The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) has called for more support for the work of publishing, translation and distribution of the Bible in the country.
The General Secretary/CEO of BSN, Pastor Samuel Sanusi, made the call in an interview in Lagos, saying that making the Bible available and affordable to millions of Nigerians has suffered challenges because of inadequate finance.
”More than 80 per cent of the world has a Bible society vested with the work of Bible publishing and distribution”.
He added that the churches in these nations provide financial support for the Bible work.
Sanusi said that in the case of Nigeria, only very few churches have openly shown support for the work of the BSN, stressing that the activity of pirates also undermined the work of Bible publishing.
“I was with the director-general of the Nigeria Communications Commission and he asked me a question.
“Who pirates your bible, it is Christians, who are the people stealing Bible work, they are Christians,” Sanusi said.
He stressed that piracy remained a challenge, adding that most of the people involved in Bible piracy were Christians.
Sanusi said that the BSN sources money to translate and publish the Bible, adding that government policy were not favourable to the BSN.
“BSN sources money to translate, publish the Bible.
“Government policy is not favourable to us. Moving the container of the Bible 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 said.
The CEO said that another big challenge affecting Bible production was the devaluation of the Naira.
“In comparison with Gideon international, every kobo of the Bible is been sponsored but we ask for a token to cover for logistics.
“But Gideon doesn’t translate to local languages but the BSN translates,” Sanusi said.
On trauma healing programme of the BSN, Sanusi said that the society require 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 said that the society also faces the burden of taxation even as a Non Governmental Organisation.
” Recently a NEPA official came to ask us why our NEPA bill has dropped. My staff responded that it was because our patronage dropped, that is 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 most abandoned, Sanusi said that BSN said that it costs a lot of money to make the Bible available to the deaf and the b1lind.
He noted that to encourage the reading of the Bible in brailles and audio, the society came up with the idea of competition for the deaf and the blind.
