The Anglican Church has been involved in series of seminars to sensitize the public on political issues.
Why is the church this involved in such seminars?
The church is part of the society. The church as a body cannot afford to be partisan. But the membership of the church in various dimensions could be partisan.

The only way the church can be involved in the political system is for it to organize seminars and enlighten church members on what they should look out for in candidates seeking elective positions. That is why we organized the transformation seminar series where we brought together several politicians. I think we spent about N5 million to prosecute the series of seminars. We did this because we believe we have a responsibility to inform and educate the people.

The fact is that as a clergy, I cannot be involved in politics. If it were when we were practicing parliamentary system of government, I would not mind to be the local government chairman of Ikeja Local Government for instance. This is because I will still be keeping my job and serving the community. And I will not collect any salary from the government. That was the situation in the first republic. I remember professionals in those days and even clergy men were in parliament in those days. But today, the presidential system of government does not give room for that.

Are you saying in essence that the parliamentary system of government is better?
I have been advocating a parliamentary system of government. I have said it that there is no way we will have stability in this country if we continue to operate a presidential system of government.

Money was being spent anyhow and there was no accountability. The politicians along the line started supporting them and that gave rise to the problems we have as a nation. We lost a lot as a nation because of the long years of military rule. Kenya is the darling of most developed nations because the country has not been under military rule since it came into being.

The Anglican used to be known as a church that permitted all kinds of things. But that trend seems to be changing. The church is more evangelical then ever.

How did the revival start?
The problem the Anglican church had from the beginning is that people have never been patient with it.
Several churches have come out of the church. Right from 1928, the church has had to lose its members to other denominations. And those denominations are more volatile and aggressive in evangelism. But the Anglican Church, because of its nature was not aggressive.

The church came from a background that is conservative. The English people don’t clap. Some of the Anglicans who came to Nigeria and also brought to us the cults such as the freemasons, lodge of the good shepherd and several others. When they came, some of our people embraced these cults. And people in those days, had great regard for things that are brought from abroad.

When Archdeacon Ogunbiyi knew about the Ogboni cult in Yoruba land, he went and brought the Christian Ogboni fraternity. He was a priest in the Anglican Church. In those days there were a lot of policies and dogmas that killed the fire of evangelism in the church. Less emphasis was placed on the bible.

Gradually, the church was waning and would have fizzled out. But Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye started the revolution in Ekiti when he became the bishop. I remember a particular incident, I was his chaplain and there was this man who died, a member of the church and some Ogboni members were insisting that the corpse be taken home so that some rituals would be performed on his body. But Adetiloye refused. One of the Ogboni chiefs came and threatened Adetiloye and told him that he would die after seven days because he had come to antagonize them. But rather than die, the man who threatened him died exactly seven days after. That emboldened Adetiloye and some of the church leaders.

The following Sunday, he wore his consecration gown and we followed him and marched to all the homes of members of the cults and challenged them. We invaded their houses and made a scene. Many of them realized what they had done and were quick to renounce their membership of the cult. Some of them brought their initiation regalia and books which were burnt in the open.

The oath taking was a product of that experience. It is believed that if you’re a member of the cult you cannot be a leader in the church. But it is not possible to know members of the church who are still in the cult. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that these people are exposed. And the Lord is helping us in that direction. It was when Adetiloye became the Primate of the church that he declared the decade of evangelism. And every diocese was encouraged to multiply. We are also encouraging every Anglican to bring at least one person apart from their family members to the faith in three years.