The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has said that there is a hidden agenda behind the Muslim-Muslim presidential choice of the All Progressive Congress (APC), noting that such a choice will harm the country.
In this interview with LAWRENCE ENYOGHASU, Ayodele said none of the three most popular presidential candidates has the capacity to rescue Nigeria from the doldrums. He also spoke on a number of issues.
Nigeria will hold general elections next year. How will the presidential election be?
None of the three major presidential candidates – Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, can make Nigeria move forward. It is so because people with the ability are not selected due to the Nigerian political system, Nigeria will still be stagnant. None of them can get a genuine victory. We cannot get that MKO Abiola kind of victory anymore. Any candidate that wins will still be the same story but God must give us a leader as was in the case during the days of Saul in the Bible. 2023 cannot help Nigeria; there will still be corruption and insecurity.
There is a need to solve this problem urgently. It is either true federalism or every region stands on its own. The country needs a lot of prayers because in the coming months, some states will not perform as activities will no longer take place and leaders will be confused. Nigeria needs prayers not to lose any one-time ambassador. APC chairman and his board will have issues among others and the party will strategize in so many ways to win the coming election at all costs but I foresee there will be differences that will divide the party from victory if the party officials are not very careful. Let the party pray not to lose any present chairman either state chairman or former chairman.
PDP should pray not to lose any chairman either present or past.
APC must be careful because the chairman will be faulted and the chairman will face so many challenges. He will be worried about the party and will take steps to achieve success for the party but no matter what, there will be contradictions. The party will plan to rig. APC and PDP will plan to rig. Unless Nigerians shun money for votes, Nigeria will not get the right president because of the level of poverty. Nigeria will still be backward until Nigerians reject voting for the sake of money and in 2023 there will be many special fraudulent acts by both leading parties, and card readers problems. Apart from this, let us rebuke violence in election 2023 not PDP or APC will make Nigeria better unless we get the right people.
The outcome of the coming election in 2023 will surprise so many people. If Tinubu forces himself to be president, Nigeria will collapse and he will not be able to manage the country as expected and set the country on a better pedestal. Tinubu and Atiku cannot take Nigeria to a glorious land as revealed by the spirit of the Lord. It is Atiku who will win the election if there is no rigging.
How about Peter Obi? Does he have any chance?
Unless he takes proper precautions, otherwise the third force of Peter Obi will not see the light of the day. If he does, the Labour Party would shock us all. I am waiting for another 60 days to know the final fate of Peter Obi and the Labour party.
Is there hope that any of these candidates would restructure Nigeria?
None of these candidates can restructure Nigeria. Not Atiku Abubakar or Bola Tinubu. Peter Obi may try, but the rest cannot because restructuring will calm down issues. The legislature in Nigeria at the Federal level, that is the House of Representatives and the Senate will put in place structures that will see to the amendment of our constitution even as they will consider bills sent to the House for deliberations on merit. The legislature will encourage dialogue against warfare. The Spirit of God says Nigeria needs a lot of prayers for the year 2023 general elections. The country needs prayers because there will be a crisis in the oil-producing states in the sense that they will fight some oil companies for not paying their dues to the people of the oil-producing communities. Nevertheless, the oil companies and the host communities will fight and this will affect oil exploration, which will cause the shutdown of some oil companies. So many things will happen in terms of security, as well as political and economic positions in Nigeria. There will be loopholes in the management of security issues in the country. Some governors will not use their deputies for the second term bid or support their deputies to become the governor after their terms and they will call for change. The Nigerian government will make a lot of money from liquefied natural gas and other petroleum products. In the foreign trades, Nigeria will make money but will still be in debt, which will be affecting the country economically. The Nigerian government will approve more universities and they will also scale down the activities in some universities. They will make so many mistakes that they will shoot themselves in the leg. The Easterners will be confused and they will not be relevant in the politics of the day. Also, there will be lots that will happen. Let us pray because they will play the politics against themselves. The South East needs to be careful.
What is the fate of PDP as the crisis continues?
PDP should watch out because the crisis can affect its future. It will tell on their fortunes. If they don’t sort out the crisis before the end of this year, they are in trouble. It will breed failure for them, even as they seem to be the most favoured among the three major contenders. So, they must be very careful and look at things by themselves. They need to humble themselves. If they want to win, let them agree but if not, they can continue. They will lose and be a forgotten party for life.
Governor Wike of Rivers State has been at loggerheads with the party chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu…
If he destroys PDP, he will suffer it as well. He should forget about cross carpeting. Wike himself needs political cleansing. If he does not sort out himself, the crisis might swallow him. He should sort things out with Okowa who is his brother from the same region. I don’t know why they are at loggerheads; there is no permanent enemy in politics. They should talk like brothers. They are the next generation of leaders from the South-South and it is expected of them to put the region first if they know the true meaning of leadership. They should shun all personal interests. Instead, their party will pay for it
As a man of God, do you see anything wrong with the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of APC?
The Muslim-Muslim ticket is a ploy to Islamise Nigeria. APC wants to colonise Nigeria. They want to put Nigeria in chains. Using a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a disaster for the party. It is a failure for the party. Nigeria will regret it if they chose to toe that line. The race is the race of corrupt politicians. We do not see anything meaningful with the same faith ticket. It is a religious issue. It is insensible of them to choose the same faith ticket in a country where you have millions of Christians. It is embarrassing and ridiculous. They should have pretended to respect the Christians. There have been countless injustices against the Christians in the country that the government overlooked and they brought this one to rob it in our face. Even a good Muslim does not want the same faith ticket proposed by the APC. They have taken Christians for granted.
But we have had the same faith ticket over the years without any problem. What has changed now?
The world has totally changed. You can’t compare the then economic situation of the country to now. The security situation is not as bad as this. The same faith ticket is an embarrassment to Christendom. It is worrisome. I am shocked when I hear top pastors saying that they don’t see anything wrong with it. Those pastors, who support the same faith ticket, are a shame to their faith. They are a disgrace to the throne of grace. This shows that the Christians do not have a say in the present government and the next one. I don’t need anybody to agree with me but I promised everyone that if APC wins, we would all suffer after two years.
How can the election hold in spite of these unending security challenges?
Buhari must change the entire security outfit now. He needs to do that now because terrorists have taken over Nigeria. They have shown that they can’t handle the bandits and new hands are needed.
How about the ASUU strike, can it affect the general elections?
If APC continues this way, the party would be in trouble. Voting again for the party will sink Nigeria. It is now up to the lecturers to do their job diligently. APC didn’t get it right with the lecturers. It will harm them if they don’t do anything to it. How do you expect a man to still help you get into power after you have starved him and his colleagues for six months? The party should have ended the strike for the sake of the students. APC should have considered the students before allowing the strike to continue. The students have a bleak future. They don’t have faith in the government because it has taken away their hope. APC does not have compassion for the people. The masses are in pain because most of the students can’t afford private schools. A boy that is supposed to graduate at the age of 23 will now graduate at 26. In the end, he will look for a job with the government that can employ only 23-year olds. Meanwhile, it was the same government that took three years of his life. The continuation of the ASUU strike is the end of APC. It is quite unfortunate that they are suffering the students and the lecturers. It does not make any sense. I am talking not as a politician but as a man of God.