Christian Participation in Politics: a Moral Concern in Contemporary Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the level of Christian participation in politics considering the moral concerns in contemporary Nigeria.
- To examine the factors limiting Christian participation in politics in Nigeria.
- To determine the prospects of Christians active participation in politics in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives an insight into various studies conducted by outstanding researchers, as well as explained terminologies with regards to Christian participation in politics: Moral concern in contemporary Nigeria. The chapter also gives a resume of the history and present status of the problem delineated by a concise review of previous studies into closely related problems.
CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
Politics and religion are two different entities that help in the growth and development in human existence, despite the fact that both have parallel practices, but they share some common goals which are beneficial to man. As religion importance to human life so also politics, though some religious extremists do see politics as a dirty practices and abstain themselves from it and also preach the same to their followers, but still is of a tremendous important to them.
The early missionaries distant Christianity from politics especially in some African countries, and this brings a significant forbear towards politics by Christian, and they transfer that to their children, which brought about wrong impression that some Christian have on politics and its importance to human existence. Besides, the way some of the politicians are practicing it today makes it look dirty in the eyes of some committed Christians, and they sees the politicians as fraudulent people.
Political involvement is a vital tool for the development or un-development of every society today, the society that has good people representing them in the political circle are experiencing development and growth but those societies that are unfortunate to have bad (i.e. those that don’t have the society at heart) are not experiencing development nor Growth as it should be, that has led to a point that some concern citizen are advocating for people to get involve in political practices with a very meticulous care and concern during the excises, for whom they should elect as their representative should be people they know with good reputation and ambition, because development and growth of any society lied in the hands of who they elect to represent them.
However, the purpose of this paper is to stipulate clearly the importance behind the participation in political activities by Christian, besides the research is done with the purpose of yelling at the Christian to have re-think on the political activities, and to encourage the Christians to stand up and face the reality and became active in the politic for it is only through the political system one can get into the civil Government; it is only by that we can save ourselves from the hands of the world. For Jesus in Matthew 5:15 “let yet light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds praise your father in heaven, how can we shine if we abstain ourselves from the political activities? We all know that Justice, honesty accountability, fairness and above all Godliness are needed in the political circle. Ayubi (1991) Danladi Musa says that “it now generally accepted that one of the main ways that Christian can positively influence the society and make a difference is to get involved in politics, business and social action. By so doing Christians will truly become the light and the salt of the society.” Barber (1984) If these are to be achieving for the good of the Church and the society at large then it is necessary for Christians to get directly involvement in the politics.
And this should be with the purpose of giving better leadership and beneficial governmental activities in the right direction.
POLITICS IN THE CIRCULAR
Politics is about the acquisition of power and the use of such power. The Oxford Dictionary of Words defines politics as “matters concerned with acquiring or exercising power, within a group or an organization” Nkem Onyekpe defines the term politics as: “The struggle for power which itself is the authority to determine or formulate and execute decisions and policies, which must be accepted by the society… it is the struggle for power of governance, especially executive authority.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the design and methodology employed by the researcher for the purpose of conducting the research. The procedure for data collection and the relevant data used to address the research hypothesis.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the overall plan for connecting the conceptual research problems to the pertinent (and achievable) empirical research. In other words, the research design articulates what data is required, what methods are going to be used to collect and analyze this data, and how all of this is going to answer the research question.
According to Kerlinger (1986), research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions and to control variance. Thus, the research design that was adopted in this study was the Descriptive design. The adoption of this design was informed because the study involved the collection of data to accurately and objectively describe existing phenomena and determining the nature of a situation as it exists at the time of investigation population under investigation.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY AND METHOD OF POPULATION DETERMINATION
This study focused on determining if the level of christian participation has significant effect in politics considering the moral concern in contemporary Nigeria.
SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
According to Nwana (2005), sampling techniques are procedures adopted to systematically select the chosen sample in a specified away under controls. This research work adopted the convenience sampling technique in selecting the respondents from the total population
A total sample size of two hundred (200) respondents was selected from the research population using the convenient sampling method. A sample of convenience is the terminology used to describe a sample in which elements have been selected from the target population on the basis of their accessibility or convenience to the researcher.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION AND DATA SOURCES
Data collection involves a search for relevant information that will proffer solution to specific problems. Every research effort therefore centres on the search for such information which could be obtained either from primary or secondary sources. But for the purpose of this research, data for this study was gathered through the use of primary data (questionnaire). The questionnaire is the major instrument of data collection in this study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRSENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers data analysis, interpretation and the mode of presentation to illustrate that the level of Christian participation has significant effect in politics considering the moral concern in contemporary Nigeria. Respondents comprising of christian men and women, traders, and civil servants amounting to 200. All 200 respondents responded to the various questions asked in the questionnaire, as there were no unreturned questionnaires.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
In this study, our focus was to investigate christian participation in politics: A moral concern in contemporary Nigeria. The study specifically was aimed at examining the level of Christian participation in politics considering the moral concerns in contemporary Nigeria, examine the factors limiting Christian participation in politics in Nigeria, and determine the prospects of Christians active participation in politics in Nigeria.
The study adopted the survey research design and conveniently enrolled participants in the study. A total of 200 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are drawn from christian men and women from different churches in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made:
- The level of anti-social behaviour portrayed by politician has hindered most Christians from participating in politics.
- The participation of Christian in politics will really help to reduce the level of corruption in Nigeria.
- Cultural belief and tradition limits Christian participation in politics in Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In the light of the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are hereby proposed:
Christians should endeavor to participate in politics of their Nation and at such will be able to impart the lifestyle of God over the nation. People should not see politics as blight or bad, it should be admitted that politics in any form is not bad but the political players are bad.
REFERENCES
- Ayubi, N. Political Islam: religion and politics in the Arab world. London: Rutledge 1991.
- Barber, B. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Los Angeles, United States:University of California Press 1984.
- Colleen, D. Teixeira. Working in politics, USA: Pennsylvania Ave, SE Suite 330 Washington, DC 2003.
- Dal Bo E. Di Tella, R. Democracy under Pressure: Political Parties vs. ‘Nasty’ Interest Groups, unpublished, Harvard University 1999.
- Dukor, M. Philosophy and Politics: Discourse on Values and Power in Africa Lagos: Obaroh and Ogbiriaka Publishers, 1998.