2023: Christian leaders plan to meet presidential aspirants

The Punch reports that plans have reached an advanced stage for the summit that will allow the religion leaders to meet with the politicians ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Why this is important: The group has identified the proposed parley as the platform that would bring the church and the presidential aspirants together for an engagement to spell out the interest of Christians and negotiate the inclusion of the church in the Nigerian project.

The body noted that, “Come the 2023 election, you must meet the church, or you’ll fail. The leadership must know that life and peace matter and we all will have a nation that we all can be proud of.”

What does this mean?: The meeting, which has been scheduled for September 20, 2022, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, would enable the Christian leaders negotiate on behalf of Christians in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the convener of NNCC, Titi Oluwadare, during a press conference on Friday, September 9, 2022.

Tagged “Meet The Church Summit”, Oluwadare warned that any politician who fails to meet the church "would fail in 2023", adding that Christians can no longer be spectators in the country.

In what looks like a reference to the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s decision to go with its Muslim-Muslim ticket despite the national outcry, the convener said the imbalance must be corrected to prevent the country from tipping over the precipice.

Oluwadare's word: “The church is now awake and we are ready to constructively engage with other stakeholders in the Nigeria project. We are discussing with people of all faith, tribe and tongue in a bid for peace, national healing as well as national rebirth.

“Across the political system of Nigeria, there are three key interests and focal areas. These are the Christians, the Muslims, and the Tribal interests. The Muslims in Nigeria have effectively translated their Interests into ideas and political strategies and policies.

“The reality is that interests need to be harmonised, pursued, and transplanted or transformed to Politics, Ideas and Ideologies before strategic engagement and policies can evolve positively from there. Muslims have done this effectively Christians have not even started.

“The tribal interests have also been harmonised across Nigeria. We have Biafra, the Arewa and the Oduduwa interests politically. These interests erroneously has buried the National interest and identity and are causing Division amongst the youth because tribal interests have been superimposed as the main and exalted interest above National interest and identity.

“We are also saying we will no longer be ignored, used and dumped, manipulated as a block, enslaved, dictated to and disregarded.

“The NNCC recognises however that until the church engages and brings forth her interests and drives it into ideas and fashions out political strategy, the system will not be sanitised, neither can we play the role of responsible citizens who engage to turn around the tides in the favour of the common man, or who even engage to level the playing ground in our Nation and act as a voice of reason to check the excesses of other interests represented in the dynamics of political power in Nigeria.

“Therefore if this continues Nigeria will continue in the circle of retrogression, impunity and lack of accountability in the nation and the situation will continue to deteriorate even further.

“If church leaders are made to understand that indeed we are the light, then we can get to where we want to be. The narrative that Christians should not engage in politics because it is dirty has to change. The spiritual and the physical must be harnessed for impartation

“If we get the right kind of leadership, our prayer points as a people will reduce drastically because we have solved half of our problems as a nation.”