AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
The citizens of Nigeria should use their votes to deliver the country from the impending collapse occasioned by bad leadership and tribal sentiment, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria has said.
The Bishop, who doubles as President, The Sword of The Spirit Ministries, a.k.a Christ Life Church, spoke in an interview at the precinct of the first Sunday service of new ministerial year of the Church held at the auditorium of the Precious Cornerstone University, Olaogun, Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to him, competence should be the yardstick for electing the next Nigeria President not religious sentiments. He stated that the man for the job should be someone with proven capacity to delivered the nation from the current predicament.
His Grace (the Bishop) said that “Must we continue like this? Singapore and Nigeria became independent around the same time, Singapore has broken into the first world economy.
“Why must one tribe continue to dominate Nigerian politics? We have had an Hausa-Fulani as President, must we have another Hausa-Fulani when an Igbo man has never become president? And we are saying agitation will stop; agitation will never stop.
“Tribal sentiment, nonsense. They have devalued our lives; they devalued the Naira. The highest paid civil servant in Nigeria is taking pittance compared to what is being paid to their counterparts in USA. Must we be recycling old people?
“Injustice is the bedrock of the agitation. If you don’t stop injustice, arresting the people won’t stop the agitation. More agitation will come. Why must one tribe dominate Nigeria and see it as a conquered territory? The injustice is too much, corruption is too high, the evil, the violence; who will deliver Nigeria? That’s the issue and not religious sentiment – if you will treat Muslins and Christians as equal and you will not favour one religion over the other.
“Journalists, tell the truth, when the military were oppressing Nigeria, you led the battle. Some of you were killed. Dele Giwa was killed with parcel bomb. The evil people did that. We want you to speak out against the oppression; the masses are being oppressed. October 20 was the saddest day of my life, they (the youth) were holding rally against police brutality which we are all familiar with. They gathered themselves singing the national anthem and holding national flag, sitting down and you opened fire on them.
“Such party should never come to power in the next 40 years. Should we forget that kind of evil and brutality? Those are the issues we should address beyond sentiments. For me, if you are an Hausa man, it’s good, Fulani man, it’s okay, Igbo, Kanuri, Edo, Ibibio or Yoruba man, provided you stand for justice, equity and all Nigerians should be treated equally.
“Why should Fulani be killing and the President be pretending it is not happening? We should end this nonsense otherwise, let the various federating units go their ways. Why should I be a second class citizen in my own country? No way!”
The Bishop, however, expressed faith that the country could bounce back to glory, saying that “Nigerians should not lose hope, there is a great future ahead of us. We must fight hard. Another opportunity lurks in 2023; your future is in your hands, your voter cards. You sell your vote because of money, you have sold your future and the future of your children from generation to generation. Vote for whoever you know has the capacity to solve the problem of Nigeria irrespective of tribe. There is hope for the future but we have to fight for it; use your vote to deliver Nigeria.”
