[Archbishop Nicholas] Okoh, who a fierce critic of the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, described the selection process for the new church leader as “politicised”.
The cleric said, “The Prime minister of Britain will have to appoint (the Archbishop of Canterbury), whether he is a member of the Church or not.
“When you consider the political involvement, you can see the point we are trying to make.
“In other words, we are trying to say the Anglican Communion should be separated from the politics of Great Britain.’’
The British government will be monitoring comments like this. They can’t ignore the views of Nigeria, for a number of reasons, and the Anglican Church in Nigeria is influential. Nothing will change because of these specific comments of course but together with many other comments they are likely to have an effect.