Voting in Elections is more or less a duty than an obligation in a democratic setting. And when the setting is aa ours, unified diversity of religion, ethnic, tribe and interests, not much could be said or agreed on between a duty or obligation.
In recent times, many frontline preachers have come under attack by some elements in the country, Nigeria over what they term "meddling with politics".
To these elements, preachers should not in any way express themselves politically and should focus on their job which is just to preach.
To those, who are in favour of this line of thought, they base their arguments on the statement of Jesus
"...give to Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God, what is God's"...
claiming that Jesus tried as much as He can to disassociate Himself from politics.
Also, those against this school of thought believes that a pastor (or preacher as the case may be) is a bonafide citizen of the country and has every right to express himself politically.
That noted, in buildup to the 2015 general elections, many preachers of the gospel in Nigeria came under the hammer of those toeing the line of zero-participation against politics.
Among one of the preachers of the gospel, that was so badly hit was the presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church, Worldwide, and the senior pastor of Faith Tabernacle (a 50,000-seat capacity auditorium), Canaanland, Ota. During one of the services in his church, the president Goodluck Jonathan worshipped at the church and he, as nature demands, decided to pray for the country using the President as a point of contact. After the service, reports went viral, mostly on the social media (the biggest threat to journalism in the 21st century) that he had said he will open up the gates of hell against anybody who opposes the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan. After this dominated the cyber space for sometime, the church came out to issue a press release stating exactly what transpired during the visit of President Jonathan at the church. (read about that story here)
Sometime ago, he also asked church members to come to church with their voters' cards so as to pray for Nigeria and across the church network members came to church with their voters' cards and prayers were offered for the country using them.
Bishop Oyedepo is one man who has continued to show interest in the Nigerian agenda and continued to pray and call for peace to reign, on sunday 22nd March, he also led members in a session of prayers for the peace of Nigeria Read up story here.
With the elections already here, many thought that with the kind of publicity surrounding him he will choose not to vote; on Friday, the eve of the Presidential elections, I was speaking with a staff of the Church and he told me that Papa (that is what Bishop Oyedepo is fondly called by members) will not vote, I was like telling him that the Bishop Oyedepo I know will certainly vote. He said it was a lie, that he will never.
On saturday afternoon, TEAM VICSSIE received a report that Bishop David Oyedepo was present at his polling unit to be accredited.
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| Papa on his way to the polling unit to be accredited while the crowds shout "we love you papa" |
On his arrival, shouts of "We love you Papa" went into the air as the people around hailed him for this action.
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| Papa getting ready to be accredited |
After being accredited, he left the vicinity and returned later to cast his vote.
As at the time of this report, no one has come out to say whether his action of choosing to exercise his franchise is un-pastoric or is not worthy.
But, don't be surprised, if you hear on Monday that after he cast his vote, he prayed and all the other votes turned in the president's favour.
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| Papa arrives his Polling unit to vote |
