Church Urged to Be Role Model in the Fight against Challenges of Ethnicity

Catholic News Service of Nigeria, CNSN || 28 July 2015

The Church can be a role model in the fight against ethnicity challenges  through the promotion of activities for the common good, equality, justice and protection of the interests of all people of God. However, to achieve this, the Church must continue to focus on the provision of good, qualitative and affordable education, health facilities and concern for the weakest in the society.

These  assertions were posited by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev Mathew Hassan Kukah while delivering a paper on: Managing Ethnic Identities in the Church: An African Perspective; at the conference held recently at the Daughters of Divine Love Retreat and Conference Centre (DRACC), Sabon-Lugbe, Abuja. Speaking extensively on the historical perspective challenges of ethnicity in the continent, society and Church life, Bishop Kukah noted that a “sincere ecclesiology remains the key to dealing with this reality”.

According to him: “Each and every one of us has his or her peculiar experience with ethnicity in one form or the other. We have all enjoyed the benefits of ethnicity or suffered its misuse and abuse.” He continued: “Our tendency to see only the dark and not the bright side of ethnicity is indeed unfortunate and, of course, this only deepens our problems.”

While speaking on ancestry myths in some parts of the continent, bishop Kukah used several instances in different parts of the continent to buttress his point. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese noted that the emergence of the modern state in Africa dislocated communities and seriously altered ethnic identities and politics. He identified several factors which included: colonial influence, greed for political power and control of resources as factors that aided the problems.

The bishop declared: “We must therefore locate the so called cries or marginalization by ethnic entrepreneurs who trade off their people’s misery on the altar of their personal greed in its proper place.” He added that these elites manufacture imaginary cultural identities, focusing on difference as a means of further dividing the people by creating a sense of false consciousness.

Relating the problem of ethnicity as an imported process from the socio-political system, Bishop Kukah noted that African politics has a tendency to monopoly of power by ethnic groups adding that in some cases, the Church has been sucked into this ethnic politics. He stated further that the situation can be  more complicated if the president of the country and President of the Bishops Conference belong to the same ethnic group; making neutrality difficult for the latter in matters of concern.

The bishop further stated: “Ethnic triumphalism could create the impression that when a group has political power, perhaps along with economic power, religious power then becomes the icing on the cake of their ethnic supremacy.”

Bishop Kukah traced the genesis of ethnicity in the early Church and how the problem was effectively dealt with the emergence of Apostle Paul in the life of the Church. He pointed out that because of the confidence reposed in them by the people, “Church leaders must do all that is humanly possible to hold the fort and remain always the beacon of hope for the society.”

For the Church’s exemplary role in championing fight against the challenges of ethnicity, Bishop Kukah, among others suggestions, stressed the need for the Church to offer the world the quality of leadership that inspires hope, as well as seek power to do good in consonance with the social teachings and other guidelines of the Church.