2023 Election: Place National Interest Above Religion, Ethnicity, NNCC Urges
Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Nigeria National Christian Coalition (NNCC) has emphasised on the need for national interest to be placed above parochial interests such as religion and ethnicity.
The convener, Titi Oluwadare, said the church had become a political abyss in Nigeria and lack of unity and tribal sentiments were responsible for her inability to come together and have an honest conversation with the presidential aspirants.
Stressing the suspicious gap already created due to choices already made by the leading political parties, Oluwadare said “the Christians in the Southwest, Southeast and Middle Belt have failed to develop a political interest themselves. The vaccum has left the church a victim. The state of the church has become a political abyss in Nigeria. Lack of unity and tribal interest is responsible for the inability of the church to come together and have an honest conversation.
“Every part of Nigeria must position itself and be seen as equal stakeholders on the negotiation table, adding that coalition is a call on all like minds to engage and call for justice and equity.”
In his speech, the executive director in charge of politics, Uzuka Chukwuemeka, said if the nation can get the right kind of leadership, then it has solved a large chunk of its problems.
He added that if church leaders are made to understand that indeed we are the light, then we can get to where we want to be. The narrative that Christians should not engage in politics because it is dirty has to change. The spiritual and the physical must be harnessed for impartation.
“If we get the right kind of leadership, our prayer points as a people will reduce drastically because we have solved half of our problems as a nation.
“If the country is unstable, then economic activities like every other sector is bound to suffer.
“The time has come for the leadership lapses in the church to be filled. CAN is doing well, but NNCC wants to fill the gap that CAN has not been able to harness and say it as it is. NNCC is bringing in the relationship between the church and politics.
“The church has become so afraid. We possess the power and preach the word and yet are afraid to step out and show what we’ve got.
“Come 2023 election, you must meet the church, or you’ll fail. The leadership must know that life and peace matters and we all will have a nation that we all can be proud of” he said.
