The word ‘godfather’ or ‘godfatherism’ in itself does not connote
anything sinister, but when applied wrongly, it becomes questionable.
Nigerians didn’t know much of its implication until the late ’90s, when
politicians started using it to advance their cause. Today, even school
children know what ‘godfatherism’ means. But then it was only associated
with politicians, and little or nothing of it was known in the church.
Unfortunately, however, the little foxes, which the Bible spoke about
“Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard
of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!” (New Living Translation),
have found their way into the church that is supposed to show light to
the outside world. Church members can hardly get anything unless they
are very close to the head of the church, his wife or the branch pastor.
Cases abound, where people are promoted or posted to head branches just
because they know the pastor or his wife. And when such people go
contrary to the doctrine or laid down rules, nobody punishes them. On
the other hand, those not loyal or close to the ‘godfathers’ are left to
bear their brunt. The church that should show light to the outside
world is copying the world’s intrigues, instead of the other way round.
Why is it so, you may ask? Some church leaders, who spoke on the issue
of favouritism in churches told CHRIS IREKAMBA that the church should be
the last place to practise such thing.
‘I Know Of Mentorship In The Church, Not Godfatherism’
(Rt. Rev. Adebayo Akinde, Bishop, Diocese of Lagos Mainland, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos)
THAT may be taking place out there. I do not know of its existence in the Anglican Communion at any level. I became a Bishop not because I knew anybody; God wanted it and it happened. I never discussed it with anybody and I know many people, who have attained leadership position without godfatherism. But if you talk about mentoring, of course, there is mentorship in the church. And the church, I dare say, started mentorship. The two are not synonymous, as they are two different things. Godfatherism has a modicum of negativity, but mentorship in contrast has a positive trait. A mentor is someone whose lifestyle can be copied or emulated. It is a Biblical principle. Paul did say ‘imitate me’ and so, we imitate him, but this is not the same as making Paul a godfather.
We must have sufficient appreciation for the polity of the church, that of the Anglican Church in particular. The Bishop has the prerogative for preferment, not promotion, we don’t promote. So, it is possible for you to prefer one person to another. It’s not promotion and there are a lot of reasons you can prefer people. People have different attributes and talents, even in the church. The Holy Spirit gives us diverse talents and gifts. You may want a particular set of characteristics for an office, and the most senior may be lacking in some of those traits. And because he is the most senior shouldn’t mean putting a round peg in a square hole.
For example, I am trying to encourage youth worship in some of our churches, in areas I know we have a preponderance of Anglican youths. I do not want to tie them to the rigid structure and format of worship. They want to sing and dance. I have just given one of such churches N500, 000 to invest on instruments, so that during worship they can use various instruments. It’s not every clergyman that would be able to function effectively in such a church. The person who would make a success of his ministry in a youth church must be someone young at heart and with enormous initiative. It’s not every minister that will possess these attributes.
So, in the course of getting the right person, I only prefer him to others. It doesn’t mean he’s giving us money or that he’s connected, which is why he’s being favoured. I do not know of godfatherism in the church.
Abraham mentored Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua, Elisha and Gehazi. This shows that apprenticeship and mentorship started from the church. Dealing with those, who are loyal and disloyal in life, you can never have a community of people that everybody will be in agreement. There are loyal priests and there are some that are not. God expects a Christian leader to be fair in dealing with people.
In my own case, I employ a pastoral approach, which says you must continue to show love and that per adventure, God will change them. You can’t change anyone by punishment, discipline and so on. But if you pray and live Godly examples, it’s easier for you to impact people. Those are the points you would bring into reckoning in deciding those you prefer. When people are obedient and conscientious, it’s only natural that when you have positions of responsibility, wisdom dictates that you prefer them to those that cannot be predicted. I adopt pastoral approach in handling issues like that, not administrative way in which you want to discipline or punish. Rather, we discuss and pray.
‘I Have No Favourite’
(Rev. Monsignor John Aniagwu, Parish Priest, St. Leo’s Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos)
IN the Catholic Church, there is no room for such. We have clear regulations on how people are posted to different assignments. Sometimes, this is based on merit or qualifications. At other times, it could be because a person speaks the language of a particular place or it can be based on temperament, because everything is not based on paper qualifications alone. Sometimes you can overlook the most qualified and take the next person because he has a better temperament to fill that particular position. We have clear-cut criteria and of course, the head of the Catholic is not here, it’s in Rome. If it is the local church, we have the Bishop and he’s guided by rules of the Code of the Canon Law, which is universal for the church and written in Rome.
In the situation, where the Bishop goes contrary to that, the person involved can have recourse to Rome, that is, he or she can appeal to Rome. And of course, investigation would be conducted and if it were found to be true, the Bishop would be asked to reverse the decision. So, we don’t have any absolute head here, who can do things without being questioned. The higher authorities in Rome can question anyone. The Catholic Code of the Canon Law goes all the way to the grassroots. It starts from the individual, regulates everything from the individual to the station, to the parish. Let me talk about the Parish Pastoral Council, which is the highest decision-making body in the parish. There are strict rules of how someone gets there. It is by way of elections, whereby the priest can make some selection of his own people, but the priest cannot impose a head. People usually vote on it.
In the event the parish priest doesn’t follow due process, he can be reported to his superiors. For instance, here in the Lagos Archdiocese, we have deanery, which is above the parish. There is a dean and a deanery is made up of a number of parishes. We have an Ikeja deanery, where I am the dean and we have 24 parishes. In a situation where the parish priest in a particular church, for instance, in Ikorodu does something not liked by somebody or that the priest doesn’t follow due process, he or she can appeal to me, as the dean and I will take up the matter. If I find that it is true, I will tell that parish priest to reverse his decision. So also if it is the dean that is at fault, there is a Bishop who can call him to order.
So, we have that pattern that there is always somebody above you. An aggrieved person can have recourse to the superior. Every member of the Catholic Church has the right to appeal to higher authority and the person appealed to is duty bound to give redress. Those in authority in Catholic Church don’t have that kind of free hand, they must follow the Law. As the dean here, I have had occasions in the past to intervene, where the parishioners appealed to me or they appealed straight to the Archbishop and the Archbishop referred them back to me and said: ‘Dean, this matter is coming from your jurisdiction, you handle it.’ If I’m not able to handle it, they still have the right to go back to the Archbishop to say, ‘we’ve gone to our Dean and we are not satisfied.’ It’s just like Court of Appeal. Every individual in Catholic Church has certain rights that nobody can trample upon. And they are spelt out clearly in the Code of Canon Law. There are certain areas that the priest’s relatives cannot handle. For instance, the Parish Financial Council, nobody related to the parish priest can be a member. If you put your brother or cousin there, you are breaking the law. But other areas, for example, if I want to do a job in the parish and I need contractors and I asked them to bid for it and my brother is qualified why can’t I give it to him? It’s on merit. I cannot say because he is my blood relations, therefore, he shouldn’t do the work.
In any case, the parish priest alone does not decide on awarding contracts. In each of our parishes, we have what is called building committees made up of experts and professionals. They are the ones, who interview contractors and if at the end of the day, they decided that my brother is the best qualified, must I say because he is my brother I will not allow him to do it? He should do it.
Now, talking about people, who are loyal and those who are not loyal to me. I don’t know of anyone who is loyal or not loyal. In my own case, I have no favourite. Everyone should be loyal to the church; we are here to serve God and not individuals. I don’t expect any of my parishioners to serve me when they should be serving God. I don’t encourage partisanship in the house of God. In the Catholic Church, it’s very rare to find a thing like that. What loyalty? Is it because of money or what? Catholic priests don’t earn salaries and don’t run after money. We are not married, have no children and don’t build houses. So, we don’t need anybody to be loyal to us, for what? It is when people are struggling for material gains that the issue of loyalty arises. They want to be where they can control the resources, but when you are not after material gains, what loyalty do you need?
‘It’s An Aberration To Practise Favouritism In The Church’
(Pastor Ezekiel Joel, Full Salvation Believers’ Assembly International, Anambra State)
ORDINARILY, you don’t have to know anybody in the church hierarchy of leadership or any member at all before legitimate, non-implicating assistance can be rendered to the needy. Our Saviour rendered help to many needy people without their being recommended by any of His disciples. In our church, we help non-members in various ways. By the grace of God, we have helped to settle house rents, school fees and medical bills of non-members and pastors of other churches, as God provides, although we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us in doing this.
Loyalty to the leadership in any organisation — whether secular or spiritual — is indispensable. But it is sometime a subjective phenomenon. Primarily, in every church assembly, the leading of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13: 1-4; 15:40) should be the constant variable in addition to possessing other Biblical qualifications (Acts 1:15-22; 6:2-7; Exo 18:13-23; 1 Timo 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9), while loyalty to Christ, the Head of the church is sacrosanct in posting or promotion of church workers. Church discipline or reprimand should not be done on the basis of nepotism, favouritism, closeness to the wife of the overall leader or other clannish, mundane consideration. It is ungodly, unchristian and un-biblical to do so (Acts 10:34,35; 1 Tim. 5:20,22; Lev. 19:15; Job 13:10). This should not be the criterion in any Bible-believing and Spirit-directed church. There have been cases of folks, who professed loyalty, but their hearts were somewhere else. We should follow the pattern of Christ Jesus, our perfect Example in leadership.
In the church, where I pastor, my preachers and I have always emphasised loyalty to Christ and faithfulness to God, as well as the fear of God, Who alone sees the motives and hearts of men. So far, we give people equal opportunity, but we rebuke in love, or excommunicate contagious folks, who refuse to abide by God’s Word, but prefer to spoil the good testimony of the church (FSBA Int’l) in the community. It is an aberration and contradiction to practise favouritism in the church of the Living God (James 2:1-9). In our church, we pray every week for all the other churches in Nigeria that whatever is contrary to the blueprint of Christ, the Head of the Church, should expire and be expunged.
‘I Know Of Mentorship In The Church, Not Godfatherism’
(Rt. Rev. Adebayo Akinde, Bishop, Diocese of Lagos Mainland, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos)
THAT may be taking place out there. I do not know of its existence in the Anglican Communion at any level. I became a Bishop not because I knew anybody; God wanted it and it happened. I never discussed it with anybody and I know many people, who have attained leadership position without godfatherism. But if you talk about mentoring, of course, there is mentorship in the church. And the church, I dare say, started mentorship. The two are not synonymous, as they are two different things. Godfatherism has a modicum of negativity, but mentorship in contrast has a positive trait. A mentor is someone whose lifestyle can be copied or emulated. It is a Biblical principle. Paul did say ‘imitate me’ and so, we imitate him, but this is not the same as making Paul a godfather.
We must have sufficient appreciation for the polity of the church, that of the Anglican Church in particular. The Bishop has the prerogative for preferment, not promotion, we don’t promote. So, it is possible for you to prefer one person to another. It’s not promotion and there are a lot of reasons you can prefer people. People have different attributes and talents, even in the church. The Holy Spirit gives us diverse talents and gifts. You may want a particular set of characteristics for an office, and the most senior may be lacking in some of those traits. And because he is the most senior shouldn’t mean putting a round peg in a square hole.
For example, I am trying to encourage youth worship in some of our churches, in areas I know we have a preponderance of Anglican youths. I do not want to tie them to the rigid structure and format of worship. They want to sing and dance. I have just given one of such churches N500, 000 to invest on instruments, so that during worship they can use various instruments. It’s not every clergyman that would be able to function effectively in such a church. The person who would make a success of his ministry in a youth church must be someone young at heart and with enormous initiative. It’s not every minister that will possess these attributes.
So, in the course of getting the right person, I only prefer him to others. It doesn’t mean he’s giving us money or that he’s connected, which is why he’s being favoured. I do not know of godfatherism in the church.
Abraham mentored Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua, Elisha and Gehazi. This shows that apprenticeship and mentorship started from the church. Dealing with those, who are loyal and disloyal in life, you can never have a community of people that everybody will be in agreement. There are loyal priests and there are some that are not. God expects a Christian leader to be fair in dealing with people.
In my own case, I employ a pastoral approach, which says you must continue to show love and that per adventure, God will change them. You can’t change anyone by punishment, discipline and so on. But if you pray and live Godly examples, it’s easier for you to impact people. Those are the points you would bring into reckoning in deciding those you prefer. When people are obedient and conscientious, it’s only natural that when you have positions of responsibility, wisdom dictates that you prefer them to those that cannot be predicted. I adopt pastoral approach in handling issues like that, not administrative way in which you want to discipline or punish. Rather, we discuss and pray.
‘I Have No Favourite’
(Rev. Monsignor John Aniagwu, Parish Priest, St. Leo’s Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos)
IN the Catholic Church, there is no room for such. We have clear regulations on how people are posted to different assignments. Sometimes, this is based on merit or qualifications. At other times, it could be because a person speaks the language of a particular place or it can be based on temperament, because everything is not based on paper qualifications alone. Sometimes you can overlook the most qualified and take the next person because he has a better temperament to fill that particular position. We have clear-cut criteria and of course, the head of the Catholic is not here, it’s in Rome. If it is the local church, we have the Bishop and he’s guided by rules of the Code of the Canon Law, which is universal for the church and written in Rome.
In the situation, where the Bishop goes contrary to that, the person involved can have recourse to Rome, that is, he or she can appeal to Rome. And of course, investigation would be conducted and if it were found to be true, the Bishop would be asked to reverse the decision. So, we don’t have any absolute head here, who can do things without being questioned. The higher authorities in Rome can question anyone. The Catholic Code of the Canon Law goes all the way to the grassroots. It starts from the individual, regulates everything from the individual to the station, to the parish. Let me talk about the Parish Pastoral Council, which is the highest decision-making body in the parish. There are strict rules of how someone gets there. It is by way of elections, whereby the priest can make some selection of his own people, but the priest cannot impose a head. People usually vote on it.
In the event the parish priest doesn’t follow due process, he can be reported to his superiors. For instance, here in the Lagos Archdiocese, we have deanery, which is above the parish. There is a dean and a deanery is made up of a number of parishes. We have an Ikeja deanery, where I am the dean and we have 24 parishes. In a situation where the parish priest in a particular church, for instance, in Ikorodu does something not liked by somebody or that the priest doesn’t follow due process, he or she can appeal to me, as the dean and I will take up the matter. If I find that it is true, I will tell that parish priest to reverse his decision. So also if it is the dean that is at fault, there is a Bishop who can call him to order.
So, we have that pattern that there is always somebody above you. An aggrieved person can have recourse to the superior. Every member of the Catholic Church has the right to appeal to higher authority and the person appealed to is duty bound to give redress. Those in authority in Catholic Church don’t have that kind of free hand, they must follow the Law. As the dean here, I have had occasions in the past to intervene, where the parishioners appealed to me or they appealed straight to the Archbishop and the Archbishop referred them back to me and said: ‘Dean, this matter is coming from your jurisdiction, you handle it.’ If I’m not able to handle it, they still have the right to go back to the Archbishop to say, ‘we’ve gone to our Dean and we are not satisfied.’ It’s just like Court of Appeal. Every individual in Catholic Church has certain rights that nobody can trample upon. And they are spelt out clearly in the Code of Canon Law. There are certain areas that the priest’s relatives cannot handle. For instance, the Parish Financial Council, nobody related to the parish priest can be a member. If you put your brother or cousin there, you are breaking the law. But other areas, for example, if I want to do a job in the parish and I need contractors and I asked them to bid for it and my brother is qualified why can’t I give it to him? It’s on merit. I cannot say because he is my blood relations, therefore, he shouldn’t do the work.
In any case, the parish priest alone does not decide on awarding contracts. In each of our parishes, we have what is called building committees made up of experts and professionals. They are the ones, who interview contractors and if at the end of the day, they decided that my brother is the best qualified, must I say because he is my brother I will not allow him to do it? He should do it.
Now, talking about people, who are loyal and those who are not loyal to me. I don’t know of anyone who is loyal or not loyal. In my own case, I have no favourite. Everyone should be loyal to the church; we are here to serve God and not individuals. I don’t expect any of my parishioners to serve me when they should be serving God. I don’t encourage partisanship in the house of God. In the Catholic Church, it’s very rare to find a thing like that. What loyalty? Is it because of money or what? Catholic priests don’t earn salaries and don’t run after money. We are not married, have no children and don’t build houses. So, we don’t need anybody to be loyal to us, for what? It is when people are struggling for material gains that the issue of loyalty arises. They want to be where they can control the resources, but when you are not after material gains, what loyalty do you need?
‘It’s An Aberration To Practise Favouritism In The Church’
(Pastor Ezekiel Joel, Full Salvation Believers’ Assembly International, Anambra State)
ORDINARILY, you don’t have to know anybody in the church hierarchy of leadership or any member at all before legitimate, non-implicating assistance can be rendered to the needy. Our Saviour rendered help to many needy people without their being recommended by any of His disciples. In our church, we help non-members in various ways. By the grace of God, we have helped to settle house rents, school fees and medical bills of non-members and pastors of other churches, as God provides, although we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us in doing this.
Loyalty to the leadership in any organisation — whether secular or spiritual — is indispensable. But it is sometime a subjective phenomenon. Primarily, in every church assembly, the leading of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13: 1-4; 15:40) should be the constant variable in addition to possessing other Biblical qualifications (Acts 1:15-22; 6:2-7; Exo 18:13-23; 1 Timo 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9), while loyalty to Christ, the Head of the church is sacrosanct in posting or promotion of church workers. Church discipline or reprimand should not be done on the basis of nepotism, favouritism, closeness to the wife of the overall leader or other clannish, mundane consideration. It is ungodly, unchristian and un-biblical to do so (Acts 10:34,35; 1 Tim. 5:20,22; Lev. 19:15; Job 13:10). This should not be the criterion in any Bible-believing and Spirit-directed church. There have been cases of folks, who professed loyalty, but their hearts were somewhere else. We should follow the pattern of Christ Jesus, our perfect Example in leadership.
In the church, where I pastor, my preachers and I have always emphasised loyalty to Christ and faithfulness to God, as well as the fear of God, Who alone sees the motives and hearts of men. So far, we give people equal opportunity, but we rebuke in love, or excommunicate contagious folks, who refuse to abide by God’s Word, but prefer to spoil the good testimony of the church (FSBA Int’l) in the community. It is an aberration and contradiction to practise favouritism in the church of the Living God (James 2:1-9). In our church, we pray every week for all the other churches in Nigeria that whatever is contrary to the blueprint of Christ, the Head of the Church, should expire and be expunged.
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