Mathias Ezeaku: Rejection of Christianity, and Politics in Southern Nigeria

By Leo Igwe

My attention has been drawn to a media report stating that a community had rejected a traditional religious worshipper, Mathias Ezeaku, who is aspiring to contest next year’s election in Enugu, Southern Nigeria. According to the report, some leaders from Uzo Uwani constituency had come out to oppose Mathias Ezeaku, a self-identifying traditional religious worshipper who is seeking the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) ticket for the 2027 House of Representatives election. From the report, Ezeaku is a bona fide citizen. He had no criminal record. Ezeaku is not a terrorist. The opposition to his candidacy is linked to his denunciation of Christianity and public burning of the Christian holy book, the Bible. If I may ask: When did the renunciation of the Christian religion become a political liability? When did the profession of traditional African religion become a political stopper?

Apart from being vocal in criticizing Christianity, Ezeaku has reportedly promoted traditional African religion, designating Christianity and Islam as deceitful and as mechanisms to enslave and mislead Africans. 

I do not profess traditional religion. I am not a member of the NDC. I am a humanist and a promoter of freedom of religion or belief. Ezeaku’s candidacy should not be opposed because he denounced Christianity and Islam. That is unfair. The Constitution of Nigeria guarantees the right of all Nigerians to freedom of religion or belief, including the freedom to change, reject, or embrace other religions or beliefs, or no religion or belief.  Ezeaku’s rejection of Christianity is an exercise of his right to freedom of religion or belief. It should not constitute a basis to disenfranchise him or oppose his aspiration to participate in next year’s election. If people would not oppose his paying taxes or his voting in the next election as a citizen, because he rejected Christianity, why would they oppose his being voted for?

As the report noted, Ezeaku’s community is predominantly Christian. Clearly, the opposition to his political aspiration is rooted in Christian extremism and intolerance. Would his candidacy have elicited any opposition if he had rejected traditional religious worship and embraced Jesus as his personal Lord and Saviour? I do not think so. Would anyone have opposed him if he had openly and publicly burnt his religious shrine and other traditional religious accessories, as many new converts to Christianity do in that region? Not at all. Would these ‘Christian’ enthusiasts have rallied against his political ambition if he had declared that he would no longer worship other gods, but Jesus, that he would no longer revere those deities and idols made with human hands? 

Definitely not. Nigeria runs a democracy, not a theocracy, not a Christian theocracy. Believers should not use religion against those aspiring to hold political offices in the country.

Leo Igwe is a scholar of religion and a board member of the Humanist Association of Nigeria.

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria