Never a time in the history of the world that Nigeria needs
peace than now that the nation is battling with concomitant and chorus security
challenges.
And at this point, no one can argue that Nigeria and the
entire world need not just tolerance or peace negotiations/conversations. For
peace to become a reality we dream of, it must be institutionalized. In other
words, peace must be viewed beyond verbal tolerance and should be made an
institution; a workable or practical step that will become a point of reference
for ages.
To achieve this, both public and private institutions should
be reframed. This means that peace must be the goal of every established firm
or institution that draws people from different religious or cultural
backgrounds. Peace studies should be made compulsory in all levels of studies
starting from primary schools to tertiary institution. With this deliberate
step, the nation will experience better atmosphere for developmental goals to
thrive.
Christian Faith Ministries (CFM) has taken this giant step
and it is yielding results. Every institution established by CFM is geared
towards peacemaking. There are deliberate efforts by Christian Faith Ministries
to make sure no one in the society is excluded. There is room for both the
privileged and the less privileged, Muslims and Christians are also given equal
attention.
CFM Hospital
The hospital built by Christian Faith Ministries has the
motto, “None shall be denied basic health care”. The hospital attends to
everyone that comes. Hundreds of patients walk into the hospital every week
with most of them having little or no money to pay for medical services
rendered to them. Everything has been made unbelievably cheap for everyone in
the society to afford. If not for limited space and medical facilities, one
would be amazed by the number of people queuing every hour for medical
attention. In this manner, peace has been institutionalized. Peace is not
possible where there is prejudice or preferential treatments. For peace to
thrive, everyone must be seen equal in the eye of the laid down standard. Even
the staff of the ministry queue up for medical treatment.
CFM HOSPITAL AT A GLANCE
The Bible College
Christian Faith Ministries runs a bible college known as
Christian Faith Institute (CFI). The college’s motto is “Education for life and
harvest”. Since the inception of the college in 2007, the college has
graduated not less than two thousand people across Africa. many of these
graduates are leading the gospel campaign in crisis areas in the northern
Nigeria.
Just like other institutions or arms established by
Christian Faith Ministries, the gospel of peace and peacebuilding is mirrored
across all activities and courses ran in the bible college. Every semester, the
college receives good number of students from across Africa, with almost half
of the students coming from insurgence or Boko Haram ravaged communities. This
means they have nothing with them aside from their luggage that make them look more
of a man overrun by armed robbers on the highway. Anyone who listens to their personal
experiences from what they have been through after various attacks on their
communities will be emotionally frozen. But the college as a peace-building
institution receives them without further requests. They are given
scholarships, free accommodation, feeding, free medical care, vocational skills
with many other things that can rebuild these traumatized students. In the
college, both educated, uneducated, privileged and less privileged live
together in harmony. This further adds volume to the very reason for the Bible
college establishment. We cannot dream peace if we have exclusive sight. To
live in peace, every segment of the society must be involved or taken into
account. Exclusive approach will rather cause more harm than good. Both
the rich and poor should be given equal attention most especially in Christ’s
Kingdom. This is one of the things that make the kingdom of Christ different
from the kingdom of the world.
One of CFI Structures
Christian Faith Crisis Homes
Children are seeds or the future of every society. if
children are protected and preserved, a nation is preserved. Christian Faith
Ministries by the wisdom given to her has considered it important to rescue
children rendered homeless and hopeless. Currently, Christian Faith Crisis
Homes has not less than two hundred children from crisis areas across Nigeria.
Most of these children, as a result of first-hand witness to their parents’
murder by armed bandit were brought into CFM Homes traumatized. Their parents
were killed before their eyes. You can imagine a child watching his or her
parent’s body turning or vibrating in a pool of blood. Some of the children
were abandoned by their close relatives after both of their parents passed on
due to illness. If these children considered as the nation’s future are left in
the street destitute without care, what will become of our future as a nation?
If these children grow up destitute or intellectually impoverished, it means we
are going to have a destitute nation in a near future. If they are malnourished
or starved, we will definitely have a malnourished or starved society in times
to come.
It is an enormous task to take care of children most
especially in large numbers. Educating, feeding them three times a day,
clothing them properly and giving them proper or standard medical services is
never a small task. This involves a great sacrifice, of course, the same way
there is no genuine love without sacrifice, there is no peace without
sacrifice. Apart from the huge cost of running such a home, staffs of the home
sacrifice their sleep to attend to these children. If these children experience
or know peace now, we can be rest assured of a peaceful society tomorrow. What
we do today determines our future’s atmosphere. So Christian Faith Ministries
is not just addressing or solving an issue on ground, but visionary or
prophetically making peace in advance or addressing the future.
Every testimony received from these children indicates that
they were hopeless but now hopeful. They are not just talking about their
individual hope here, but the hope of our dear nation. As Christian Faith
Ministries rebuilds hope for these children, she is not just rebuilding or
rekindling these children’s hope, but also rebuilding our nation’s hope.
Christian Faith Ministries believes farming is for all of
us. Farming boosts food production which is the only way to win war against
food crisis. Hunger or food insecurity does not agree with peace. It breeds
fear, anxiety, social disorder and other societal ills. This denotes that if
all of us involve in farming, it means we are all united against our common
enemy which is hunger or food insecurity. Nigeria as a nation was surviving on
agriculture until oil was discovered in 1956. Nigeria was doing better with
agricultural products than oil which has now become an unarguable or
indisputable root of corruption and agitations in Nigeria today. The economic
advantage of agricultural produce over crude oil is wide. Before the discovery
of oil, there were no or less issue of corruption with a fair currency exchange
of a dollar to Naira. Agriculture did not just make us responsible citizens of
the most popular black nation on earth that unanimously stood against our
common enemy tagged ‘food insecurity, it also encouraged environmental peace
which is paramount to every societal values. oil spillage from crude oil did
and is still doing harm to the soil and aquatic life which was of economic
importance to us. Even though Crude oil brought money to the nation, it made
living conditions difficult for common dwellers that were predominantly
farmers. This also means more money and more health crisis. People began to
find it difficult to get clean sources of water for cooking and drinking. The
soil in the region has been raped due to drilling activities of western gold
diggers who did not see what will become of an innocent community like the Ijaw
people. Never in the history of Nigeria that there were agitations from
different groups from the region. This was the beginning of the fall of Nigeria
and her economy.
It is clear that agriculture or farming has virtually no
side effects. It strengthens relationships, builds confidence, boosts economic
strength of local communities, preserves nature, encourages healthy living of
both man and livestock, fights food insecurity, provides natural shades which
promotes health life and many more others. In African, families or people from
different communities could come together to cultivate a piece of land which
tells how farming or agriculture unites people. There was no much issue of
herders and farmers attack, rather Fulani cows were sources of organic manure
to improve yields. Their nomadic life of farming was not considered repugnant
by local farmers but rather a symbiotic relationship that benefits everyone.
Land cultivating farmers needed Fulani farmers to rejuvenate their land with
their cows and Fulani herdsmen needed the farmers’ food for their consumption
and for their cow. This was the reality on ground before corruption and
injustice became the order of the day. Farming guarantees both economic and
emotional peace.
This same crude oil also added weight to the Biafran or
civil war fought in 1967. Few people saw that they could be enriched if they
exited from Nigeria or went with eastern Nigeria which by then had liquid gold
(crude oil). The war brought a major setback and division in Nigeria.
The moment oil was discovered, Nigeria strategically
abandoned agriculture which has great value aside economic value or food
production. Focus was shifted from agriculture to crude oil. This is the worst
mistake Nigeria has ever made in her entire history. Food or agricultural
products became moribund and inflation was instantly activated. Nigerians began
to spend more money on less size or quantity of food than before. It is impossible
to get the same quantity of food with the same amount if farming activities are on
the decrease. today, many people or families are spending more on food than
they earn. This gives room for money lending bodies or firms to thrive. In the
history of this nation, there has never been such a time reasonable number of
registered lending bodies or applications until of recent. Christian Faith
Ministries believes for this to end, we must all go back to agriculture.
Oil discovery has immensely contributed to climate change,
insecurity, environmental health hazard, soil depletion, corruption and
poverty. Every year, huge amount of money from Nigeria’s budget goes to the oil
region but due to corruption, it does not reach the poor villagers. The rich or
the privileged get richer while the poor appear poorer and starved. Their land
has been destroyed by oil explorations and therefore have no other option than
to be attracted to either armed banditry or kidnapping of both foreign and
local oil workers to earn a living. The rich from the region who receive money
from the federal government on behalf of the people from the region have
relocated to Abuja or safer places with their children. When these same rich people who embezzle the money shout ‘peace’ in their well-fenced apartments, a
common man or the poor living in the region do not understand the language
because, the reality on ground does not reconcile with the peace heard from the
people in well-fenced apartments. Where is peace when funds meant for the
entire Niger Deltans are been controlled by the few?
Animal rearing has remained the only hope for soil nutrients
recovery. Inorganic or chemical fertilizers destroy our soil in a long run, for
anything made by man has a degree of side effects. It has been proven that food
crops grown on a natural soil taste better than food crops grown on soil with
inorganic fertilizer. Organic which is from animals’ remains increases crop
yield and give life to soil organism. In this way, nature is also preserved.
This is man taking care of God’s creation as commanded. In accordance,
Christian Faith Ministries rears different kinds of animals which include
cattle, dogs, pigs, fishes, birds, sheep, goats etc. The remains taken from
this farm is really adding a tremendous value to the soil, less is been spent
on farming within CFM premises than before. This is a plus to the economy and
hope for a poor farmer who has no money to buy chemical fertilizer. Spending
less on farming with improved yields guarantees peace.
Cattle from CFM Farm
In Christian Faith Ministries, trees of different kinds are
planted everywhere. Of recent about five hundred trees were planted in a single
day. This is man going back to God’s first command which demands man tending
and keeping the earth. Until we obey God or the laws of nature, environmental
peace which is principal to human health or well-being is not possible. Fruit
trees are pure and natural source of vitamins our bodies need, they keep or
enhance our body immune systems which is a great preventive measure against
sickness and diseases. Health is wealth, and there will be no peace without
good health. Today, many nations have been thrown into debts as a result of
pandemics.
Christian Faith Ministries does not only preach peace but
live it. This makes Christian Faith Ministries an institution of peace. As a
way of building relationships and making peace through farming, Christian Faith
Ministries has been giving goats to widows to rear. This is to encourage
economic freedom and reduce desperation among these poor widows. Desperation
and peaceful living do not walk the same path. In every way, Christian Faith
Ministries has preached peace and has lived it. If any society or nation is
modeled after Christian Faith Ministries, a reasonable result will be achieved.
Through farming, Christian Faith Ministries has built or
restored cordial relationships between Fulani herders and Christian
communities. Hausa people come to CFM without the fear of attack to cut grass
for the ministry. Fulani people are willing to graze their cows within CFM
premises without fear of attack. Last year, a group of Fulani leaders visited
the president of Christian Faith Ministries, Professor Kent Hodge, who
mobilized a vaccination team to vaccinate their cows. These Fulani herdsmen
testified that this was the first time such is happening to them most
especially from a Christian body like Christian Faith Ministries. This further
strengthens relationships between Christians and Muslims within the region.
Christian Faith Schools
Everyone knows what building or running a standard school
with qualified teachers like Christian Faith Schools means. This requires huge
expenses and therefore one should not expect anything like ‘friendly or
affordable’ school fees from the school, most especially when the staff of the
school are reasonably paid. Yet, it is not a thing of surprise that compared to
the value offered and the school fee required from each pupil or student, it is
just what an African refers to as a ‘chicken change’.
Christian Faith Schools was established to bridge the gap
between the rich and the poor so that children considered less privileged will
divide the spoil with the privileged. In other words, children from rich and
poor homes will have equal access to quality education. Breaking the barrier
between the rich and the poor is peacebuilding. Even with this effort,
Christian Faith Schools has over two hundred pupils/students from
displaced/poor homes that are paying nothing to access quality education for a
better tomorrow. It is rightly said, if our children are not properly educated
today, they will either be our tomorrow’s risk or tomorrow’s insecurity.
Educating these poor children that are neglected by many today is a great
investment in peacebuilding against tomorrow.
Kent Computer Centers
Kent computer centers have made a huge impact in
peacebuilding in broken communities within northern Nigeria. These communities
were divided along religious and tribal line leading to the crisis that set the
community ablaze. After the crisis, there was virtually no common ground for
people/youths from both side of the divide to interact until Kent computer
centers were established. Kent computer has not just reconciled these
communities in disagreement, it has further strengthened the intellectual might
of youths within the community to stay away from the path of crime.
Peacebuilding course was intentionally added to the students’ curriculum in
each computer center to create or stamp a lasting solution to the crisis. Many
of these youths have become peace ambassadors, fighting injustice without
prejudice. From time to time, seminars on peacebuilding which engage
stakeholders from each of these divisions are organized. The seminar engages
stakeholders in the community in an interactive manner which further
strengthens relationships within the community. A lot has happened and the
ministry is still receiving testimonies from these computer centers. Peace does
not come cheap; it involves huge sacrifice. Huge amount of money goes into procurement
and maintenance of facilities in these computer centers every month. ICT
equipment are very costly but no sacrifice is too much for peace, for without
peace life is not possible. Currently, the ministry has seven computer centers
across northern Nigeria. More computer centers are on the way because people
from some communities around are in talk with CFM concerning establishment of
computer center in their communities. They have seen indisputable results from
other communities with Kent Computer centers. This is a way of saying ‘we need
peace in our community too and therefore a computer center should be
established in our community.
Christian Faith Ministry as an institution of peace is hugely investing in peacebuilding, something many people or firms have ignored due to inevitable challenges involved. Many want to invest where they can make enormous profit and become richer and not in people or peacebuilding. They don’t want to see any deduction in their savings. Christian Faith Ministries however goes for the people and not the profit, it is not a profit-making body but a peace-making institution. The joy or testimonies that come from such sacrifice is what CFM prays for every day. To see a broken society healed, to see a hungry child fed and the naked clothed.
CFM Goats bought for poor widows awaiting distribution
Christian Faith Ministries has responded to so many
communities rocked with crisis in different ways. From rebuilding of the
community, provision of medical aid, foodstuffs, and water; to payment of
school fees for vulnerable children across Nigeria. Of recent, in Miango, a
community in Plateau State was under attack and Christian Faith Ministries
bought roofing material and sowing machines to empowers vulnerable women. There
are many other arms under CFM with the sole purpose of peacebuilding.
Peacemaking is not cheap but is paramount. Any peacemaking firms like
Christian Faith Ministries needs help or faithful partners to make a huge
impact. This is why both individuals and government or cooperate organization
should consider partnering with peacebuilding institutions to save the world
from further decay. Violence is eating into our economy, social being, into
everything that makes us human. The sooner will stand up, the better it is.
Christian Faith Ministries has stood up and needs many others to stand with
her. Together, injustice and violence will be forced out and peace, justice, and
unity will be enthroned in our communities.
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