THE NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR

MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 26th Oct. – Sunday 1st Nov. 2026

CAN AT 50: NO LESSON LEARNT

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20).

This prayer call is shared against the backdrop of an encounter with God that a brother narrated at an evening prayer meeting on Monday 19th October 2026. According to the brother, as he was about to take a nap in the late afternoon on that day, he suddenly heard, “You have provoked God again”. At once, he understood that “you” referred to the Nigeria Church, so he asked, “What have we done again?” The voice said, “The list.” Instinctively, he understood “the list” to mean those who were given award by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at its 50th anniversary.

There is nothing wrong in CAN giving award to deserving Christians for various services to the Church and the society. The Scriptures command in Rom. 13:7 to "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour."  However, honour should not be given to whom it is not due. As the Body of Christ, the Church must exercise discretion and discernment before engaging in an exercise like this, because whatever the Church does impugns on the character of Christ. One wrong name on the list mars the entire exercise in the sight of God, for "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (Gal. 5:9). The organizers of the event might have supposed that they were honouring notable Christians in the country, but God sees it differently if it does not measure up to His standards, because "that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God"  (Luke 16:15). Given that the awards were made by the apex body of Christianity in Nigeria, Christ was personally brought into it. 

While some names on the list deserve recognition and honour, others are poster boys for corruption, greed, and unrighteousness. Some have been accused of committing murder, and have not cleared themselves from the allegations. It is worrisome that at 50, CAN is not able exercise spiritual discretion to separate the holy from the profane. Both were brought into the temple. God complained thus in Ezekiel 22:26: "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them."  Defilement of the sanctuary provokes God, as He showed Ezekiel: "where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy?"  (Ez. 8:3). The troubling question is, if Church leaders could not separate the holy from the profane, the clean from the unclean, what lessons  has CAN learnt in 50 years? Secular clubs and associations exercise restraint and discretion before giving awards. Should not the Church do better?

These Church officials are the same ones who brought Muslim presidential candidates into the National Christian Centre but excluded Christian presidential candidates; they joined Muslims at feasts to break Ramadan fast in 2025 and 2026. They were also those who endorsed Tinubu’s decision to go to Turkey, of all places, for "security support" to "fight terrorism."  If it had not been for the uproar from the Church, they had stood with the Islamists and the government to insist that there is no genocide against Christians in Nigeria. It is worrisome that at this level of Christian leadership, officials of the Church do not know the difference between the God of the Christians and Allah of the Muslims. Are they not aware of what happened to Christianity in Turkey? Such undiscerning Christian leadership is not required in the Church, not to talk of a season like this in which the Church and the land are under the indignation of God. The Nigeria Church is poking its finger in the face of the Holy One of Israel. Men are playing with the Consuming Fire. This is not fault finding by anyone.  It was God Who said that the Nigeria Church has provoked Him again. Nigeria Christians are being warned not to forget that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He did not tolerate yesterday, He will not accept today. 

Two years after Israel left Egypt, the people arrived at the border of the Promised Land. Ten of the Israelite leaders misled the nation, and God was provoked to anger. God turned them back into the wilderness for additional thirty-eight years, until that entire generation perished. They were supposed to spend two years in the wilderness. They ended up spending forty years. Out of the six hundred thousand who left Egypt with Moses, only two arrived alive in the Promised Land. The rest had died in transit It should be remembered that only ten men sinned, yet the entire nation bore the consequence. God is warning the Nigeria Church that some men have provoked Him "again." 

A lot of prayers and fasting have been done on behalf of Nigeria. There is hope that the country is about to break out of its crisis. Strangely, the Christian leadership that should steer the ship safely out of the stormy waters has provoked God, according to the report from heaven. Various warnings have come earlier. At two prayer conferences entitled “Show the House to the House” and “Christianity in Nigeria: What Went Wrong?”, the leadership crisis in the Church was examined and solutions proffered for the Church. That is apart from other messages on the same subject. For example, in the Marathon Prayer call of 6th - 11th Feb. 2024, entitled “A Bullock for the Priest, a Bullock for the Congregation”, it was pointed out, from Lev. 4, that the sin of the High Priest was equal to the sin of the entire nation.

At the same time CAN was giving awards to looters of the treasury who bear Christian names, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo was sitting and weeping inside a mass grave in Plateau state with the corpses of Christians murdered for their faith. He was not recognized for an award as hero of the faith. Leah Sharibu is still in the den of Islamist abductors because she refused to renounce her faith in Christ. CAN did not recognize her for an award. The missing Chibok girls were not mentioned for an award. There was no posthumous recognition for the tens of thousands of Christians who chose death rather than deny their faith in Christ all over the North and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria. Their sacrifice is what is sustaining Christianity in the country. They were not recognized in the list of the awards. However, CAN recognized and rewarded looters of the treasury who have not brought the character and values of Christ into governance.

The list also raised some important questions. If the Church leaders have such access to all the people mentioned on their list of awards, why have they not convened a senior level “Christian” conference with those men and women to bring Christian influence to stop the terrorism and misgovernance ravaging the country? Why have the Church leaders not mobilized all those awardees to forge a political force that could have given Nigeria a righteous government? Clearly, Christianity in Nigeria does not lack manpower and influence to change Nigeria and end the bloodshed. What Christianity in Nigeria lacks is leadership, like Christ.

What signal is the Nigeria Church sending out to heaven and to men? Is the Church by its action saying that Jesus Christ recognizes and commends unfaithful men and women simply because they occupy lofty positions? Is the message from the leadership of the Church saying that righteousness, integrity, and faithfulness no longer matter to Christ? It should not be forgotten that the awards were given in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

At this point, one should look beyond CAN and consider the larger Christian body in Nigeria. Many Christians complain about the performance of CAN, yet no one does anything about it. Should it be concluded that Christians only delight in complaining without taking any proactive step to solve their problems? Christians are the most vociferous group in the country in condemning the evils going on, but they rarely engage in proactive steps to solve any problem. The only reason the CAN officials continue in these disturbing acts is because the Church has not held them accountable. Repeatedly, the Church has been called upon to establish structures to hold its leadership accountable. All those calls have not yet borne fruits. Unless Christian leadership is held accountable, the Church will continue to witness this disturbing pattern of leadership. God forbid that a few unsanctified individuals should compel God to defer the promised deliverance of Nigeria.

Let no one be in doubt. The new Nigeria shall come. The concern should be, when will it come? Going by what God did to Israel at the border of the Promised Land, Nigeria Christians must not be presumptuous and take God for granted. The cunning craftiness of Satan must not be ignored either, because the devil has shown that he misleads the people of God to incur God’s judgment. Apart from what He did at the border of the Promised Land, Satan still followed them into the wilderness and in Num. 25 beguiled them in the matter of Baalpeor in Shittim in which 24,000 people died in a plague.

Nevertheless, there is room for thanksgiving because God spoke and revealed the seriousness of what CAN did. If God had not spoken, probably, it might have been ignored with a few mutterings of disapproval. However, God revealed it because He wants to show mercy. Therefore, the onus is now on Nigeria Christians to address this matter. The easiest way is for the Christians to mobilize prayers at their various locations and dissociate the Nigeria Church from the action of those CAN officials. It is evident that they did not give those awards in appreciation of what the recipients have done for the Church, because, frankly, many of them have done nothing for Christianity that warranted recognition or appreciation. Rather, their lives contradict Christian values and virtue. Christians should pray and condemn the recognition and endorsement given by the Church to corrupt politicians and unethical businessmen.

Credible spiritual leadership is the ability to separate the holy from the profane. Any spiritual leader who can achieve this would avoid the pitfall of sin and satanic manipulations. Alas, after 50 years in existence, CAN has not learnt this lesson. May God in His mercy raise credible leadership for the Nigeria Church.

God bless Nigeria.

PRAYER POINTS

1.    Deut. 21:6-9    
Plead with God that Nigeria Christians did not approve the awards in the Church to questionable individuals. Pray for God to have mercy on the Church and Nigeria.

2.    Jer. 31:29-30    
Pray and absolve the Church and the nation from the wilful transgression of those who have provoked God. Intercede that neither the Church nor Nigeria shall suffer the consequence of their transgression.

3.    Ez. 8:8-13    
Pray that God will expose every work of darkness and evil in the Nigeria Church.

4.    Job 5:12-14    
Pray and cancel whatever evil is intended through this award, and whatever is not consistent with the will of God for the Church and for Nigeria.

5.    Neh. 5:14-15    
Pray for God to raise ethical and spiritual leaders for the Nigeria Church.

6.    Is. 8:10        
Pray for the forthcoming 2027 elections, that every conspiracy against truth and righteousness in Nigeria be destroyed 

7.    Is. 1:25-27    
Pray that God shall stir the spirit of righteous men and women in the Nigeria Church to reorganize the leadership. AMEN