Ruffled by the momentum generated by the nomination of
Pastor Yemi Osinbajo as General Mohamadu Buhari's
running mate, President Goodluck Jonathan is asking a
group of Pentecostal pastors to help him avert what he
fears could be an impending loss in next month's
presidential polls, SaharaReporters reports.
Osinbajo, a prominent cleric with the Redeemed Christian
Church of God, law professor and Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, SAN emerged APC's presidential running mate last
month giving President Jonathan and the ruling party, PDP,
what is being described as sleepless nights, by sources.
Specifically last Thursday, the President held a meeting in
Abuja, with a number of Pentecostal pastors led by Bishop
David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, with the main agenda
being how to fashion out ways to solve the "Osinbajo"
problem.
Sources at the meeting confirmed that President Jonathan
confessed in a rather rattled and humbling manner that
"Osinbajo is my problem."
According to those at the meeting, the President added that
"everything was okay until APC picked Osinbajo."
This is coming against the background of wild speculations
that APC is an Islamist party and that General Buhari is a
religious fundamentalist-which has become one of the main
planks of the PDP presidential campaign. While PDP
chieftains and supporters have continued to characterize
APC as an Islamist party, APC leaders have consistently
dismissed such as unfounded, baseless and a scare tactic
by the PDP.
Many observers say the nomination of a prominent
Pentecostal pastor from the fastest growing church in
Africa by the APC may have effectively doused such
speculations and the attempt to label the party as one with
an islamization agenda.
There has been a rather conscious attempt to make next
month's presidential polls a religious one especially in the
Southern part of the country where there is a much larger
Christian population, observers say.
At the meeting organized by the Executive Secretary of the
National Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) John
Kennedy Okpara, President Jonathan poured out his mind
that running against a leading Pastor of the RCCG, who is
also known to be very close to the much reverred General
Overseer of the church, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, is an uphill
task.
Sources at the meeting, said Jonathan was ruffled and
much distracted as he confessed to the challenge to him, of
the APC naming such a person as Osinbajo as General
Buhari's running mate.
In response, the Pastors led by Bishop Oyedepo assured the
President at the meeting that they would, "starting from
today," use every device possible including social media,
the pulpit and influence peddling, to campaign in support of
President Jonathan and against the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket.
Before the meeting with the President, sources said the
pastors held a meeting on the same day to strategize and
agree on how and what they would present to the president.
At that pre-meeting, some Pentecostal pastors suggested
that they use the opportunity of the meeting afforded by the
President to express their genuine fears on growing
insecurity in the North with Boko Haram killing and
attacking Christians and other innocent Nigerians.
But Bishop David Oyedepo, the most influential pastor at
the meeting interrupted the idea, insisting that the meeting
was to encourage and strengthen President Jonathan
ahead of the elections and not to discuss compelling
national issues of concern to majority of Nigerians.
While some of the pastors were shocked and disappointed
that Bishop Oyedepo would not allow them to raise
important issues bothering most Nigerians, they decided to
keep silent not to be seen as spoilsports.
And later after meeting the president, the pastors gathered
together again on the same day to device strategies they
will use to campaign against Buhari/Osinbajo, with the
main scheme being to label the ticket as an Islamist one.
Some of the pastors also suggested that they can influence
Christians that the position of Vice President is not an
effective one, and that having a Christian hold it makes no
difference, although the Nigerian constitution and the order
of precedence makes the office the next in rank to the
president.
Indeed as if carrying out the resolve, members of the
Winners Chapel said Bishop Oyedepo has already started
using the pulpit to achieve the goals set out at last
Thursday meeting in Abuja.
Some of the members said yesterday Sunday January 18,
Bishop Oyedepo raised a prayer point that an Islamist would
not become the President of Nigeria in the polls coming
next month to the chagrin of many of the church attendants
on Sunday.
(Sahara Reporters) CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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