The president and founder of Christ Life Churches worldwide under the umbrella of The Sword of The Spirit Ministries, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, spoke to select journalists on the state of the nation. Assistant Editor, Sam Anokam, was also present at the briefing.
Oke
What are your thoughts on the just concluded presidential election?
Election that just held was a watershed in the history of this nation. A lot of things happened. It’s the first time an opposition will win a credible elections over an entrenched, established party. It is the first time a loser in the presidential election of Nigeria will swiftly call the opponent who won to congratulate him. Those two things are very significant. I want to congratulate Nigeria. Nigeria has won. It’s victory for everyone of us – east, west, north, south. Before the election, we were praying and our prayer point among other things was that there will be no violence before, during and after the elections. It was a strong point of prayer. And we give glory to God that He answered our prayers. There was nothing really major and God answered our prayers. We give Him all the praise and glory. God has told us how the elections will go very clearly and we communicated it to the leadership of the church in Nigeria and exactly what God said is what happened and we returned all glory to Him. We once again congratulate Nigerians that we have won. There was no post election violence and the nation has moved on.
I want to celebrate Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The man has won. What the man won was more than another term. The man has written his name in gold in the annals of Nigeria’s history. The man has done what no other president or head of state had done. The singular act of congratulating the opponent has saved thousands of lives that would have been dead by now, for some people were ready for violence; to unleash mayhem on this nation but the fact that he called, conceded to the opponent and congratulated Buhari killed the fire. In that regards, Jonathan is a winner for all time and we celebrate him and thank God for his life. My prayer is that the Lord will give him long life so he can reap the fruit of that singular act. All over the world now, Nigeria is been celebrated as coming of age in democracy and it is that singular act of Dr. Jonathan. The whole world was apprehensive expecting mayhem, breakdown of law and order but nothing like that happened because of that singular act. I celebrate him.
I want to also congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari who as a dogged fighter. He refused to give up. He tried it the first time, second and third time and still refused to give up because he has a passion for Nigeria. Your Excellency, I congratulate you and we pray that the Lord will give you long life to rule, to lead Nigeria to a new dispensation. And I want to give an advice to every Nigerian. Let us follow in the example that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has set. Let’s rally round General Buhari and his administration and join hands to build one indivisible united nation. Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, Edo, Isoko, everybody, lets come together. The time of politicking is over. The time of unity has come. We have chosen our person.
And the gubernatorial candidates that will be going to the polls on Saturday, lets follow the example of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. This man has become a reference point. He has demonstrated to us that politics is not a do or die affair. He has demonstrated to us that the unity and peace of Nigeria, is paramount and more important than the ambition of one person. Let’s play the game according to the rules. If you lose on Saturday, don’t burn the State. Don’t set the state against each other. Pick the telephone, follow the example of Dr. Jonathan and call your opponent who won and congratulate him. If you win, don’t have an attitude of winner take all. Reach out your hands in fellowship. I was reading the paper today and it says that General Buhari will be going to visit President Jonathan in the villa. That is how it should be. That’s statesmanship and good sportsmanship. And that is what we want to see at the state level. We don’t want any breakdown of law and order. We don’t want any burning of houses, killing of people. Your ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Please let the election be very peaceful and we know that God will really help us.
To our General who has won, by the mercy of God, you didn’t get it by your power, it is God that gives power and God has chosen you so that you can father the whole nation. Bring everybody together, east, west, north, south and father the nation. Reach out more than you reached out during the electioneering campaign, so that we will bring the whole nation together to be one united nation. Your Excellency, you are not elected the president of the south, west , north or east, I don’t need to remind you of that, you are elected the president of Nigeria. We want to counsel that you should deal decisively with the Boko Haram insurgents and get them out of that place and secure Nigeria. Let us deal decisively with corruption. Righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people. It shouldn’t be business as usual. Let’s deal decisively in the matters of the economy particularly the fall of the naira. Let us deal with infrastructure, particularly the provision of power. We would be praying, the church of Christ will be praying. General Buhari should never think that the church in Nigeria is against him. The church is not against you. There are people in the church who were told that General Buhari was going to Islamise Nigeria and they believed it and they have reasons to be afraid because of Boko Haram insurgency. But we assured them that, that is not going to be the case and we know he will not. The church is standing by you. Politicking is over. Let us build our nation that has a glorious tomorrow. God bless Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan our beloved president, God bless General Muhammadu Buhari, our president elect, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Let me take you back, prior to the presidential election, there were a lot of people who believed that the body of Christ was compromised during the campaigns, were you disturbed that the body of Christ was compromised?
The matter is this; politics naturally is a divisive game. It divides families. There could be two brothers of the same mother and they are bitterly against each other, that is politics for you. All of that happened, not just with the church but every sector of the nation. What we are now saying is that the time has come for us to heal the wounds together and forge ahead. It is not for me to be complaining on the pages of newspaper about what happened with the church. By the grace of God, I am one of the key leaders in the church and I have a voice among my brethren, so we know how we talk to ourselves when we talk to ourselves. We are coming together, we learn from our mistake and we move forward together as one body of Christ in Nigeria.
Prof. Yemi Oshinbajo is the Vice-President elect and he is a pastor, what is the difference between church and politics?
In electioneering campaigns, people will say things. There is nothing that stops a child of God from going into politics. He is not going to be the first pastor to go into politics. There is another prominent pastor in Lagos who is into politics. Everyman to his own calling. If God calls you and I believe, he believes God has called him to play that role and God has vindicated him that He called him by giving him the opportunity to become the vice president elect. So let everyman operate according to the call of God in his life. Like me, the office of the president of the federation is not appealing to me. The office of the vice president, honourable minister, senator, among others does not appeal to me because God didn’t call me to it but I would be wrong to point accusing finger to somebody else who believes God called him to it. So let everyman abide by his calling. I believe God is going to use you. If we say politics is a dirty game, it will continue to be dirty. We need Christians that are upright, that can withstand temptation that when you see money you won t shake, you won’t compromise. And we will be praying for Oshinbajo that the Lord will sustain him, that he will make a real difference when he gets to power.
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