Former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba
By PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
Former Senate leader, Senator Ndoma Egba has decried a worrying trend where the Christian clergy in Nigeria are involved in partisan politics and turning their altars to political campaign platforms.
Ndoma Egba said this on Wednesday in Calabar, during the Breakfast Prayer session organized by the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu.
According to Sen. Ndoma-Egba, churches are fast becoming political parties. He recalled the extremely partisan role of some prominent church leaders in the recent Presidential election held two Saturdays ago.
He further referred to the recent purported endorsement of a gubernatorial candidate of one of the parties in Cross River State by a faction of the State chapter of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) as another untoward development that has dragged the church into the murky waters of partisan politics.
The Senator reminded the audience that all men are equal before God and that should translate to equality of political aspirations. He then wondered why the clergy, who should be God’s messengers, are the ones actively promoting division and disunity amongst God’s people by using the church as campaign platforms for a select few.
Ndoma-Egba further bemoaned the fact that the opposition candidate has resorted to the destructive politics of ethnicity and religion as the anchor points of his campaign. He pointed out the irony in the fact that the same person championing ethnic and religious sentiments today was amongst those who fought the ugly development of Atam Congress, an ethnic campaign by disgruntled politicians from the Central and Northern Senatorial Districts between 1999-2003, when Governor Donald Duke was leading the State.
Also speaking at the event which was attended by a wide array of the clergy in Cross River State, the APC candidate, Sen. Bassey Otu reiterated the fact that he is running the election on his established and incontrovertible record of service to the people.
Sen. Otu restated that it is only those who do not have anything to offer that are resorting to ethnicity and religion to create division.
He thanked the clergy for their overwhelming presence in the event as well as their godly admonitions as custodians of the State’s spiritual wellbeing. He promised to be a servant leader to all Cross Riverians no matter their tribe or religion.
In his remarks during the event, Bishop Emmah Isong, the General Overseer of the Christian Central Chapel International and the National Publicity Secretary of PFN preached on the need for the clergy to be circumspect with getting too involved in partisan politics.
He prayed for the Holy Spirit to grant the clergy the power of discernment, tolerance and commitment to the general good of the people.
