Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the foundation of elections in Nigeria is corruption, while calling on Christians to participate in politics to make it clean.
Obasanjo, while speaking at the Gospel Faith Mission convention today, 12th August 2023, as a guest speaker, on the theme the role of the church in nation-building at a time like this.
Speaking on the theme, ‘The roles of the church in nation building at a time like this,’ the former president, who congratulated the church on the successful hosting of the convention, said Christians must stand out among the corruptive tendencies and influences of the world, particularly in politics.
”The foundation of election in Nigeria is corruption and you cannot make corruption the foundation of anything for it to be good”.
He told the audience that as believers, they must stick to the values of Christ and ask themselves all the time, ‘What will Christ do if He finds himself in the circumstances that I find myself in?’
He said at a time like this in the country, when there is insecurity, hopelessness, poverty, depression, a time that is not conducive to living, the church must rise to the occasion as the salt of the world.
“We are in the world, yet we are not of the world. We are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. We are to be like Jesus who, when He was in the world, did not belong to the world,” Obasanjo told the congregants.
He urged the church to demand justice, fairness and equity in the country’s social, political and economic aspects.
Speaking further, he said, “Food without salt is stale. The church is meant to flavour it’s environment. A church that cannot play its role has lost its saltiness. Christ has chosen us to bring forth fruits and that our fruits should abide.”
He described the task of nation-building as endless, a journey and not a destination, as he tasked believers to stand out and remain exemplary anywhere they are.
Above all, Obasanjo admonished Christians to bear the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
“Living in the world is not a bed of roses. Christ had told us there will be tribulations and hardships so that we can prepare ahead and just as he came out as a conqueror, we also will come out as conquerors,” he concluded.
Earlier, in his welcome speech, the General Overseer of GOFAMINT, Pastor (Dr) E. O. Abina, had recalled that during a visit to Aso Rock Chapel when Obasanjo was president, he met him teaching Sunday School, adding that 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.
While sighting the 1999 elections, he said the two first sad and bad experiences he had were during the local government election,were PDP was totally rejected
“‘The two first sad and bad experiences that I had, we had local govt election in 1999.”
A few days to the election, they said to me where is the money for the police, money for INEC, I said no money , money for DSS”.
Obasanjo noted he did not make money availble because he felt all goverment agencies should have been paid towards discharging their duties.
”We went to elections, we did not have one candidate, all our candidates failed, it felt bad”.
”They came to me if you have allowed us do it the way we have been doing it, the results would have been different”.
”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”
