Recently, the Rivers State chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PEN) addressed a press conference in Port Harcourt to inform the public of some of the activities of the group in Rivers State, especially.
Among others, one of the key disclosures made by the state Chairman of the PFN, Rev (Dr) Minaibi Dagogo-Jack was the organisation’s preparation towards playing active roles in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
At that occasion, Rev. Dagogo-Jack declared that the Christian organisation had started the process of sensitising and mobilising its members to be actively involved in the political activities that will culrninate in the general polls next year. To this end, he said the PFN had, in fact, set up a Directorate of Poliltics and Good Governance to organise and coordinate activities that would educate and encourage members to engage in partisan politics at all levels and in all ramifications.
Discussing this development and other trending issues in the polity in an exclusive chat with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt earlier in the week, the leader of the Pentecostal group in Rivers State said the move by his organisation was informed by the need to enthrone righteousness in the society, emphasising that the political class in the country had largely failed the citizenry.
He said the situation where the church remained detached from the process through which political parties selected candidates for elective positions could no longer be allowed to subsist, arguing that several times, the quality of candidates emanating from the party primaries were not good enough.
“Before now, the church had been so far from real politics and the church would wait until the political parties had selected their flabearers and then we start praying to God,’’ he said, adding that praying when the decision had been made was defective in that sometimes it would mean asking God to make a choice among all bad alternatives.
Dagogo-Jack said, ‘’ I think if parties A,B,C had chosen their flagbearers and you start praying, if for instance, they all chose monkeys, it means one of the monkeys will emerge. So, what we are saying is that we should be involved in the process of selecting flagbearers of the parties. We must also be genuinely involved in the entire electioneering process.’’
According to the state PFN boss, who was one time governorship candidate of Fresh Democratic Party in the state, Christian politicians have no choice but to take up membership of any of the existing political parties in the country since the Constitution empowers only political parties to present candidates for an election in Nigeria.
The clergyman said he was convinced that the social political and economic woes of the country could not be resolved until righteous people ascended the throne of leadership at all levels in the country. He called on true Christians to take on the challenge of rescuing the nation from lurking disaster by getting registered in political parties and also putting themselves up for election into positions of power and authority.
“I’ still called on the Christian body, particularly those under my superintendentship to go get themselves registered, get their Permanent Voter Cards and also be involved in partisan politics. The constitution requires that you must belong to a political party before you can be elected,’’ he admonished , reiterating that the present generally bleak and gloomy atmosphere in the country presents a golden opportunity for Christians to demons trate their identity as light and salt of the world.
“After prayer, prayer and prayer, we must partake in politics,’’ he insisted, submitting that it was erroneous for Christians to continue to think of politics as a dirty game and therefore should be left for less decent and dignified persons.
According to the Christian leader, from the conceptual stage, politics was meant for decent characters and people of honour, pointing out that even the Nigerian constitution envisions only clean people will be involved in politics when it bars convicts and such others of questionable character from contesting or occupying sensitive public offices.
“ So if you think that because we are church leaders and therefore we should not be involved in politics, you are making a big mistake.
‘’ Thank God that one of our prayers has been answered, that is the deployment of electronic devices in the electoral process. We believe that if we mobilize our people and tell them to vote party A or candidate B and they move, it will show the politicians that the church is out for something. 85per cent of Nigerian politicians don’t have the fear of God in them and therefore treat the people with so much disdain. There must be change and we are ready for that,’’ he said.
When reminded that the country had not fared significantly better even when Christians had been in power, the clergyman retorted that a Christian may not necessarily be a righteous person and that only righteous people could effect the desired turn around in the fortunes of the nation.
“ A man may be a Christian but not a righteous man. It is only by righteoness that the nation can be exalted. We will look for the righteous people and the church will point hands at them. At the end of the day, the church will look at those who emerged and point hands at the righteous ones.
“We believe that if an environment is dirty, it will take a righteous man to clean it up. In a great house, there are vessels of honour and vessels of dishonor. The vessels of honour are the carriers of righteousness and those are the ones we will direct our members to,’’ he maintained.
Asked if the PFN was going to form a political party or already has a particular political party it would support and therefore direct its members to go and register in, Dagog-Jack said ‘’ There are existing political parties right now and we have asked our members to join any one of their choice. We’re asking them to join in the process leading up to selection of candidates and at the end of the day, we will see who and who have emerged and we will look out for the spirit of righteousness in them and then make our choice. However, the formation and registration of a political party is a good thinking but we have not started anything in that direction.’’
On his outlook towards the 2023 general elections, the religious leader expressed optimism that 2023 holds better and brighter prospects in the country’s electoral history and urged Nigerians, especially the political class to brace up for a rude shock.
“What I see is that God will shock the people. God will shock Nigerians in 2023,’’ he said, explaining that just as God surprised the world in the way the COVID-19 pandemic affected the developed countries more severely than the less privileged countries with weaker and more vulnerable health systems, He will greatly disappoint the powerful and entrenched politicians in the country.
“Some people think that they have the political power, the political where withal, the political strength and money, they will be disappointed,’’ he said while expressing the view that the 2022 Electoral Act will make a lot of difference in our electoral system.
“ Number two, a lot of things are not going to be the same in 2023 with the deployment of technology in the election process. Rigging is going to be minimised, if not eliminated. Issues of over bloated results, ghost names in the voters register and sundry irregularities like thuggery, ballot box snatching and ballot box stuffing will be eliminated.
“ Under the new law, political parties have as much as six months instead of the previous three months to canvass for votes. This is ample time for parties to take their campaigns to all the nooks and crannies of the country. We therefore expect that the result that will come can be said to be a result that truly reflects the wishes of the people, especially with the electronic transmission of results from the polling units. So, I think there will be a great difference in our electoral system in 2023,’ he said.
“Our national leaders have decided and I speak only their decision here, that the next president of Nigeria must come from the South. That is the position of PFN all over the world, the state Christian leader said emphatically.
He said members of his body will also not be kindly disposed to a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election while they are whole heartedly out for a Christian as president.
“Our brothers, the Muslims,through Muhammadu Buhari, have produced the President covering eight years. For justice and fairness sake, we the christians are asking for a Christian President this time around. That is what we stand for and we have not moved from that stand,’’ the Charistian clergy man said.
On whether he himself was interested in any elective office come 2023, the one time gubernatorial flagbearer said he had no such plans but that his organization would encourage, support and assist its members who cared to contest for office at any level.
“ PFN can’t sponsor any candidate. That is for only political parties to do . However, PFN can assist in their prayers and also assist in directing our people to vote a candidate. You say endorse, I say we will point our hands at particular candidates for our people to vote. This is what we will do,’’he said, claiming that a research indicates that the Pentecostals are as much as 65million and they are prepared to delploy that strength to good advantage in the 2023 general elections.

By: Opaka Dokubo