It is true that the United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN) has already exceeded its target of being a one million church membership in Nigeria. Despite pockets of challenges the churches have faced in recent times, yet it continued to grow and transforming lives. At the moment the Nigerian Episcopal Area has four Annual Conferences, fifty two districts, 724 charges, 233 preaching centers and 48 house fellowships with an estimated membership of one million Eighty three thousand four hundred and sixty two (1,086,462).
This ecclesiastical structure is being catered by one resident bishop, 52 district superintendents and 908 pastors. This remarkable achievement didn’t happen without challenges. The United Methodist Church in Nigeria in the past has been through series of challenges but the recent one which started in 2012 has taken totally a different dimension. Due to the fact that a group of individuals mostly of the same linage around Jalingo, Yorro and Zing who are jurisdictionally under the Southern Nigeria Annual Conference broke out of the Conference and form a group that looks like a Church but has no identity yet. This group started a meeting in 2014 which they called “Annual Conference” but has no presiding bishop. How did this happen? And what could be the way forward? Let’s look at this briefly. Shortly after the demise of bishop Mavula the second resident bishop of UMC Nigeria, the West Africa College of bishop and the Council of bishop sent Bishop Arthur F. Kulah to Nigeria. Bishop Kulah was to unite the Church and to prepare grounds for the election of Bishop Mavula’s successor. By many people’s assessments including myself Bishop Arthur Kulah’s four years was very productive, that at the end of 2011 he was able to unite all the conferences in Nigeria and getting them ready to elect the next bishop for the Nigeria Episcopal Area.
In 2012 preparation was at the top gear to elect bishop for Nigeria at the forth coming West Africa Central Conference meeting in Sierra Leone. This preparation includes identification/nomination process. These identification/nomination processes produced three candidates from each from Conference. The last process took place in the Central Nigeria Annual Conference and produces Bishop John Wesley Yohanna as the one who scored the highest votes - not only in the Central Conference but in all the Conferences. Bishop At the end of the identification processes John Wesley Yohanna emerged as the only candidate who scored votes in all three conference. Seeing the outcome of the identification/nomination some group of persons mostly of the same linage (who are not members of the Central Nigeria Annual Conference) revolted the outcome of the process in the Central Nigeria Annual Conference. On the allegation that there was an over voting.
It is worth noting that for this group to poke nose into the affairs of a Conference which they are not members was wrong and a display of lack of understanding of Conference independence in the United Methodist Church. Therefore, it is immaterial whether or not everyone living within the jurisdictions of Central Nigeria Annual Conference decided to vote for one candidate. On this I will refer you to the judgment of the UMC Judicial Council here http://www.umc.org/decisions/42161.
The Episcopal Area decided to present to the West Africa Central Conference (WAC) three candidates for election. One from each Conference to be elected a bishop for the UMC in Nigeria, this development didn’t go well with the Breakaway Faction. So they wrote a protest letter to Bishop Kulah and WACC threatening to boycott the WACC meeting. WACC meeting in Sierra Leone received the letter of boycott and ruled it as unconstitutional. WACC which comprises of 80 delegates from Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cotediviore with only 13 absentees decided to proceed with the business of the conference including election of bishop for Nigeria. Election was conducted with the names of absentees including a chance for an additional name from the floor where none was added. At the end of the election, Bishop John Wesley Yohanna was declared winner after scoring 85% of the total votes. He was subsequently consecrated and assigned Bishop of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN). The Breakaway Faction’s choice to absent itself from the West Africa Central Conference (WACC) didn’t hinder WACC from doing it regular business because bylaw the decision of the group to boycott WACC meeting in Sierra Leone was unconstitutional. Let me divert a little bit, this group that boycotted WACC meeting in Freetown Sierra Leone in 2012 is now begging in 2019 to travel to Freetown Sierra Leone on their own expense with a so called Way Forward. Tell me; is “Karma” not real?
This ecclesiastical structure is being catered by one resident bishop, 52 district superintendents and 908 pastors. This remarkable achievement didn’t happen without challenges. The United Methodist Church in Nigeria in the past has been through series of challenges but the recent one which started in 2012 has taken totally a different dimension. Due to the fact that a group of individuals mostly of the same linage around Jalingo, Yorro and Zing who are jurisdictionally under the Southern Nigeria Annual Conference broke out of the Conference and form a group that looks like a Church but has no identity yet. This group started a meeting in 2014 which they called “Annual Conference” but has no presiding bishop. How did this happen? And what could be the way forward? Let’s look at this briefly. Shortly after the demise of bishop Mavula the second resident bishop of UMC Nigeria, the West Africa College of bishop and the Council of bishop sent Bishop Arthur F. Kulah to Nigeria. Bishop Kulah was to unite the Church and to prepare grounds for the election of Bishop Mavula’s successor. By many people’s assessments including myself Bishop Arthur Kulah’s four years was very productive, that at the end of 2011 he was able to unite all the conferences in Nigeria and getting them ready to elect the next bishop for the Nigeria Episcopal Area.
In 2012 preparation was at the top gear to elect bishop for Nigeria at the forth coming West Africa Central Conference meeting in Sierra Leone. This preparation includes identification/nomination process. These identification/nomination processes produced three candidates from each from Conference. The last process took place in the Central Nigeria Annual Conference and produces Bishop John Wesley Yohanna as the one who scored the highest votes - not only in the Central Conference but in all the Conferences. Bishop At the end of the identification processes John Wesley Yohanna emerged as the only candidate who scored votes in all three conference. Seeing the outcome of the identification/nomination some group of persons mostly of the same linage (who are not members of the Central Nigeria Annual Conference) revolted the outcome of the process in the Central Nigeria Annual Conference. On the allegation that there was an over voting.
It is worth noting that for this group to poke nose into the affairs of a Conference which they are not members was wrong and a display of lack of understanding of Conference independence in the United Methodist Church. Therefore, it is immaterial whether or not everyone living within the jurisdictions of Central Nigeria Annual Conference decided to vote for one candidate. On this I will refer you to the judgment of the UMC Judicial Council here http://www.umc.org/decisions/42161.
The Episcopal Area decided to present to the West Africa Central Conference (WAC) three candidates for election. One from each Conference to be elected a bishop for the UMC in Nigeria, this development didn’t go well with the Breakaway Faction. So they wrote a protest letter to Bishop Kulah and WACC threatening to boycott the WACC meeting. WACC meeting in Sierra Leone received the letter of boycott and ruled it as unconstitutional. WACC which comprises of 80 delegates from Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cotediviore with only 13 absentees decided to proceed with the business of the conference including election of bishop for Nigeria. Election was conducted with the names of absentees including a chance for an additional name from the floor where none was added. At the end of the election, Bishop John Wesley Yohanna was declared winner after scoring 85% of the total votes. He was subsequently consecrated and assigned Bishop of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN). The Breakaway Faction’s choice to absent itself from the West Africa Central Conference (WACC) didn’t hinder WACC from doing it regular business because bylaw the decision of the group to boycott WACC meeting in Sierra Leone was unconstitutional. Let me divert a little bit, this group that boycotted WACC meeting in Freetown Sierra Leone in 2012 is now begging in 2019 to travel to Freetown Sierra Leone on their own expense with a so called Way Forward. Tell me; is “Karma” not real?
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