MR Olusegun Adeyemi, the Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Kwara, has urged Nigerians to desist from inordinate financial expectations from Christian political office holders.
Adeyemi made the call on Monday in Ilorin while speaking at the public presentation of a book ‘Recipe for Peace and Good Governance’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the book was written by Rev. Cornelius Fawenu, Special Assistant on Religion (Christian Affairs) to Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed.

The NOA director said rather than burden them with unnecessary financial assistance, they should help them to succeed.

“We should help Christian political office holders to live above board so that the electorate can have the moral justification to hold them to account.”
Adeyemi urged politicians to prevent crisis and conflicts by eliminating hate speeches.

According to him, most of the uprisings, tribal wars, religious crises and ethnic clashes Nigeria was experiencing can be traced to intolerance and a series of hate pronouncements, hate speeches, hate conducts and hate actions by leaders and citizens.

“It is quite painful to note that some Nigerians continually fail to recognise the indispensability of the concept of peace, good governance and nation building and the significance of peace to nation building.

“I am convinced that Nigerians, especially at a time like this, must take an oath of preaching peace and permanently stick to our words.”

Ahmed, in his remarks, asked relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state to assess the content of the book with a view to recommending its usage in institutions of higher learning in the state and beyond.

Ahmed, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, expressed confidence that using the book would have a rub-off effect on the present and future administration in the state.

He described the author as one of the government functionaries helping his administration to foster peace among Christians and Muslims in the state.

He said that his administration had promoted good governance, one of the core values espoused in the book and had ensured massive infrastructure development across the length and breadth of the state.

The book reviewer, Pastor Biodun Oyeleye noted that the postulations by the author on the involvement of Christians in politics were strong enough to deal with the problem of perception about Christians and politics.

Oyeleye, a journalist, said that such postulations were capable of ending years in the wilderness of politicking, if applied.

He noted that for Christians to still hold the view that they could engage in politics because it is a dirty game would be a refusal to fulfil the scriptures.

“If we say that politics is dirty, then where is our calling as is indicated by our saviour in the scripture that says “we are the salt of the earth’’? he asked.(NAN)

– Aug. 27, 2018 @ 17:35 GMT |