The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) has called for more support for the work of publishing, translating and distributing the Bible in the country.
The General Secretary/CEO of BSN, Pastor Samuel Sanusi, made the call in an interview with the News of Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
Sanusi said that making the Bible available and affordable to millions of Nigerians had suffered certain challenges because of inadequate finance.
According to him, more than 80 per cent of the world have a Bible Society vested with the work of Bible publishing and distribution.
He added that the churches in these nations provided financial support for the Bible work.
Sanusi said that in the case of Nigeria, only very few churches openly showed their support to the work of the BSN.
He said that the activity of pirates also undermined the work of Bible publishing.
“I was with the Director-General of the Nigeria Communications Commission, Dr. Aminu Maida, and he asked me a question. “Who pirates your Bible? It is Christians. Who are the people stealing Bible work? They are Christians,” he said.
Pastor Sanusi stressed that piracy remains a challenge, adding that most of the people involved in Bible piracy are Christians.
Sanusi said that the BSN sources money to translate and publish the Bible, adding that government policy are not favourable to the BSN.
“BSN sources money to translate, publish the Bible. Government policy is not favourable to us. Moving a container of Bibles from Apapa to different locations cost a lot of money now.
“To worsen the condition, per capita income has dropped. Fundraising is dropping, yet every week, I receive mails asking the BSN to supply free Bible. Where do we get the money from?,” Sanusi queried.
The CEO said that another big challenge affecting Bible production is the devaluation of the Naira.
“In comparison with Gideon International, every kobo of the Bible is being sponsored, but we ask for a token to cover for logistics. But Gideon doesn’t translate to local languages, whereas the BSN translates,” Sanusi said.
On the BSN trauma healing programme, Sanusi said that the organisation requires funding and sponsorship to make it pan-Nigeria.
“Everything boils down to money. This programme should have been aired on every TV, if not for funds. Recently, we got a church to sponsor it,” Sanusi said.
The BSN boss said the organisation also faces the burden of taxation even as a Non-Governmental Organisation.
“Recently, a PHCN official came to ask us why our PHCN bill has dropped. My staff responded that it was because our patronage has dropped, and that’s what’s responsible for the drop in our electricity bill.
”That, again, goes to show that government policy is affecting us,” Sanusi said.
On ministry to the abandoned, Sanusi said that it costs a lot of money to make the Bible available to the deaf and the blind.
He noted that to encourage the reading of the Bible in braille and audio, the society came up with the idea of competitions for the deaf and the blind. (NAN)
