In the presidential election of 2023 and other elections, Bishop Wale Oke, president of Sword of the Spirit Ministries, has asked people to save Nigeria by supporting the right candidate.
During a Sunday press conference in Ibadan, the bishop—who also serves as the country’s Pentecostal Fellowship president—made this statement.
Oke argued that the level of unfairness in the nation was excessive and that it was intolerable that one ethnic group, out of many, was allegedly in charge of the country’s politics.
He claimed that until the injustice he attributed as the cause of the Igbo’s desire for secession was remedied, the agitation would continue.
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Why must one group continue to control Nigerian politics, the cleric asked? A Hausa-Fulani served as president of our country. We’ve got Buhari and the late Umaru Yar’Adua. When an Igbo man has not been elected president and we are declaring that agitation would stop, do we really need another Hausa-Fulani?
“Agitation will never stop. Injustice is the bedrock of the agitation. If you don’t stop injustice, arresting the people won’t stop the agitation. More agitation will come. Why must one tribe dominate Nigeria and see it as a conquered territory?
“The injustice is too much, corruption is too much, the evil, the violence is too much in the land. Who will deliver Nigeria? That’s the issue and not religious sentiment. If you will treat Muslims and Christians as equal and you will not favour one religion over the other, it’s okay by me. We can’t go forward with these issues being unsolved.
“Nigerians should not lose hope, there is a great future ahead of us we must fight for this future. Another opportunity comes in 2023, your future is in your hands. If you sell your vote because of money, you have sold your future and the future of your children from generation to generation.
“No sentiment, vote your conscience, vote for whoever you know has the capacity to solve the problem of Nigeria irrespective of the tribe. There is hope for the future but we have to fight for it. Use your vote to deliver Nigeria.”
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Oke while recalling the killing of Endsars protesters at Lekki Tollgate on December 20, 2020, said it the incident was the worst form of oppression and the party under whose that was perpetrated should not get close to power in the next four decades.
“Journalists, tell the truth when the military was oppressing Nigeria, you led the battle, and some of you were killed. Dele Giwa was killed with a parcel bomb, evil people did that. We want you to speak out against the oppression, the masses are being oppressed.
“October 20 was the saddest day of my life, they were holding rallies against police brutality which we are all familiar with, they gathered themselves singing the national anthem and holding the national flags, sitting down and you opened fire on them.
“Such party (under which that was done) should never come to power in the next 40 years. Should we forget that kind of evil and brutality, those are the issues we should address beyond sentiments.
“For me, if you are a Hausa man, it’s good, Fulani man, It’s okay, Igbo, Kanuri, Edo, Ibibio or Yoruba man provided your stand for justice, equity and all Nigerians should be treated equally.
“Why should Fulani be killing and the President be pretending it is not happening? We should end this nonsense otherwise let the various federating units go their way. Why should I be a second-class citizen in my own country? No way.”
