While it is no longer news that Christians across the country find Sterling Bank Plc Easter message offensive, blasphemous and insensitive, and that the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) has said it will sanction the Bank accordingly for the error, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is still calling for the sack of the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, over the insensitive Easter advert.
CAN in a statement said:
“The attention of the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria has been drawn to an ungodly, wicked, insensitive and deliberately provocative advertisement of Sterling Bank, comparing the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ to ‘Agege bread’ amidst the Easter celebration.
“In case the management of Sterling Bank is not aware, the Resurrection of Jesus witnesses to the immense power of God Himself.
“To believe in the Resurrection is to believe in God. If God exists, and if He created the universe, and has power over it, then He has power to raise the dead. If He does not have such power, He is not worthy of our faith and worship.
“Only He who created life can resurrect it after death; only He can reverse the mystery that is death itself, and only He can remove the sting and gain the victory over the grave (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). In resurrecting Jesus from the grave, God reminds us of His absolute sovereignty over life and death.”
Meanwhile, as a result of the outcries and anger over the offensive Easter message, the management of Sterling Bank, promptly tendered an apology in a tweet which read:
“… let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. Forgive our recent errors, we sincerely apologized. Forgive us in the spirit of Easter!”
However, despite this, the Christian community considered the Bank’s apology as ‘a sickening apology.’
To this end, CAN is calling for the immediate sack of the Bank’s CEO while also advising Christians to be wary of the banks they patronize because the Management of Sterling Bank clearly showed “hostility and hatred” towards the Christian faith.
What advice will you then give to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the management of Sterling Bank Plc as regards the yet to be resolved issue?