2015 POLLS: Nigeria will scale presidential poll –Pastor Okotie

Founder and head pastor of the Household of God Church, Rev. Chris
Okotie, has condemned those who threaten "to set the nation on fire"
should their candidate lose the oncoming presidential poll.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Thursday, Okotie, a
two-time presidential candidate, said the election "should never be
regarded as a referendum on the corporate survival of Nigeria."
He said the country's oneness was settled during the Civil War; and
that the next election would not break the country, just as past
critical political upheavals that challenged its unity, including the
aborted June 12, 1993 presidential election and the subsequent death
of winner of the historic poll, Chief Moshood Abiola, could not
disintegrate it.
The cleric, who insisted that the country's "unity was purchased at a
high price," described the past ethnic crises, including the civil
war, as sibling rivalries. Hence, he said, they were resolved
internally without "violent separation."
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The fact that no group tabled secession for discussion at last year's
National Conference, he argued, was an indication that Nigerians had
agreed to put past differences behind them and forge ahead under the
same national government.
"Clearly, it showed that the blood shed by our compatriots in Biafra
was not in vain… But up till now, the wound has not fully healed. That
is why we should not stir ethnic and religious hatred for cheap
political advantage in these elections," Okotie warned.
He, however, expressed concern at the degree of bitterness that marks
the on-going campaigns, which, he said, "is polluting the political
environment." The situation, according to him, is robbing the polity
of the benefits of a maturing political system.
He likened the country's politics to the Super Eagles that is
perpetually "rebuilding." If the country remained at a learning stage
after 16 years of unbroken democracy, he asked, when would it catch up
with Indonesia, Chile, India, Brazil and other developing countries
that have "continued to transit seamlessly to the admiration of the
world?"
Whereas the tumbling economy should have been the issue, the cleric
lamented that the leading candidates had resorted to "repulsive,
hate-driven advertisements that dehumanise opponents and assassinate
character."
He says, "Our sensibilities are assaulted, while our morality has been
brought to a new level of denigration. This, certainly, is not the
politics Nigeria deserves after going through a harrowing 24-year
military rule and experiencing a 30-month civil war and the June 12
annulment crisis."
Okotie called on politicians to take a cue from the America culture
where, for instance, a winner hosts opponents to a post-election
dinner. He regretted that Nigeria imported American political model
but ignored the spirit of its democracy.
He wondered why the contestants had adopted a do-or-die tactics in an
election of which the ultimate winner should be Nigeria.
"The first three democratic projects failed abysmally because of
immaturity on the part of our key players and the refusal of an
ambitious military to allow the democracy to grow at its pace.
"Although credit must be given to the armed forces for holding the
country together after a terrible civil war, part of the sad legacy of
that tragedy is the militarisation of our polity. But I dare say, that
is not an excuse not to up the ante in the current process," he
insisted.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Kaduna State governorship
candidate and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir
el-Rufai, on Thursday, condemned Vice President Namadi Sambo for
allegedly making divisive utterances at recent campaign rallies.
He said Sambo might not know "hisFatihaof the Quran well but knows how
to use religion to stir acrimony."
El-Rufai stressed on Twitter that he was committed to building
peaceful coexistence among the diverse ethnic groups in Kaduna State
and beyond.
President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party, has also reiterated his commitment to conducting a
peaceful and successful election.
In a tweet by his Special Assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri, on
Thursday, Jonathan stressed that the presidential election would be
conducted successfully, while a new administration would, certainly,
emerge on May 29.
He had said that he would hand over to the winner if loses at the crucial poll.
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