Dateline was Tuesday, 6th April, 2021. The event was the annual convention of the Victory Life Bible Church (VLBC) Themed " The Verdict " hosted by Apostle Lawrence and Reverend Fola Achudume.
The President , Christian Association of Nigeria, Revered Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle was the guest speaker at the special seminar put together as part of the weeklong event.
Reverend Ayokunle in an explosive lecture entitled "The State of The Nation and The Church: The way Forward" , delivered to the large audience at the expansive auditorium of Victory Life Bible Church, Victory City Ajebo road lamented the rot that is the Nigerian system saying
" No nation can rise beyond the quality of her leaders, no matter how richly blessed"
According to the man of God, Nigeria is blessed in terms of human and material resources , but the country is where it is due to poor leadership which is a problem of successive administration.
For Reverend Ayokunle , the problems of Nigeria to an ordinary eye due to the myriads of challenges confronting the nation is beyond redemption, but to the people of God , it is not intractable, especially " if the political leaders are ready to change their mindset" .
Also, the country handlers must consider a complete overhaul of the system as well as a complete review of the nation's constitution as a precondition to moving forward.
Taking a look at the challenges currently confronting the nation, the man of God posited "The number one and most potent challenge threatening our existence is insecurity"
These as he said , include the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, killings , kidnapping , maiming and all other forms of criminalities that seem to have overwhelmed our security forces as well as defying all known solutions .
The nation has been unable to bring the problems under control due to what he called "in-efficient government and government institutions and an administration that has soft spots for them"
To buttress this point, he raised the rhetorical question, why has the government refused to apprehend the criminals and make them to face the music ?
Reverend Ayokunle contended that the solution lies in government doing the right thing and strives as much as possible to curb the importation of illegal arms and by investigating the sources of illegal weapons as well as taking serious actions.
Part of the problems according to him is poor intelligence gathering.
"Our security operatives are only doing damage control, while the criminals are exhibiting more sophistication and professionalism in arms tactics than our so called security personnel"
For instance , he wondered why it is difficult for the government and the security operatives to deploy technology in fighting the hydra-headed problems of insecurity, when it is obvious that the nation is not lacking in security infrastructure.
Speaking in favour of state police , the man of God suggested that each state must have state police as done in Federal democracies all over the world to effectively deal with the problem.
Above all, he believes the Church has a lot of role to play to bring about the best for the nation.
On the role of the Church in all of these contraptions, Reverend Ayokunle said
" the role of the Church is to shine as light in the darkness of this world".
He said, Christians must speak out against evils and tries to make a difference."We must be the change that we want to see in the world"
He challenged christians and members of the body of Christ not to leave the affairs of the nation in the hands of unbelievers, if they really and truly desire a change.
To him, it is no longer acceptable for Christians to shy away from politics and leave the act of governance solely to unbelievers .
" If you have political calling, it is time to explore, but you must make the difference", he contended.
" Christians can not continue to seat on the fence and expect things to work. We can not afford to be indifferent. We have to start by obtaining our voters card and joining local politics"
Accordingly, he said
" Politics will be a holy thing if the holy people enters into it"
Speaking on the political equation in the county, Reverend Ayokunle said there should be rotation of power among the different sets of people that makes up a state for instance.
"A situation that encourages dominance representation by a particular ethnic group should be discouraged. Everyone must have equal rights and equal shot at leadership.The position of the President should rotate among the six geo-political zones, while the position of a state Governor must also rotate among the different geographical or political entities. That is what is called home - grown democracy ", he said
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