Prelate emeritus of the Methodist Church of Nigeria and first black president of the World Methodist Council (WMC), Dr. Sunday Coffie Mbang, has passed on at the age 86.
Mbang, who also served as the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), according to family sources, died Tuesday night in his sleep during a brief illness.
“The late prelate emeritus has not been out for any public function of late, but preferred to receive some important visitors including his best friend, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was one of his associates that visited him two weeks ago for prayers and blessings,” a family member, who preferred anonymity told LEADERSHIP.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with all Methodists in Nigeria and the Diaspora, on the passing of Mbang.
The president in a statement by his media aide, Femi Adesina, also extended heartfelt condolences to the Mbang family in particular, the government and people of Akwa Ibom State, and the entire body of Christ in Nigeria and worldwide, noting that the late Mbang “was indeed a spiritual colossus beyond the shores of his fatherland.”
Buhari recognised that having served as the longest leader of Methodist Church Nigeria, the first Methodist president of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the first black president of World Methodist Council, among other pioneering positions, Dr. Mbang displayed “exemplary courage, forthrightness, wisdom, intellectualism and selflessness” in his over six decades of service to God and humanity.
Also, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, expressed condolence to the family of the late Christian leader.
Emmanuel, who spoke through his chief press secretary/special assistant, media, Ekerete Udoh, said the passing of “the renowned father-in-faith is deeply painful, but we thank God for the life of impact you lived.”
He said, “You were a towering figure in the Nigerian Christian community, who, as the patriarch/prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, for 22 uninterrupted years, the president of CAN and the first Nigerian ever to head WMC, brought honour to Nigeria and in the process won souls for Christ.
