Nigeria Will Survive The Presidential Poll – Pastor Okotie

Household of God Church Founder and head pastor Rev. Chris Okotie, has condemned those who threaten “to set the nation on fire” should their candidate lose the oncoming presidential poll.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Thursday, Okotie, a two-time presidential candidate, said the election

 “Should never be regarded as a referendum on the corporate survival of Nigeria.”

He said the country’s oneness was settled during the Civil War; and that the next election would not break the country, just as past critical political upheavals that challenged its unity, including the aborted June 12, 1993 presidential election and the subsequent death of winner of the historic poll, Chief Moshood Abiola, could not disintegrate it.

The cleric, who insisted that the country’s “unity was purchased at a high price,” described the past ethnic crises, including the civil war, as sibling rivalries. Hence, he said, they were resolved internally without “violent separation.”

The fact that no group tabled secession for discussion at last year’s National Conference, he argued, was an indication that Nigerians had agreed to put past differences behind them and forge ahead under the same national government.

“Clearly, it showed that the blood shed by our compatriots in Biafra was not in vain… But up till now, the wound has not fully healed. That is why we should not stir ethnic and religious hatred for cheap political advantage in these elections,” Okotie warned.

He, however, expressed concern at the degree of bitterness that marks the on-going campaigns, which, he said, “is polluting the political environment.” The situation, according to him, is robbing the polity of the benefits of a maturing political system.

He likened the country’s politics to the Super Eagles that is perpetually “rebuilding.” If the country remained at a learning stage after 16 years of unbroken democracy, he asked, when would it catch up with Indonesia, Chile, India, Brazil and other developing countries that have “continued to transit seamlessly to the admiration of the world?”

Whereas the tumbling economy should have been the issue, the cleric lamented that the leading candidates had resorted to “repulsive, hate-driven advertisements that dehumanise opponents and assassinate character.”

He says, “Our sensibilities are assaulted, while our morality has been brought to a new level of denigration. This, certainly, is not the politics Nigeria deserves after going through a harrowing 24-year military rule and experiencing a 30-month civil war and the June 12 annulment crisis.”

Okotie called on politicians to take a cue from the America culture where, for instance, a winner hosts opponents to a post-election dinner. He regretted that Nigeria imported American political model but ignored the spirit of its democracy.

He wondered why the contestants had adopted a do-or-die tactics in an election of which the ultimate winner should be Nigeria.

“The first three democratic projects failed abysmally because of immaturity on the part of our key players and the refusal of an ambitious military to allow the democracy to grow at its pace.

“Although credit must be given to the armed forces for holding the country together after a terrible civil war, part of the sad legacy of that tragedy is the militarisation of our polity. But I dare say, that is not an excuse not to up the ante in the current process,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Kaduna State governorship candidate and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai, on Thursday, condemned Vice President Namadi Sambo for allegedly making divisive utterances at recent campaign rallies.

He said Sambo might not know “his Fatiha of the Quran well but knows how to use religion to stir acrimony.”

El-Rufai stressed on Twitter that he was committed to building peaceful coexistence among the diverse ethnic groups in Kaduna State and beyond.

President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has also reiterated his commitment to conducting a peaceful and successful election.

In a tweet by his Special Assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri, on Thursday, Jonathan stressed that the presidential election would be conducted successfully, while a new administration would, certainly, emerge on May 29.

He had said that he would hand over to the winner if loses at the crucial poll.