Advices JAMB, WAEC too
A Protestant Christian denomination, The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, distinguished by its observance of Saturday as Sabbath Day, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission and the state electoral bodies to desist from fixing elections for Saturday.
Speaking for the church, one of its clergymen, Pastor Onaolapo Ajibade, said there was the need for the electoral bodies at all levels to respect and regard Saturday as a day set aside for the church members to worship their God and so cease from holding elections on the day.
Ajibade, in an interview with The Point, extended similar advice to external extermination bodies such as the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board and the West African Examination Council to leave out Saturday while conducting their exams.
According to the cleric, there were times Seventh-Day faithful shunned WAEC examinations that were fixed for Saturdays, stressing that ever since their protest and complaints, the examination body had stopped fixing major subjects like English and Mathematics for weekends.
Ajibade noted that the church has over 200,000 members in Nigeria and that majority of these faithful would rather attend their churches on Saturday than vote during elections fixed for Saturdays or even sit for examinations.
He said, “The Seventh Day Sabbath is forever and cannot be changed. It’s the day God blessed after creation. Sunday is just a ceremonial Sabbath. We follow the Bible and the Bible alone and not tradition. Any tradition that is not Bible based should not be followed. Fixing general examinations and elections, among other serious public functions, for Saturday has been a problem for us but I want to tell you that the Lord has solved the problem for us in a wonderful way.
“Take JAMB for instance, our school, Babcock University, is one of its centres and those who wouldn’t want to take their exams on Saturdays can take it on Sunday at Babcock. There was a day WAEC fixed a paper on Saturday and some of our students (church members) did not sit for it and they went to the WAEC and complained but the WAEC said they were sorry. Ever since, they (WAEC authority) have not fixed exam on Saturday again.
“You see, we believe that there should be freedom of worship and government should respect peoples’ religion and faith. Saturday is for us and Sunday for other people. I believe that on these days, government should not fix functions that affect members of Seventh-Day Adventist.
“Although the church does not make it compulsory for its members to boycott exams or elections, large number of us would better go to church on Saturday than perform our civic duties. Those who have chosen to serve God have never regretted it.
He said that Christians who regard Sunday as their Sabbath Day were not following what the Bible instructed and that “it is only God that can judge them.”
On why members of his church are vegetarians, Pastor Ajibade said that “vegetarianism is not an article of faith. Its just some advice given to members to be healthy. Members of our church are the healthiest people on earth and they live long.”
Ajibade condemned some church leaders who acquire jets and other expensive vehicles saying that “Jesus Christ taught simplicity. But what we have not is the end of the world. We now have false prophets and pastors. Christianity has been turned into a big business, untaxable business and it’s very unfortunate.”
The cleric also explained why church-owned tertiary institutions charge exorbitant fees, attributing it to the refusal of the Federal Government to grant subventions to private and church-owned institutions.
“There is no government subvention for church-owned and private universities. There is a number of professors that each university must have and these professors must be paid. So, private universities do not have other option that to fall on the school fees they charge students,” he explained.
