Also commenting on the wave of rancour being generated by the visit of Christian clerics to Yar’Adua, the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, said there was no need for the move to create rancour, as the clerics concerned went in their individual capacity as pastors and not as representatives of CAN.

He stated that since pastors are expected to minister to the sick, the afflicted and bereaved like Jesus Christ did while on planet earth, what these pastors have done is purely pastoral and has no political undertone.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Makinde told Saturday Independent that “the likes of Archbishop Onaiyekan, Bishop Oyedepo and others are not people that can be placarded with money as they are men of integrity.”

He therefore urged aggrieved parties to “divorce politics from religion and let the sleeping dogs lie.”

Asked whether it is right for the visiting clerics to conceal the facts on the true state of the President from the concerned populace, the Prelate said they are not in the right position to divulge such information since they are not medical doctors.

“These pastors are not medical doctors but spiritual leaders. As pastors, we have a oath of secrecy in our profession. It is against our pastoral ethics to divulge confidential information, hence religious leaders should not be held responsible on such issues,” said Makinde.

Taking a rather opposing stance, a member of the National Advisory Board of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, (PFN), Rev. Moses Iloh, berated the national leadership of CAN for the conduct of the visit, saying that it is “scandalous and injurious to the Christian community in Nigeria.”

Iloh’s argument is against the backdrop of the fact that there are five units under CAN but none of these were contacted, neither was there any consultation or agreement between the stakeholders before the visit.

Said he: “There should have been some form of agreement. The way this visit was done is wrong. It shows indiscipline. It shows that there is something sinister about it all.”

Reacting to the refusal of the visiting clerics to divulge information on the true state of Yar’Adua’s health, Iloh said, “The clerics should have told those who invited them before embarking on that visit that whatever they see, they would make public because Nigerians have a right to know the truth. After all, the Acting President is a Christian too. If he still cannot see the President, what entitles these pastors to see him? It is against the law. It is not proper and it does not paint Christian leaders in good light at all.”

To the Founder of Later Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the visit has no value just as it was unconstitutional. Although he maintained that “a family is entitled to invite anybody” and those so invited may decide to go or not but argued that in case of Yar’Adua as the President, it was supposed to be the Acting President that would have gone to see him first rather than the clerics.

“There is nothing Constitutional in what they have and I don’t know the value they have added. They are never doctors who could verify the state of his health,” the clergyman who said he was also invited but declined to go because he did not know the motive of the visit said.

The leader of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) maintained that those clerics, who visited Yar’Adua could not have claimed to have gone there as representatives of any Christian body, even as he advised Nigerians to think of how to tackle the numerous problems facing the nation.

“Don’t let us make the visit more important,” he advised.

The founder and General Overseer of Dispensational Gospel Mission (Worldwide), Archbishop Peter Okoduwa, faulted the visits not only of the Christian clerics but also that of Islamic, saying it was meant to distract the Acting President.

According to him, there are some people in Aso Rock, who are using the religious people to create problem because of Yar’Adua’s ailment.

“The visit is a distraction. It is a ploy to distract the Acting President, as he is the first person who ought to have seen the President and tell the nation his situation not religious leaders. It is not in the Constitution that when the President is sick, the religious leaders should be the ones to see him,” he explained.

Okoduwa, who is a senior member of CAN and national security adviser to PFN, asserted that if he had been invited on the visit, he would not have gone but instead have a private prayer for the ailing President.

“l will pray for him at home because people are using the religious leaders to embarrass the Acting President because of the way Yar’Adua’s sickness is politicised,” he said.

Rev. Hayab of the Kaduna chapter of CAN, however, cautioned that at this moment, the only thing Nigerians are supposed to do is pray for the President

the story long ohh