How Uche emerged as prelate of Methodist Church

Uche
| credits: File copy

With the successful election of a new prelate on Sunday, the Methodist Church Nigeria enters a new phase in its existence as a truly democratic institution, writes CHUX OHAI

September 1, 2013 will go down in the history of the Methodist Church Nigeria as the day in which another administrative head of the church emerged from an election conducted during its 44th Special Conference and 1st Emergency Conference in Lagos.

 Before the election took place on that day, about 143 new priests and eight deaconesses of the church were ordained at a colourful ceremony presided over by the outgoing Prelate, Dr. Sunday Makinde.

The ordination service was solemn and smooth. The venue of the event, the Williams Memorial Methodist Cathedral in Ago-Ijaiye, Ebute Meta West,  was crammed to the hilt with worshippers, as the candidates for the ordination were called up to the altar at intervals. One after the other, looking quite resplendent in simple white cassocks and green sashes around their necks, they knelt down before the Prelate to receive his blessings.

In his sermon, the Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Chimaroke Iweha, charged the newly ordained ministers to be selfless in their service to God, the church and mankind at all times.

The Archbishop warned them against placing personal ambition above their duties.

“The best way to serve God is to always be guided by the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ regarding true service to God. So, the time has come to ask yourself why you are in the ministry. Are you in it to do the work of God and to declare His goodness? Or are you in it for selfish reasons?

“I ask these questions because some of us have become worse than politicians. Just like politicians, nowadays it appears that we get involved in all kinds of things just because we want to be noticed in the society.

“But, I am telling you now that no matter the prefix that is attacked to your name or the title that you bear, you are only a minister, which means your job is to serve God and mankind,” he said.

A few minutes before the service ended, the Secretary of the Conference, Dr. Chibuzo Opoko, announced that the central ruling body would retire to prepare for the main agenda of the day, which was the 44th special conference and the commencement of the election.

Underneath the festive atmosphere that seemed to pervade the church premises, there was anxiety in the air. Large groups of worshippers and delegates from all the 44 dioceses of the church gathered in clusters, apparently to discuss the most important business of the day.

To most members of the church nationwide, Makinde’s tenure as prelate had been eventful and quite fulfilling. Little wonder, they looked forward to the election of his successor they expected to carry on with his good work.

But they did not have to wait for long. Before midnight, the news was out. A new prelate had been successfully elected and he was the Archbishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Samuel Uche.

Uche’s emergence as the prelate-elect has been largely due to the church’s commitment to true democratic principles. In an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, Opoko said he was elected through Option ITEP, an acronym for an electoral process that is primarily based on integrity and transparency.

Investigation showed that the Methodist Church Nigeria as an institution has, from inception, always emphasised a thorough and very practical approach to the successful conduct of elections within its fold.

The Constitution of the church stipulates that a prelate should be elected among bishops and archbishops whose ages must be 60 years old or slightly above.

 Since a prelate is expected to serve a single term of five years, no bishop or archbishop that has already clocked 65 years by election time would be deemed eligible for the position.

At the first check on Sunday, the conference found that about 10 people actually fulfilled this criterion. But, in order to prove to the nation that the church could conduct credible elections, it decided to adopt Option ITEP as its main strategy.

In deploying Option ITEP, it meant that the conference, whose duty was to ensure that an acceptable winner emerged in the election, would allow an electoral college made up of about 186 people, including the outgoing prelate, archbishops, bishops and lay presidents, to choose a new administrative head from a list of nominees.

The members of the college were each handed nomination slips that contained the names of the nominees. The slips were in turn screened by four officers known in the church parlance as ‘scrutineers’. They were selected from the four zones of the church: the North, East, West and SouthSouth zones.

When the slips were counted, only four candidates had been clearly nominated. Subsequently, the next stage had to be decided through voting and the winner was expected to emerge by a clear two-third majority of the votes.

Two out of the four candidates emerged with the highest number of votes. They are the Archbishop of Ibadan, Most Rev. M.K Steven, and Uche.

Finally, Most Rev. Uche, who was ordained minister in 1966, was elected prelate by a simple majority. Interestingly, it took the conference only two hours to achieve this feat. Only once did the members anticipate a possible lull in the electoral process and that was when the outgoing prelate, who was actively involved all the while, paused to ask if there was anybody who had been unjustly excluded from the election. The reason was to ensure that the process was all-inclusive and transparent. But nobody responded.

Much later, in a meeting with journalists on Monday, an exultant Makinde urged the political leadership of Nigeria to learn from the various Christian organisations in the country, how to conduct smooth and credible elections.

He said that politicians ought to find a solution to electoral problems by taking a cue from the Methodist church, which had successfully elected a new head.

Describing the election as a smooth transition, he said, “I want all politicians to learn from Nigerian churches not only how to hold successful elections in the country, but also how to work together for the good of the entire nation.”

Makinde called on all political parties to shelve their differences and unite in the best interest of the country, adding that what Nigerians need most is good and purposeful leadership at this stage in her history.

“All the parties should come together and give us a good and comprehensive programme that will deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. I want government at all levels to look at the various problems affecting the country, such as unemployment, insecurity, lack of good roads, irregular electricity supply, and find solutions to them.

“Nigerians deserve good education, housing and other things that good governance can provide. Let the ruling parties at all levels of government think of how to provide these things. Let them concentrate on the people and not 2015,” he said.

The outgoing head of the Methodist Church, whose tenure expires on October 10, 2013, urged Nigerians to stop criticising the country’s leaders unnecessarily, saying that it could distract the latter from performing their duties to the people as they ought to do.

“It is not easy to be a leader in Nigeria and when then people criticise our leaders all the time, they will end up confusing them. The best thing is to pray to God to guide the leaders of the country instead of throwing stones at them,” he said.

Also, Makinde warned against allowing religion and ethnicity to tear the country apart, saying that Nigeria would be stronger and more prosperous if her people learnt to live together in harmony.

The prelate-elect, Most Rev. Uche, who was in attendance at the meeting, described his election as an act of God and pledged to do his best to improve on the achievements of his predecessor.

“I pray to God to give me the grace to build on the foundation laid by the outgoing prelate. I don’t think I will do anything different from what he has done. I will follow in his footsteps,” he said.

Uche’s investiture as the new administrative head of the Methodist Church Nigeria will take place on October 6, 2013 at the Trinity Methodist Church, Tinubu, Lagos.

Apart from the election, five new Archdioceses of the church were created. They include the Archdiocese of Igbobini, Archdiocese of Benue, Archdiocese of Aba, Archdiocese of Uyo, and Archdiocese of Port-Harcourt.

Also, seven bishops were elected Archbishops. They are Rt. Rev. Akinlose Akindeko, Rt. Rev. Christopher  Ede, Rt. Rev. Andrew Okenwa, Rt. Rev. Chimezuo Nwankpa, Rt. Rev. Sunday Idoko, Rt. Rev. Oliver Aba and Rt. Rev. Emmanuel O. Udofia.

While the Former Archbishop of Kaduna, Most Rev. Joseph Job, now becomes the Archbishop of Abuja, two Presbyters were elected bishops.

Culled from Punch Newspaper