‘Christian lawyers are the voice of the church’

Speaking with Sunday Sermon on the CLASFON’s resolutions at the end of its seminar in Calabar recently, the National Assistant Secretary of CLASFON, Barrister Omonuwa Ogiemudia, lamented that many pastors are ignorant of the law and therefore, their activities constitute burdens to themselves (pastors) and their followers. He maintained, “The fellowship believes that Christian lawyers […]

Speaking with Sunday Sermon on the CLASFON’s resolutions at the end of its seminar in Calabar recently, the National Assistant Secretary of CLASFON, Barrister Omonuwa Ogiemudia, lamented that many pastors are ignorant of the law and therefore, their activities constitute burdens to themselves (pastors) and their followers.

He maintained, “The fellowship believes that Christian lawyers are the voice of the church and one of the ways of doing this is to educate the church as far as the law is concerned.

“We have come to realise that most of our pastors are not knowledgeable when it comes to the law of the land. For example, when there was serious demolition [of structures] in Abuja, many churches were affected. Their structures were demolished and we as a fellowship came in and wanted to do something on behalf of these churches.

“We sent questionnaires around—we wanted to know whether those churches had title documents and how they acquired the land.

“We were very surprised that most of them had no title documents. And you cannot go to court when you don’t have a proper case to present. We couldn’t fabricate anything.” He said the Calabar gathering discussed this issue extensively.

According to him, some of these churches are not incorporated because somebody just wakes up and says God has given him/her a name and then starts to operate.

“Under such circumstance, when an issue comes up, the church is not legally recognised.

He said many of the church members’ transactions are not documented. They are done by reason that “I love this brother” and when there is trouble, there is no tangible document to hold onto.

“We have, as a fellowship, put some money to send to some of the victims of the Jos crisis. We want to ensure that those who are arrested are given adequate representation,” Ogiemudia noted.

He said one of the strongest items of discussion in the conference was “why not we have ecclesiastical law just like they are having sharia?”

Some delegates clamoured for the establishment of ecclesiastical court that will deal strictly with Christian matters. He said the issue was so contentious that there was no conclusion.

But the national assistant secretary took a critical look at this: “Because our brothers in the other faiths are having courts? Some people have argued, are we really as Christians of the New Testament operating the laws of the Old Testament? What are the matters that are likely to come up in this court? Are we pressing on just because some other persons are having some kind of court? It has to be thoroughly looked at before we come out with a common front as Christians and say this is what we want to pursue.”

On the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s recent call for special court for examination malpractice, he said CAN has misfired. According to him, CAN should reach out to parents who are catalysts in dubious examination deals.

“It’s not only exam malpractice”. There are so many things that people say let us set up special courts. Before you know it, we will have various special courts. For such issues, we will need to look at them professionally and as Christians come up with positions,” Ogiemudia advised.

“We have met leaders of PFN [Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria] and CAN at various times and we do say we are available, this is our contact. If you have issues you want us to pursue, maybe you have come up with an issue, we will be able to at least give it legal framework. It will be difficult for us to now say let us have exam malpractice special court,” the CLASFON national official maintained.

The conference, he said, discussed electoral integrity vis-a-vis its theme which was “Righteousness Exalts”. He said it was stressed that if those who are saddled with the task of conducting elections do not have righteousness, they will produce crooked elections. “This is one of the ways we are trying to contribute as a fellowship to nation building. A lot of judges as well as lawyers from different parts of the country were around during the conference and they had the privilege of getting this kind of message,” the Christian lawyer stated.

He added, “Because at the end, if anything happens, the lawyers will be contacted—‘we want to take the matter to court.’ There are matters that ordinarily ought not go to court. They want to press and go to court and drag and drag—at the end of the day, justice in most cases, is not done! We need to begin to talk to ourselves as well because we are also ministers in the temple of justice.

“So, we need to advise our clients—the way we handle our matters is very important. That is one of the bases for CLASFON coming into being. We wanted to create a forum where Christian lawyers can come, think together, interact together and advise ourselves on the best ways to practice our profession in line with the bible.

“Before now, many people thought it was not compatible for a Christian to be a lawyer. When you say you are a Christian and you are a lawyer, they look at you with the eye of suspicion. They are not sure! We are told of a story of a lawyer who was buried with his face down.

“This is what the fellowship wanted to correct. It wants Christians to practice this profession the way it ought to be practised. Because the legal profession came from the Bible. Jesus Christ, the Bible says is an advocate! And he is the one interceding for us and that is the work that we are supposed to be doing,” he concluded.

CLASFON comprises those in the bench and those in the bar and it is an affiliate of Advocate Africa, a large body for all Christian lawyers fellowships in various African countries with a network aimed at helping one another. CLASFON has 23 branches across the federation.