From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Bishop of Maranatha Chapel International Churches, Rt. Rev’d Olumakinde Alawode, has said the South East should be allowed to produce the president in 2023 in the spirit of equity and balance.
Besides, the cleric also lamented that Leah Sharibu, one of the 110 students of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State, kidnapped on February 19, 2018 by Boko Haram terrorist group, had not be rescued by the Federal Government.
Alawode made the submissions in a 12-point communique he issued to commemorate the 12th anniversary of his consecration and episcopal ordination as a charismatic pentecostal bishop of the denomination, held at the international headquarters of the church at Abayomi, Iwo Road, Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday.
“In less than three years’ time, Nigeria shall go to the polls to elect another president to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians should be politically-minded. We should approach the year with political understanding and a collective will to elect leaders that will be creative, revolutionary, courageous and unstained.
“If we are to follow the ethnicity and regional politics we have been playing for long in this nation, then the South East region of Nigeria should produce the next president in the spirit of equation and balance.
“However, what matters most for Nigeria now is to get a leader of the type of Moses that will take the nation from Egypt’s captivity to the Promised Canaan. Nigeria desperately needs a detribalised, religiously unbiased, revolutionary thinking, new school mentality, technologically-minded leader, whose passion will be to leave a lasting legacy for himself and not personal gains.
“If the South East can produce such a candidate, so be it. But if not, I plead with Nigerians to go for progress in 2023 and not political sentiments. We have suffered enough.”
Alawode, said one of the sentiments that gave the incumbent administration the votes of many Nigerians bordered on the belief that they will bring home Leah and the other Chibok girls.
“My heart bleeds every time I think of Leah Sharibu. I still cannot fathom why Nigeria cannot rescue this girl. I pray for the release of Leah and I am asking our president and Commander-in-Chief to please do the needful.”
The cleric also reiterated his calls for restructuring of the nation into regional governments like it was obtainable before the intervention of the military in the Nigerian government.
“The present entity called Nigeria in its present operations may not achieve the agitations of the people and the dream of a great nation.”