Archbishop John Adebayo Alagbala Osa-Oni, the Vice President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), South West Zone, is the Prelate of the Vineyard Christian Churches Inc., and other networks of Churches around the world. He was recently conferred with the Honorary Fellowship Award of the Edo State Polytechnic, Usen, during the institution’s 5th convocation. He spared some time to share his thoughts on some current national issues with EJIKEME OMENAZU. Excerpt:
Nigerians have just entered into the New Year. What do you think should be their expectations and focus this 2024?
This year 2024 is full of God’s promises and the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off. People should focus and watch out for greater testimonies as never before. Great testimonies will be abound in the land with a lot of divine visitations, turnaround and bountiful fruitfulness in every sphere of life and endeavours. The power of God will be upon people’s lives to quench their spiritual thirst and hunger; preserve them from evil, flourish their businesses, fill them with joy, remove shame, poverty and lack from them. It is a year Nigeria will experience new status with the wind of change that will usher in great testimonies.
President Bola Tinubu has spent over six months in office. How would you assess his administration so far?
All the same, I will not blame the present and the past administration alone for whatever situation we found ourselves now as a nation. We all contributed to the current situation and all of us have to share in the blame. But, we all have the responsibility to contribute our quota by supporting the government, the leadership and the legislature with prayers. I believe, the administration of President Tinubu will perform creditably, but we need to support him. I urge Nigerians to support our President and we need to understand that he is not the only one. He has a team working with him.
How do you see the present development of church being dragged into partisan politics?
The church has not been dragged into partisan politics. The church is supposed to be part and parcel of politics. What brought us to the mess and all that we are seeing in the present dispensation is because the church is not involved in partisan politics. Every citizen has the civic role to play in development of their country and every citizen has the right to belong to a political party. I campaigned last year from the ward. Though it was not the state that chooses the president, it is from the ward level and from the ward level, they gather the people to the state. It is the movement of the people from the ward that is called congress. So, what is the reason for Christians not to be involved in politics? Are they not citizens and are they not part of the society? Should they not contribute to socio-economic development and perform their civic responsibilities or should they sit in the gallery and watch others trampling on their rights as citizens? Why should Christians not be involved in politics? Everyday, our lives are about politics. It is embarrassing when I hear Christians saying that politics is dirty and they do not want to be involved. Politics is not dirty as being branded and we need to erase that mindset of, politics being dirty. The fact that some dirty people play it dirty by bringing dirt into it, does still not make it dirty. This is why the likes of late Dr. Gamaliel Onosode, Pastor Kris Okotie, Pastor Tunde Bakare and other Christians who at different times have been into politics should be appreciated and commended for their brave participation in party politics. It is very important and crucial for Christians to be involved in politics of the day, even from the ward level. If I had the leading, I would have been involved in politics. That is why I have no regrets campaigning for the candidates of my choice during the last general elections. I campaign for President Tinubu, Governors Sanwo-Olu in Lagos State, Abiodun of Ogun State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, respectively. Christians need to be involved or somebody will make a law against us and that is not going to be palatable. If Christians are not involved in politics, they will not have a say in the country’s polity as citizens and any law can be implemented against them. This is because the church and Christians have adopted ‘sit down and look’ posture. Imagine some people trying to bring in unacceptable law of tenure for General Overseers and monitoring churches activities. The church is on the losing side. Even most of the Christians elected into the legislature and other political offices are not fighting for the church because they raised money on their own to sponsor themselves. So, they are not representing the church, because the church did not sponsor them. That is why they seek the church to bring money whenever they need it.
What would you say are the causes of moral decadence in the Nigerian society?
The decadence in the society is traceable to lack of home training. I can remember when we were growing up. They called it ‘Omoluabi’. As ‘Omoluabi’, you were warned to know the family you were coming from and the son of who you are. So, people were brought up to behave well. Today, most parents do not have the time for their children. One thing I learnt from Papa Hagin when we travel to Tulsa for a conference, he told us, in the early days of their family, while he went out ministering, because someone needed to be home to look after the children, his wife would stay back and take care of their two children. This was because we needed someone to be home to watch over them and to raise godly children. The two people in the family cannot be running at the same time. Someone has to look for something else to support the children. No matter how difficult, parents should create meaningful and quality time for their children for the purpose of bonding with them, hearing them speak, directing and correcting them when they go wrong, and nurturing them to become responsible adults.
What is your advice to the younger generation?
The younger generation should try and prioritise their lives. No matter the situation and where they found themselves, they have to set their priority and when they prioritise, they have to be intentional about what they are doing. They need to pay attention and spend quality time with their family to bring out the best of good home training, godly lifestyle and character value in the life of their children.
What is your advice to the government at all levels?
My candid advice is that there are allocations that go to all the states and local governments monthly from the federal. What the Federal Government should do is to have a monitoring team to monitor the monies sent to the state governors and the local governments. This will enable it to know how they use such funds. As things are, enough development is not getting to the grassroots and development must reach the grassroots. We must see what they are doing with the budget overheads. There is quite a lot of unpaid staff salaries and retirement benefits that ought to have been paid, but workers are crying and the retirees are groaning in pain. Though it is not easy to be in government and governance is not for the timid. Until you get there and be in a position of authority, you will not understand what it is all about and what it takes to govern a country like Nigeria with multicultural, religion and ethnicity. In my little corner here, I know what I am going through, how much more a diverse country like Nigeria.
What is your advice to Nigerians at this moment?
We should be patient with the government of the day. I am sure Mr. President and his team will do well. In one of his promises, the president said, ‘I am going to repair Nigeria’. We owed them our prayers support. It is not easy sitting on those special chairs to lead and govern a society like Nigeria. We should give him and his team a chance with our prayer support, instead of arbitrarily castigating, condemning and criticising them. I pray for the President, the 36 states governor, the legislators and the Judiciary every day. Also, as a matter of importance, we should respect the rule of law. I believe things will be well. The New Year will be a turnaround and God will help us turn Nigeria around to be great again.
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