Primate Elijah Ayodele: A Christian leader like St. Francis of Assisi
By Folarin Ademosu
Recently, Primate Ayodele Elijah, the leader of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Home, launched to build a mosque for members of the Nupe Community in Lagos. At the groundbreaking ceremony of the project, Nupe leaders including the representatives of Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar –who originally was meant to perform the role–eulogized Primate Ayodele’s altruism and compassion towards the poor and underprivileged in society.
The mosque building mission underscores Primate Elijah’s character as a promoter of peace, unity, and interfaith solidarity. Beyond mere brick and mortar, his action is a positive statement that caring for our fellow human beings is a significant demonstration of faith in God. Importantly too, it epitomized a message of understanding and respect, and also reflective of the core tenets of major religions: love, acceptance, and service to humanity.
Certainly, the impact of his action will be long lasting as generations of Muslims will worship in the mosque. The import was also that building bridges across tribal, cultural, and religious divides is a most effective path to achieving peace and harmony in Nigerians.
While religion is a human activity for self-development and to forge a close relationship with God, it is ironically a tool used by mischief makers to stoke conflicts and destabilize society. Muslims and Christians are not immune of blame in the weaponising of religion for unaltruistic and sinister purpose at any time. Happily, there are exceptions to those leaders whose negative rhetoric and actions have misled and sunk their followers into a moral quicksand. One of these exceptions, undoubtedly, is Primate Ayodele.
His action also reminds one of the remarkable story of Italian poet and Catholic friar, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, otherwise known as Saint Francis of Assasi. The saint’s renowned encounter with the Sultan of Egypt Muhammad Al-Kamil at the height of the Christian and Muslim tension, known as the Crusades, would later be adapted into 2018 film titled “The Sultan and The Saint.” Saint Francis of Assisi had, in 1219, embarked on a peace mission to Al-Kāmil at Damietta in northern Egypt during the Fifth Crusade. He held religious dialogue al-Kāmil, in the bid to end the Christian-Muslim war. He did succeed, while the historical meeting between them ultimately birthed a common vision of universal peace, reconciliation, and interfaith cooperation. This, I believe, is the underpinning of Primate Ayodele’s message.
His relentless pursuit of peace among diverse peoples and religions is admirable and exemplary. Good and evil definitely cohabit the human sphere. Therefore, every religion has its share of the opposites.
One incident to further drive home my point was the noble act by Imam Abdullahi Abubakar during a 2022 religious crisis that engulfed Yelwa Gindi Akwati village of Plateau State in 2022. While the merchants of death on both sides were busy at work, Abubakar instead made his home a refuge to several Christians fleeing the carnage.
For his bravery and humanitarian gesture, then president Muhammadu Buhari decorated Imam Abubakar a national honour. In the same vein, Primate Ayodele has demonstrated that only in peace can our divine and human aspirations make their full expression. Even beyond his promoting religious tolerance, Primate Ayodele has become a moral compass in Nigeria, using his prophesies to the nation to warn, particularly, the political and economic class of likely dangers at different times.
In addition, the series of economic empowerment programmes Primate Ayodele carries out have lifted several Nigerians, whom he might not know personally, out of poverty. He has shown himself to be a friend of the affluent and powerful, as he is with the downtrodden, orphans and widows. The bakery he recently founded, which is intended to sell bread to the poor at relatively cheaper price, attests to his public-spiritedness. This and several other benevolent deeds has made his Oke-Afa, Isolo church to become a refuge to which his followers and others run and are comforted, forgetting the challenges that spurred their visits in the first place. Primate Ayodele combines philanthropy with patriotism, and it is commendable that he has been consistent on this path for several decades. Primate Ayodele’s deeds are a direct call on others to foster bond of love, respect diversity and promote inclusion.
Ademosu writes from Lagos.
