Monday 19th – Sunday 25th Jan. 2026

 

THE CHICKEN HAS COME HOME TO ROOST

 

So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found. (1 Sam. 13:22).

 

This message is a painful reflection on what shouldn't have happened but has happened. Nigeria Christians, and by extension Nigerians, should not be going through the present distress. God sent warnings to avert it. Unfortunately, it has come upon Nigeria, because critical checks were ignored and the voice of caution was not heeded. It is self-inflicted injury. The painful realization now is that, after all that Christians have gone through, and are still going through, corrective measures are not being taken, neither are useful lessons being learnt. When someone is going through adversity, there are crucial lessons to be learned. Anyone who does not learn from what they have suffered, have suffered in vain. The season and experience of pain could either be extended or repeated. There are sad indications that many Christians in Nigeria have not learned any lesson from what is going on.

 

In the Marathon Prayer call of last week, it was pointed out that maintaining status quo while Christians are murdered daily in Nigeria is a careless response to a serious problem. The status quo which the Christians are maintaining is the root cause of the calamity that has befallen everyone. Repeatedly, it has been pointed out that the Nigeria Church has leadership crisis. This is not the opinion of a man but the verdict of heaven in two prophetic declarations on 12th April 2021 and on 26th August 2021. Christians have been called upon to reorganize their leadership structure and make it dynamic and responsive to confront the current challenges. Rather than being proactive, Christians pretend not to hear. A Christian leadership that openly fraternizes with the enemy of the Church is dangerous in a time of war. There is a war going on.

 

In March 2025, the President of CAN joined Muslims to observe Ramadan breaking of fast. He claimed that he did it to “promote mutual understanding and mutual respect”. Did his participation in Ramadan “promote mutual respect”? A simple search through AI reveals that between March 2025 and January 2026, over 7,000 Christians were killed by Islamists. In June 2025, three months after the CAN President went to “promote mutual understanding and mutual respect” with Muslims in their Mosque, 259 Christians were murdered at Yelwata in Benue state. According to AI report, “in the first 220 days of 2025, an estimated 7,087 Christians were massacred across Nigeria, a daily average of about 32 people killed.” So, what was the objective of the Church leader in going to bow before Allah? To promote understanding or tolerance? It was an act of surrender. When a leader surrenders to the enemy, the followers should know it could  be game-over. 

 

In December last year, officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) visited President Tinubu and made two embarrassing statements: they claimed that they were there to thank Tinubu firstly, for taking care of poor Nigerians, and secondly, for making it possible for Christians to have a peaceful Christmas. Meanwhile, it was President Trump's Christmas bombardment of terrorist and jihadist enclaves in Sokoto that achieved that feat. The statement by those CAN officials is not the voice of leaders who are in charge of their office, but of quislings who have surrendered to their conqueror.

 

Recently, the Tinubu administration paid $9 million to lobbyists in the US to disinform the world about genocide against Christians, essentially to say that it is not taking place in Nigeria. The Nigeria Church cannot raise a counter delegation to US to affirm that genocide is taking place. Why? The Church has no central pool of funds to draw from. Between 2017 and 2025, the Nigeria Church lost an estimated N540 billion in expected revenue from the Church Trust Fund that was discarded by a CAN leadership succeeding the regime that had approved it. Meanwhile, it is open secret that Church officials are collecting money from the governments. If that fund had been available, a lot of positive interventions could have been initiated to cater for vulnerable Christians in Nigeria, as well funds to visit the US and other places to counter the dissimulation of the Islamists.  

 

Apart from the desperate need to help Christian IDPs, there are two other areas in which the Church requires critical funding now: 1)  to counter the narrative of the Islamists, that there is no genocide against Christians in Nigeria, 2) to organize a conference of ethnic nationalities to re-negotiate Nigeria and develop a new constitution for the country. 

 

The government will not fund such projects since it has been hijacked by Islamists, courtesy of some Church leaders in 2015. The Jonathan Administration funded the 2014 National Conference with N7 billion. If the Church had raised N540 billion, it could release N10 billion for a conference to renegotiate Nigeria for the good of all citizens. Today, it is a herculean task getting Christians to support the Lay Faithful Trust Foundation for building a central pool of funds for the Church, because CAN has placed a barrier in the way, and Christians are mute.

 

The Islamists are desperate to distort the narrative about Christian genocide in Nigeria, because that is the easiest way for them to stop a US intervention. Under international law, US has no right to invade a sovereign state. However, international law makes an exception if genocide is taking place in the country. According to Article I of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, member nations are under obligation to intervene in cases of genocide. “The Responsibility to Protect” as espoused by the 2001 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, clearly legitimizes American Humanitarian military intervention in Nigeria after due consideration without informing the Federal Government. The principle of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) was adopted by the United Nations in 2005 World Summit of all Heads of State and Government, particularly in paragraphs 138 and 139.

 

It is very disturbing when Church leaders openly endorse a government that denies the mass slaughter of its people. It is an indication that what such leaders did in the 2015, 2019, and in 2023 elections would be repeated in 2027. The courtesy visit to Tinubu in December 2025 and the statements that follow are an indication of what the Church leaders plan to do again in 2027. If these Islamists should regain power in 2027, the southern President will hand over to a president from the North in 2031 for eight years. By then, Trump will no longer be in power. The implication of APC returning to power in 2027 is that the Islamists would be in power for 24 uninterrupted years. One does not need a seer to foretell what will happen to the Church and to democracy in Nigeria by 2039. Christians must wake up now.

 

In August 2026, CAN shall be 50 years old. In its 50 years of existence, the clergy has proven that it lacks the capacity to build Christian unity or provide effective leadership for the Church. Christian leadership has been commercialized, and the promotion of selfish personal interest has been elevated above the collective interest of Christians. The mentality of some Church leaders is that Christian leadership is a key to personal enrichment, not sacrificial leadership. The comparison between the state of the Church in 1976 with its current state in 2026 confirms the degradation of Nigeria Church under clergy leadership. This matter was examined in the Marathon Prayer Call entitled “Show the House to the House”, 17th – 23rd Nov. 2025.

 

Now is the time for the Church to re-organize. One does not discountenance divine intervention, and the prayer is that it shall come to pass. However, there is a serious pushback from the Islamists, evidenced by the $9 million payment to lobbyists in the US. Even if God is fighting for a man, the man should also make efforts to cooperate with God. After God’s angel opened the prison gate for Peter, it was Peter who had to walk out. The angel did not carry him on the back (Acts 12:1-11).

 

What should Christians do?

 

1. Insist on the re-organization of the leadership of the Church. When a set of leadership keeps manifesting the same debilitating character trait, re-organization is indispensable. The call for the reorganization of CAN has been going on since 2018.

2. Support the establishment of the Christian Adjudication Panel. There must be a structure in the Nigeria Church, to demand accountability from Church leaders.

3. Accelerate the contribution of funds to Lay Faithful Trust Foundation. All Christians should be persuaded to contribute a minimum of N500 monthly to support the Church.

4. Introduce a new structure of leadership that will involve laity professionals in Christian leadership. The Clergy has proven beyond doubt, in the 50 years of CAN, that it is incapable of building Christian unity or providing Godly leadership. The Church is in distress under the leadership of the Clergy. The Church was in a stable condition in 1976 when CAN was established. Greed and personal aggrandizement have hindered the Clergy from providing spiritual leadership for Nigeria Church. 

5. Christians should mobilize to ensure that the Islamist party does not return to power in 2027. If it does, it would have been in power for sixteen years and will hand over power to Islamists in northern Nigeria for another eight years, making 24 years of uninterrupted rule of the Islamists, which will have destroyed democracy in Nigeria. The consequence is that there will no more be freedom of worship in the country.

 

Like Israel in 1 Sam. 13:22, the Church has no resources to engage the enemy in the day of the battle. Greedy and self-seeking leaders have weakened the Church and turned it into a prey. The first enemy is the compromising Christian leadership. CAN must be re-organized.

 

 

Raise a lamentation to God against Church leaders who place personal selfish interest above the interest of Christ and His people. Pray that God will visit them for their evil deeds.

 

Dissociate the Nigeria Church from the implications of the participation of the CAN President in the Ramadan breaking of fast in March 2025. Pray that the consequence of that action shall not be visited upon Nigeria Christians since they did not mandate him to go there. 

 

Decree that all Christians collaborating with Islamists shall partake of the judgment of God upon the terrorists.

 

Pray that every conspiracy of the government to deny the genocide taking place in Nigeria shall fail.

 

Pray that God will disappoint the cunning devices of the government to protect the terrorists. Pray that God will catch them in their craftiness.

 

Pray for God’s protection upon Nigeria Christians, particularly those exposed to the attacks of the terrorists.

 

Pray for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God to revive Nigeria Christians and make them zealous for truth and righteousness.