General Election: CAN President, Pastor Enenche, others task electorates to vote credible leaders

AHEAD of this year’s general election, Christian religious leaders have called on electorates to ensure they vote for candidates who they are convinced would not represent their selfish interest, but represent the interest of the generality of Nigerians government.

Speaking at the sideline of the Prayer for 2019 Elections and the Release of Captives, organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the religious leaders cautioned the politicians not to see the election as a do or die affair.

The CAN President, Reverend Dr Samson Ayokunle said urged the youths to use their Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) to vote for leaders that would create jobs for them, not the leaders that would use them as thugs in elections.

“The INEC data shows that youths are more among the people that registered, and that is good news for Nigeria, the old order is passing away and the new Nigeria must emerge.

“I want the youths to make golden use of the opportunity that they have, by not voting for religious sentiment, by not voting for ethnic sentiment and by not voting for any mundane consideration, but voting according to their consciences, credible leaders, task-oriented leaders, people that will give them future by providing jobs for them, enabling environment for them to thrive as the youths in other countries are thriving.

“Don’t vote for people that will be doling out peanuts to you, and you will be a political servant forever, and you will be thugs, when you are a thug, you are under slavery and oppression forever, you are an appendage to another person, so don’t allow anyone to use you as a tool to destroy your own future.

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“We want a Nigeria that is credible, we want a Nigeria where you can exercise your God-given gifts, we want a Nigeria that many outside Nigeria will want to come to and experience the God of prosperity, and that cannot happen except we vote in the right people, task-oriented leaders who will harness all our resources and give us hope and give us rest of mind.

“Many of the youths who are used for violence is because they are idle if they are occupied if they are managers in organisations, nobody will ask them to fight another person, they won’t have time for such thing.”

The Senior Pastor of the Dunamis Church International, Pastor Paul Enenche cautioned politicians not to see the election as a do or die affair. He said a leader does not impose respect on the people, instead, he earns it.

His words: “We are very passionate about Nigeria because we are passing through a very terrible time of travail, unnecessary bloodshed, unnecessary tension, unnecessary suffering, and we are face to face with another season.

“What we want to say to Nigerians especially the political class is to be conscious of the fact that one day, everybody will stand before God to give the account of their lives to Go, everybody who is at the leadership position, whether as President, Governor, Local Government Chairman, members House of Representative, members Houses of Assembly, Senators, we will all one day stand before the face of our maker, to give the account of our lives, what we did with the state treasury, what we did with the welfare of the populace, what we did in terms of infrastructural Development, the number of innocent lives that were wasted under our watch, how we contributed to it, what we did or failed to do in order to make life comfortable for the people, we shall be accountable for that.

“Let us also know that this thing (election) is not a do or die affair, respect is not forced, it is earned, leadership is not something that is forced on the people, it is something that is earned by the respect the of the people, and a leader is a person who has a vision, knows where he is going and he is taking people along, a leader is somebody who has integrity, he has character, he can be trusted, a leader is somebody who as a heart for the people, he has a welfare heart a leader is a person who has the people are heart and that is what is most important. Our tragedy is that we have a lot of people who have no vision for leadership, they don’t know what leadership is all about, they have no heart for somebody, it doesn’t matter who is killed in wasted, we have a lot of people who have zero integrity, lies, deception at the highest level.”

Addressing the electorates, Pastor Enenche said “Don’t allow yourself to be used in order to fulfil the selfish ambition of anybody, you don’t need to waste your life and wast your blood as a thug, don’t allow yourself to be bought as a buyable commodity, just a little amount of money, you give out your PVC of your vote, refuse to do that, don’t waste your life for anybody who doesn’t care about your existence, ensure you vote people you are convinced of a cross party lines, across religious lines, anybody you know that is worthy of position, go ahead and vote for him.”

The Chairman of Pentecostal Bishop Forum of Northern Nigeria, Archbishop John Praise Daniel said “I want to say that it’s not power, by all means, it is God that raises up one and puts down another, it has to be what God does, promotion does not come from the West or from the East or the South, but God is the judge, he raises one and puts down another, so it’s not power, by all means, is power by all of God, if a god does not give you a position, don’t fight for it, don’t kill to get into position, because if you kill to get into position, you might have to kill to remain in power.
So I advise that politicians should know that we must play the game of politics and play it right.

“The electorates should use their PVCs, prayer alone is not enough, we must go out and vote, and we must vote for worthy leaders, we must vote people that love this nation, not people that will steal our money corrupt the generality of the polity, we must vote for worthy leaders, leaders that show that they love this nation.”