Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a former deputy Senate president of Nigeria, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has urged churches and devout Christians to actively get involved in politics.
He described the indifference of churches toward politics as self-exclusion from nation-building.
The PDP chieftain disclosed this in a paper titled ‘The role of the church and politician in politics and democratic nation-building’, which he delivered at the standing committee forum of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Church), in Onitsha on Thursday, February 11.
He said active involvement of the church in politics would foster development, national identity and create stability in society.
The senator also enjoined Christians in politics to be exemplary and lead by biblical principles. He said: “Oftentimes, you hear Christians say that the church should not be involved in politics. That, by extension, is self-exclusion in the task of nation-building,” Ekweremadu was quoted as saying in a statement by his media aide Uche Anichukwu. “It is important that the church does not remain aloof, but should play a decisive role in the task of nation-building. In doing so, she helps to foster development, national identity, and create stability in society.
“It is this lack of national identity and instability that has brought our country to where it is today. It is the lack of national identity that has fostered the divisiveness in our country and created the insecurity which we now experience.”
Ekweremadu said the church could participate in politics and nation-building without being partisan by engaging in political education and mass mobilisation for political participation.
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