighting each other, we will be losing, and if we finish Killing ourselves in Taraba, strangers will come and occupy the land; that will mean that we have lost. There is no gain in fighting one another.
Number three is to make sure there is synergy between the church of God and the government in Taraba; that will be that whatever government wants we will bring it to the table of the church and what the church wants we will also communicate it to the government so that there will be peaceful and robust relationship between the church and the government. There will be no rancour or nasty criticism here and there. Sometimes, government does something that the public doesn’t understand, they complain and say so many negative things about it, because there is communication gap; but where that gab is bridged, people will have understanding and where government also understand the desires of the church; what the church wants the government to do that will also be carried out and when it is well communicated, the government will also know that I am dealing with people and this is what they think. For now, these are the three basic things I will do, God helping me; but as time goes on I will be expanding my scope and all these things must be gradual. By the grace of God, before our tenure runs out, we will achieve and Taraba will see progress.
You made mention of unity, and in other societies the church is used as a platform to bring people onthe roundtable to discuss peace; is that part of what you’re thinking of doing?
Yeah; if I talk about unity, definitely we must start from somewhere and the church is my base. I cannot jump into any religion and just take authority and begin to handle things without starting from my base, and where I am coming from, there must be proper understanding of what we want to achieve. If I am able to pull the Christian community together, I will have peace; it is only when you have peace in your own heart and in your own family that you can go out to reconcile other people. So, my starting point is the church, beginning with the church leaders expanding gradually to all the Christians.
Taraba is a multi-religious state. What kind of relationship would you want the Christians to have with the Muslims and other religious faiths?
Normally, in the state, being part of the exco, in the years back, I know that there is a great unity or synergy between the Christian community, especially the CAN with the Muslim council. We have worked together. In fact, I can cite an example of where doctors in the Federal Medical Centre went on strike that was like an unending one, the nurses joined and all the staff were to join, CAN and the Muslim council came together and invited the managing director and other management staff. We sat down and pleaded with them that if there was anything to be done to curtail the level of the strike and to bring these people back to their duty post it should be done. We thank God that after that meeting, so many good things came up. I have in mind strongly that in no distant time, I will connect with the Muslim brothers and we will start planning on how we will work together. One of the plans is to select some key ministers and some key Imams, bring them on board and have a sensitisation seminar with keynote speakers both from the Christian and Muslim sides that will educate us on the steps we need to take so that we can live in peace. Since the government of Taraba is out for peace with the slogan ‘give me peace and I will give you development’. Without peace, there will be no development of any kind, we must pursue peace. I am using the word ‘must’, because it is a necessity; if we really want to sleep with our two eyes closed.
For some people, your emergence as CAN chairman is a welcome development; however, for some people believe that CAN, for some time now has appeared politicised; its romance with government is no longer secret. Now, the question is, with your closeness to the government of the day, how successfully carry the mandate of your office?
There have been misconceptions, people do not understand what CAN stands for and if you see a man that doesn’t understand what an organisation is set up for, he will always have misconceptions and talk out of the line. For me, I don’t see government controlling CAN; so, if people say the relationship with government and CAN is overwhelming, I keep wondering, what do they mean by that? Do they mean that CAN should be fighting the government? Because I believe that CAN and the Muslim council are people who are indigenes of the state therefore, they should be able to cooperate with government to bring dividends of democracy down to the man on the street. But I cannot sell my conscience for anything, if I cannot thank God for how far he has brought me, then I cannot thank God again. I believe that there will be a robust relationship, but where government will bring some things that will be against the citizens I can’t take it. I have been relating very well with the governor of course, but that has never stopped me from telling him the truth; what he should do for both Christians and Muslims. I can’t shy away from that; that is a responsibility. If you love a man, you tell him the truth. I don’t know whether those who are saying that would want CAN to always be insulting the government. CAN was originally set up to relate and intervene between government and the Christian community. People should be able to know this. CAN was not established to go out as an evangelism team; CAN was set up primarily to meddle between the government and the Christian community so that the Christians will also get their benefit from government and there will be peace and the voice of Christians will be heard in the corridors of power. CAN is not meant to be an enemy to government; it will be an enemy only when the government deviates.
You talk so much about peace, but unfortunately, the situation in southern Taraba is degenerating; what do you think can be done quickly to bring succour to the area?
Shortly after the election, I collected the number of the CAN chairman of Benue State. I want to call him so that we will start talking. In fact, immediately after the election, I spoke to the chairman of CAN, in the 19 northern states; that same day, I had a brief meeting with some Tiv brothers who came to greet and congratulate me. We have already begun our plans how we will meet immediately to begin to move into this matter. They will have ideas, I will also have ideas and it will not be only me and few people. I believe in dialogue because even in your family if you don’t have peace everything you have will scatter. At this critical time, Christians must embrace each other; we must say no to violence, especially violence against each other as children of God. What are we gaining from what is happening in southern Taraba if not losing lives and property here and there? By the time the Jukun man and the Tiv man finish killing themselves, what will be left? This issue of peace is non-negotiable and nobody can bend my mind out of it. It is something that we must pursue and it is something that the public will know that we must pursue because it is only peace that will bring progress to us all.
