By Justine John Dyikuk
Benue State Christian activists — living at the center of the land-grabbing epidemic in Nigeria – met in mid-September to learn how to defeat armed terrorists encroaching on districts long held by farmers of Christian faith.
Top on the agenda of the jointly organised event by two faith-based Civil Society Organisations, God’s Ark Rescue Mission and Cafrilasia Renaissance Mission from September 13 to 16 in Makurdi was the plight of Christians in Nigeria. The conference was held at Calvary Methodist Church, Makurdi was focused on three themes: “building resilience, entrepreneurship and securing international support in the face of poverty and persecution.”
At the gathering of 150 missionaries from across the nation, Christian-participants were trained on how to respond to persecution in the Middle Belt and central regions of the country plagued by violence.
Christian leaders must start ‘intentional discipleship’
Convener of the event, Evangelist Gbenga Uju told Truth Nigeria that the international summit was organized by his not-for-profit organisation, God’s Ark Rescue Mission, to revamp “leadership training, community development, youth training and empowerment, rural and urban missions.”
The conference targeted “ministry leaders, church workers and public servants” to awaken in them the evangelistic spirit, empower the people with poverty-eradicating knowledge and see to the health and well-being of participants,” Uju said.
Regarding how to defend against terrorist attacks on unarmed villagers, Uju argued at the conference that
“Christians must grow beyond just church planting and start adding values to the society by getting involved in community development.” Uju gave an example: “plant crops cattle cannot eat.”
However, Christians should not hesitate to aggressively evangelize the terrorists, the vast majority of whom are fanatical Muslims of the Fulani ethnicity. “Christians need more training in evangelism strategy to reach all and sundry,” Uju said.
He argued for joint cattle ranching. “As a medium for evangelizing them from childhood, we should engage our youths and other communities in doing community ranching everywhere in Nigeria by indigenous people,” he added.
Speaking further on a win-win solution, the convener underscored that, “Let every family train as herders so that through the trade, the herders can be reached, and won over.”
He also suggested unapologetically for evangelizing the herdsmen, stressing that “the Church should be ready to adopt those herdsmen that have been reached with the gospel to avoid the risk of being killed for converting to more sound faith.”
“Practical communal, integral interventions” crucial to herder-farmer clashes
The co-convener of the event and Director General of Cafrilasia Renaissance Foundation, a Jos, faith-based organisation, Bala Usman told Truth Nigeria in an exclusive interview that, “we emphasized contextual response to different issues” as well as how to “deal with the prevalent issues of insecurity.”
Meanwhile, Usman stressed that surviving insecurity challenges should include a “holistic approach” as well as “sound doctrine” which were “central to the ways and strategies [of] exploring agricultural productivity, creativity and being relevant to every community you find yourself.”
Conclusion
The organisers maintained that the event which was aimed at building self-reliance and sustainable development in missions also had the vision of transforming local evangelists’ or pastors’ mindsets towards sustainable missions.
At the Makurdi strategic meeting, participants who were made up of 69 missionaries, 30 youths and 28 Christians from various churches which cuts across Pentecostal, Catholic and Protestants were trained on farming and other entrepreneurial activities towards a self-reliant Church.
The conference attendees met with a local official in Makurdi who pledged “to invite 350 persons that would include 250 local chiefs, 50 to 100 illustrious sons, 10 district heads, etc to listen and adopt our strategy of entrepreneurship and building resilience towards transforming Makurdi,” adding that he will “convey our vision to the governor,” according to Usman.
Some participants who expressed satisfaction with the event told Truth Nigeria that with interventions by faith-based organisations such as God’s Ark Rescue Mission and Cafrilasia Renaissance Mission, Christians in Nigeria will be better positioned to live their lives to the full.
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Justine John Dyikuk, a Catholic priest from Nigeria’s Bauchi Diocese, specializes in political communication and reporting religiously motivated violence, is a Doctoral Candidate in Journalism, Media, and Communication at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
