Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has taken Christian leaders in the country to task over what he calls their focus on Islamic Agenda instead of the Christian agenda.
Professor Osinbajo spoke in Lagos on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at the Greater Nigeria Pastors Conference, with the theme, Towards A Better Nigeria. The conference was convened by the senior pastor and founder of Foundation of Truth Assembly, Yomi Kasali.
While speaking, the vice president expressed confidence that Nigeria would take a new turn in the next few years, Osinbajo challenged the leadership of the church to eschew religious and ethnic sentiments in their approach to the issue of Nigeria, saying that the failure of Christian leaders by placing too much emphasis on “Islamic Agenda as if they were looking for demon” was a big mistake.
“Why can’t we have Christian agenda based on the principle of the Bible as the Lord Jesus Christ teaches. The Church must begin the process of uniting Nigeria by uniting itself,” Osinbajo asked.
“What Nigeria needs to survive are already contained in the Bible. We cannot practice two gospels. The reason the country is what it is today is because we (Christians) care to practice what the Bible teaches.”
He also debunked the sentiments that the crisis of the Fulani Herdsmen killing got escalated when President Muhammadu, who is of the Fulani origin became president. According to him, “the Fulani Herdsmen crisis became rampant as far back as 1996 and it took a devastating effect in 2014 during the Libya crisis”.
On the agitation for restructuring, Osinbajo said the problem with the demand was that there was yet to be any concrete agreement even among those championing the cause.
Osinbajo said when there was rampant corruption that crippled Nigeria to what it is today “How many Christian leaders stood up to complain?” He declared that no nation could have survived the kind of corruption, which Nigeria went through in the recent times.
He charged the church leaders to, henceforth. speak for the sanctity of human lives and not necessarily emphasizing that religious extremists were killing Christians or southerners. He argued that if many of the people agitating in the southern region took their time to visit and see the kind of devastation in the north, the level of destruction and loss of human lives and even Muslims “our perception would change”.
He also rejected the quota system being practised in the country saying it is detrimental to the progress of any nation. He therefore insisted that Nigeria must insist on merit in the conduct of our national affairs.
“When our football teams are playing, we do not ask questions where the players come from because we want to win,” Osinbajo said.
“In the same vein, if we want to win in Nigeria, we must insist on merit. We must insist on fair minded and just people in positions. That is how countries are run all over the world. It is only in this country that the first thing we do is to ask for quota system”.
The Vice President also attributed the lack of development of the nation to corruption perpetrated by politicians in collaboration with the elite and religious leaders.
“It is my view that the Nigerian elite, religious leaders and politicians think alike when it comes to corruption and they were always very selfish playing religious and ethnic cards when it pleases them,” he said.
“When you look at the high-level of corruption in the country, it has no ethnic or religious coloration, our elite and politicians are united when it comes to corruption.
I have never seen a situation where an Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and other tribes joined hands to steal money and they argued about it.”
The vice president insisted that in order to build a new nation men and women of integrity must be raised.
