$9.3m scandal: Okotie calls for Oritsejafor's resignation as CAN president

 ntire Christian community. He ought to have identified privately with the President knowing full well that he carries the mandate of the Christian community at these trying times.
In a nation of contending faiths, Pastor Ayo literally ignores our divergent religious sensibilities as he sometimes gets himself involved in public quarrels with the President’s critics, from the muslim faith as well as in the opposition. Not all Christians are comfortable with this posture by their leader, especially at a time of intense politicking and the sectarian tensions generated by the Boko Haram insurgents and communal violence involving ethnic minorities with entrenched religious identities.
The cumulative effect of Pastor Ayo’s abrasive leadership style has also polarized the Christian community as evidenced by the current unprecedented division in CAN. Before now, leaders of this organization deliberately stayed out of politics in keeping with the traditional stance of neutrality of the body vis-a-vis the policy postures of incumbent governments. In fact, former PFN leaders like the late Archbishop Benson Idohosa and ex-CAN President, Olubunmi Cardinal Okogie kept governments on their toes during their time.
In more mature democracies, it is not unusual for public officers to resign from office when their actions appear to degrade their positions. And they would not have to wait to be found guilty in circumstances surrounding their actions before they throw in the towel. In other words, they could even be victims of circumstances; or in rare cases, subjects of blackmail. It didn’t matter. Once you are pelted in any way, you quit to protect the integrity of your office.
That was the case of Dominic Strauss-Khan who resigned his position as the President of IMF because he was accused of molesting a maid in a hotel in the United States. He was eventually acquitted after a celebrated trial. The Prime Minister of South Korea, Jong Hong-won resigned because his compatriots were drowned recently in a chartered cruise ship which carried some students on a picnic. Just last month, the First Minister of Scotland, Mr. Alex Salmond resigned because he led his country’s failed bid to gain independence from the United Kingdom. Nobody asked him to resign; he did so of his own accord because he felt it was wrong to continue to run a country he launched on a part of an unsuccessful “secession”.
If purely secular leaders could do this to affirm their integrity, Pastor Ayo should take the honourable path by leaving office, not necessarily because he is guilty as charged, but to restore honour to an exalted office he has unwittingly degraded because of his unabashed flirtation with the head of a government that is perceived as one of the most corrupt in the world. The Bible commands us to “flee from all appearance of evil”.
Nobody says Pastor Ayo cannot do business; he could have been in order, if he does so as the Pastor of his Word of Life Bible Church, WOLBC. But since his private jet was involved in a transaction gone awry in a foreign land, while he is still the sitting President of CAN, it is difficult for him to continue to command the respect of Nigerian Christians of diverse denominations who constitute the CAN group, regardless of the defense his sympathizers and the Federal Government tried to put up on his behalf.

If this incident had happened in Pastor Ayo’s capacity as the head/founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, no one could justifiably call for his head because the Bible teaches that the “call of God is without repentance”. In other words, regardless of the conduct of a servant of God, He does not remove them from office or withdraw their anointing. This is one of the mysteries of the gospel. The Almighty has a way of chastising his errant servants.

But here, we are dealing with Pastor Ayo as the leader of CAN; the largest umbrella of Nigerian Christians. He is condemned to be judged by secular standards, which, in this case, demands