The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria have said the group of Northern bishops who met with Tinubu are the All Progressive Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate are not members of the group and remain unknown to them.
WHAT WE KNOW
Apex Christian organisation, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Sunday denied those who met with APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu are not members of the Christian body.
Deputy National Secretary of the PFN, David Bakare said the body have no affiliation with the “Pentecostal Bishop Forum of Northern Nigeria” as the PFN does not operate on regional divide but as one national body affiliated to Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
In reaction to the PFN position, the APC campaign spokesman Festus Keyamo said pastors should stop dabbling into politics. Keyamo also said the PFN has no right to criticise the APC decision.
NOTABLE QUOTES
PFN National Deputy Secretary, David Bakare in the statement said:
“there is nothing in PFN that is regional based like southern or northern Pentecostal bishops.”
“The meeting between Tinubu and the Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria has nothing to do with the PFN,”
“I am speaking to you officially and authoritatively that the ranks of the Christian community, and of course, the PFN which I represent is not broken at all.
“The Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria is not known to the PFN. The forum does not have any affiliation or relationship with the PFN that is registered with the government of this nation.
“The position of the PFN on same faith ticket still stands as it was in the beginning and we have not, for any reason, shifted our position on that matter.
“The PFN is not a part of the meeting with the presidential candidate that was highly politicised. We are however aware of the ripples in the public domain about this matter.
“I am speaking officially to clarify that the PFN has nothing to do with that organisation. We didn’t take such a decision, we have not met that political party and whatever we will do would be in the public domain.
“That group is on their own and has nothing to do with the real incorporated PFN. I looked at the photos (from the meeting) and the names. I could recognise about two people who are our members, but they speak for themselves.”
“As a matter of fact, the PFN does not have any settings for bishops. What we have is PFN, we do not separate bishops of Pentecostal from other clergies of Pentecostal,”
“Individuals can form an association but when it comes to the body called PFN, there is no change in our position and we have not authorised anybody to hold a meeting.”
Reacting, Festus Keyamo, spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said, “The PFN are not members of our party. They should go and vote that day.
“They should not be coming to question the decision of our party publicly. The purpose of pastors or their duty is to lead people to heaven not to lead people to [presidential] villa.
“If I go to church every Sunday, I want to hear the sermon of God and I don’t want to hear the sermon of politics or who should rule me.
“I want to hear the sermon of God and what will lead me to salvation and not what to lead me to the villa.”
‘Nigerians are hungry, not bothered about religion‘
“Nigerians are hungry, they want to see how that hunger will be addressed, not how their Christian or Muslim faiths will be addressed,” he said.
“They want to see our policies on agriculture and what Asiwaju has done before as governor of Lagos state, how he improved Lagos and how he will bring that kind of posterity to Nigeria as a whole.”
BACKGROUND
Recall that last Friday was not the first time the APC Presidential Candidate and running mate would be meeting with pseudo bishops.
At the official unveiling of Kashim Shettima last July as the running mate to APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, some so called bishops were hired to impersonate as bishops and give the impression that Christians are in support of the event.
The shameful act got the party more knocks than it would have anticipated.
COMMENTARY
Festus Keyamo betrayed common sense in his claim that pastors should not dabble into politics. If he meant it, why was his party, which he is a campaign spokesman claim to have met with the bishops?
Or is Keyamo confirming that those they met with are not from the clergy? Truly Nigerian are hungry and plagued with insecurity, hence more than anything, need answers to these existential threats.
However, Festus Keyamo should be reminded that his party and government, which he is a part of, are largely responsible for the hunger in the land, a reason they should rather than campaign, be engaged explaining to Nigerians why the country they took over in 2015 have been reduced to rubbles literarily.
Or did the government he is a part of deliberately create hunger so the electorates will be too hungry to ask critical questions before making choice of who to vote?
