By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday, charged Christians in Nigeria to participate more in politics and make it clean instead of dirty.
The former President gave the charge while speaking at the 57th annual convention and 67th anniversary of The Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFAMINT), held at Gospel City, Ogunmakin, Ogun State
Chief Obasanjo pointed out that the foundation of election in Nigeria is corruption and that with corruption as the foundation, it cannot be good stressing that Christians must stand out among the corruptive tendencies and influences of the world, particularly in politics,
He maintained that there was no basis for politics to be a dirty game, but that those who participated in it makes it dirty, adding that Christian must stand out among corrupt people and bad influencers of the world while participating in politics.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The Roles of the Church in nation building at a Time Like This,” the former President said at a time the country is facing various challenges, church must rise up to the occasion as the salt of the world.
Chief Obasanjo emphasized that as believers, Christians must stick to the values of Christ and ask themselves all the time, saying , ” what will Christ do if He finds himself in the circumstances that I find myself?
Narrating his experience in the1999 elections, Chief Obasanjo said the two first sad and bad experiences during the local government election,where PDP was totally rejected, saying, ” a few days to the election, they said to me where is the money for the police, money for INEC, I said no money for DSS.”
“We went to elections, we did not have one candidate. All our candidates failed, I felt bad. They came to me if I have allowed it do it the way they have been doing it, the results would have been different”, he said
Chief Obasanjo added, “Some days to the state Assembly election, I did not go to any of their meetings. I said I don’t want to be part of this, and I was not. To my surprise, the result of the state assembly election was not different from the local government election. At that time in the Southwest in 1999 PDP was totally rejected no matter what.”
” That was my first experience of the type of corruption and corrupting influence of corruption in politics. The foundation of elections in Nigeria is corruption and you cannot make corruption the foundation of anything for it to be good”
General-Overseer of GOFAMINT, Pastor (Dr) E. O. Abina while speaking recalled his visit to Aso Rock Chapel when Obasanjo was the president during which he met Chief Obasanjo teaching Sunday School, adding, when they both spoke on his arrival at the convention ground, the former president told him to his astonishment that he is still teaching Sunday School.
