Monday 6th November, 2017
To: All Christian Leaders
Christian Association of Nigeria
Heads of Denominations
Heads of Christian Ministries
Heads of Christian Fellowships and Groups
Laity Christian Leaders
Distinguished Leaders of Christianity,
Please find under the cover of this letter a Memorandum from the Chairman of the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), Mr. Solomon Asemota, SAN, to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, on the crucial need that a Truth, Peace, and Reconciliation should take place as basic prerequisite to Restructuring the Nation. The Chairman of the NCEF enumerates in the paper reasons why Reconciliation should take place in Nigeria.
So far, the advocacy of the NCEF is for Democracy as the only National Ideology for Nigeria. The NCEF has in the recent past achieved the following:
- The new Constitution by the National Assembly has gone underground after the NCEF’s Memo to the Senators. This Memo to the AGF will make any Constitution Review by the National Assembly difficult to pass because the NCEF is persuaded that it is not the responsibility of the National Assembly to produce or review a Constitution for the country.
- The Bill on NGO has been put aside following the meeting of the NCEF with APC and the paper presented by the Christian Elders to the Ruling Party.
- CAN itself is now securely focused on the interests of Nigerians, especially Christians, and this has raised issues with the Vice President.
The Constituency of both CAN and the NCEF are the Christians who are more than 50% of the Nigerian population. Therefore, the NCEF recommends that while we pursue Restructuring, we must insist also on a Truth, Peace, and Reconciliation Commission, which in the view of the NCEF should precede Restructuring.
The NCEF is persuaded that a Truth, Peace, and Reconciliation is a win, win, situation for all and it is the only way to a new Nigeria. Through it, a new Constitution based on the desire and the aspiration of the two races that make up Nigeria, the Negroes and the Negroid, the 389 Ethnic Nationalities, the three major religions, Christianity, Islam, and Traditional Religion, etc, shall be birthed.
The NCEF affirms that any other experiment may result in violence, and a situation in which the winner takes all, as was done in 1970 by the Islamists who were not overtly involved in the Civil War yet claimed the spoils of that war which is unacceptable. Reconciliation will be more appealing to many Nigerians than any other method, including Jihad. A Truth, Peace, and Reconciliation is a win, win situation.
Kindly go through the carefully prepared document and also make it available to other Christian leaders. Soft copy can be obtained through
Thank you for your kind consideration
Yours faithfully,
Pastor Bosun Emmanuel
Secretary, NCEF