Nepotism is described as an unjust, unethical, divisive and oppressive disparagement of the “other”, who is marginalized for kinship (family, tribal, ethnic, regional, or cultural), political (granting favours in a patron-client relationship to relatives, friends, benefactors, and privileged kinfolks), and similar prejudicial reasons. This study provokes further discussions by linking the historically established and provocative phenomenon of nepotism (cronyism, patronage, simony and favouritism) with corrupt leadership practices in the Nigerian church, Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), and the Nigerian society. Incongruences between the church’s professions and practices signpost a problem. The Church, a community of faith, lays claim to a unique understanding of God, worship, fellowship, the exercise of authority, and the concept of “God’s household”. It is, therefore, considerably more difficult to rationalize the use of nepotism to provide identity and meaning for Christians than for others in the wider Nigerian society. This study compares the characterizations, factors, and features of nepotism and corruption that occur in church and society. It also analyses how several years of maladministration advance nepotism and a vicious circle of corruption on church and society. In order to address this problem from a biblical perspective, the study employs a historical, contextual and multi-dimensional exegetical approach to Deuteronomy 16-18, and a communal and accountable interpretation of the text. The socio-historical, socio-economical, and religio-cultural contexts ground the formulation of an analogical paradigm for the study. New Testament texts serve to continue the act of constant appropriation of Israel’s values for new and changing contexts. These stir the application of the text’s moral and social implications, ethical demands, and transformational potentials to apply to sacred and secular leadership in modern-day Nigerian situations. Furthermore, the study advocates that faith and non-faith communities opt for diligent, responsible and circumscribed leadership that obeys God’s word and exercise collective power strategies. This framework ensures social justice, corporate solidarity, social ethic, generosity to the economically weak, and the protection of the rights/entitlements of the vulnerable in a safe and secure society. The blunt realities of nepotism and corruption, especially as it pertains to marginalization of people groups, in church and society are reasonably acknowledged. This study endeavours to provide a voice for many of the silenced and ignored interpretive contexts and interests of the disenfranchised. Thus, the study generates platforms for dialogues and for influencing the shared interests of persons and groups in each community. The study also demands justice and equity as normative ethics of obligations, on a sound biblical basis from Deuteronomy 16-18. Besides, ECWA hierarchy, may be motivated to inculcate new attitudes and actions towards people marginalized via nepotism; to become advocates for social justice, and to contribute to transforming church and society based on a covenant obligation towards Yahweh and towards brothers/sisters and fellow citizens.
READING DEUTERONOMY 16-18 WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF NEPOTISM AND CORRUPTION IN ECWA, NIGERIA : A THEOLOGICAL-ETHICAL STUDY – Amao, Solomon (Nigeria, 2021-08-25).
