The leadership of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, in Cross River State, says it would abide by the directives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, by mobilising Christians to vote for the kind of presidential candidate CAN wants in 2023.
The State Chairman of PFN, Dr Lawrence Ekwok, made this known in Calabar after a two-day Greater Nigeria Project enlightenment organised by the Fellowship in the state.
He said, “CAN is the umbrella body of all Christian organisations in the country and its directives on the 2023 election have been adopted by national leadership of PFN and Cross River stands by those directives.
“CAN which has the overall powers over the five Christian blocks in the country has taken a position as to who every Christian should vote and they came out with guidelines which have been distributed to all our members in the state, in the churches through their pastors and we are following those guidelines.”
According to him, the National Secretary of PFN, Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu, who represented the National President of PFN at the Greater Nigeria Project event, enlightened the PFN members on the directives of the group.
“Dr Ilechukwu spent time to speak with the people to let them know that the church is in a position to decide who is to be elected in 2023 and I believe more people have a clear understanding now that the church has more role to play beyond just praying.
“The Bible commands us to pray for our leaders and beyond praying the church must participate in the governance process by getting involved in electioneering process and participating actively themselves and there is nothing wrong in anybody seeking to represent his people.”
He said based on the directives of CAN, the qualities to be considered before voting for a candidate include integrity, non discrimination on religious basis, and someone with the fear of God, among others.
Also, Chairman of the planning committee for Greater Nigeria Project in Cross River, Prof Kyrian Ojong, stated that in the past a lot of church members avoided politics because of the way the game was played but now they have been brought back and “mobilisation is ongoing for over one million church members to vote in the state during the 2023 election in support of the preferred candidates.
“I thank God for the introduction of B-VAS now which has come to stop the struggle for ballot boxes by politicians which made the game a do or die thing but with the reality of what we see on ground today characterised by bad governance, insensitivity by leaders, we are tired of praying and people countering the purpose of God for the country, we have to participate fully.
“Let me tell us, if people who are not God fearing are ninety percent in an executive council of a state, that council will not act with the fear of God but if you have fifty percent of people who are God fearing in that council, there is a high chance that the council will take decisions which are for the benefit of majority of the population not just for their personal interest.”