THE Honourable Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Sampson Uchechukwu Ogah, has advised christians to go into politics as they are the best that can offer transformative leadership,as well as humanitarian services to the people.
Presenting his lecture on the “Faithfulness to God in Politics and Nation Building” at the 3rd session of the Ninth Synod of the Anglican Communion, Diocese of Umuahia, held at the St. Andrews Anglican Church, Isiama Afaraukwu, Umuahia, said the topic of whether christians should be involved in politics have continued to be a much-debated subjects at the center of christians discourse, especially among evangelicals in Nigeria, pointing out that it is wrong for people to think that christians should not seek engagement in the political realm because politics is a dirty game.
According to him, some believers entering the political arena have become so politically focused that they have compromised teachings that are fundamental to the Christian faith, others have made the mistake of resting all their hope on politicians and government at the expense of God and the christian faith , stressing that the change we desire can not be realized from any political class except they be the ones that lookup to God like Solomon to govern the people.
Given the indispensable place of politics in the national reengineering enterprise, the Minister stated that it is a mistake for christians to completely isolate themselves from the realm of politics, adding that when people of God do not take it upon themselves to vote or stand for elective offices, they carelessly leave the fate of future generations in the hands of wicked and immoral politicians who are devious and have no fear of the living God.
Ogah maintained that by abstaining from the public square, christians are compromising on one of the most fundamental teachings of the christian faith that says we should love our neighbours as ourselves, stressing that politics offers us the best opportunity to make provisions of love to our neighbours.
He said that christians are the most ideal people for the role of the care of the poor as the loving of our neighbours cannot be done apart from christian participation in the culture and in the political process.
The Minister further argued that the bible points out that only the righteous can truly understand the rights of the underprivileged and as people who seek the Lord, rely on biblical understandings that transcend their own selfish inclinations and social context, they are the most capable of understanding justice completely as recorded in Proverbs 28:5
Ogah, however, revealed that God is interested in whoever rules over us, as He desires to have a pattern of righteous leadership that permeates and supersedes every aspect of life including politics, government and nation building.
He added that any Christian in politics just for the purpose of personal aggrandizement, is representing another culture, master and system, saying that christians should enter the social space, recognize the authority of Christ’ s kingdom, as well as bring its ethical standards into the stream of history, thereby allowing Christ’s kingdom to break the vicious and other irreversible cycles of sin, immorality and socia injustice.
” Once God is removed from government, we are left with two principal actors; the individual and the state, maintaining that with God out of the picture, there is no mediating structure to create moral values, therefore christians must enter the civic realm because the church conveys moral values”,
