Nigeria in dire need of healing
•PFN, Makinde take stock of 2023 polls, advocate rebuilding of nation
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), with 65million adult population in Nigeria and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State have made a call to Nigerians, especially the Christian community, to intercede for President Bola Tinubu, governors and other people in positions of authority to govern with the fear of God and succeed in fixing the socio-economic and political challenges besetting the progress of the country.
This comes as leaders of PFN, across the 36 states and Abuja converged on Ibadan, for a three-day National Executive Retreat 2023 of the Fellowship, with the theme: “Going from Strength to Strength’,” at Waniq Events Centre, Jericho, Ibadan, Tuesday night.
National President of PFN, Bishop Wale Oke, who is also President, Sword of the Spirit Ministries and Makinde, who is Vice Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), who spoke at the official opening ceremony of the retreat, said, “if Christians do not pray for people in the position of authority, they have deviated from the teaching of Jesus Christ.”
They noted that the time has come for rebuilding and healing the country after the outcomes of the 2023 general elections, adding: “Healing and rebuilding of the nation must start from the Church. It is a healed church that can heal the nation.
“It has been discovered that the Christian community came out of the elections divided and bruised. There is need for the Church to come together, be united and join hands with the people in position of authority towards rebuilding the nation.”
Makinde, who referenced a book about the biblical Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall as a metaphor for the rebuilding of Nigeria, suggested “a single term of five or six years for leaders, rather than two terms of four years each.” He emphasised the need for the body of Christ to have a collective vision for Nigeria. He highlighted the importance of praying for and supporting those in positions of authority:
“For each time I think about rebuilding that wall, I also think about the rebuilding of our nation and the role that the body of Christ has to play in that process. The Bible asks Christians to pray for their leaders. As Christians, we can carry out the work that God has assigned to us more effectively when we have political stability where we reside. If this environment is filled with chaos, with insecurity, instead of us to rebuild our nation, if all we are trying to do is scatter the bricks… then we are not doing what God has asked us to do as Christians.
“I am a supporter of a single term stricture. As a matter of fact, I did not want this second term, and I told the fathers of faith that four years is not enough to do everything that you want to do, but it is long enough for you to make your own impact and go your own way. But if we get the opportunity to discuss this, I think five or six years single term will really be enough for most of us to do whatever we are supposed to do.
“These leaders that God has asked us to pray for, they are products of who the political parties present to us. But when these leaders have been chosen, we are obligated to pray for them and work with them. I Timothy 2:1-2, urges us to pray for those in authority. It did not qualify it whether we like them, or we do not like them, it is our state and it is our country.
“These leaders that God has asked us to pray for, they are products of who the political parties present to us. But when these leaders have been chosen, we are obligated to pray for them and work with them.”
