Obienyem, while cautioning against bringing the church into disrepute, said that Okowa and others doing such were linking genuine actions of patriots to politics.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has slammed the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa for accusing him of dragging the church into politics on the sole reason that he attends church programmes.
Obi, who spoke through his media aide Valentine Obienyem, in a statement released on Thursday, wondered if he should shun invitations especially those from churches because he is running for the Presidency.
“Should Obi start shunning Church events because of politics, even when we know that since leaving office in 2014, that Obi has visited over 1,000 schools and hospitals owned by the churches, offering them all manner of support for the upgrade of their schools and hospitals that serve the citizens of Nigeria,” he asked.
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Obienyem, while cautioning against bringing the church into disrepute, said that Okowa and others doing such were linking genuine actions of patriots to politics, even when it was absolutely unnecessary.
Obienyem, who also said that the reference to politics was unnecessary because electioneering had not started, disagreed with Okowa on distinguishing those to be reached out to or not.
He said, “Why would Okowa suggest that it is wrong for anybody to reach out to the churches? Is this not contemptuous of churches? Everybody is affected by the bad governance in the country and should expectedly be involved in the efforts to enthrone good governance. He should be told about the difference between being politically aware and getting involved in active politics.”
He noted that very soon Obi’s critics would begin to criminalise his engagement with Nigerians in Diaspora.
Assuring Nigerians that Obi would not get tired of preaching about good governance and the need for the people of Nigeria to take back their country, Obienyem called on other patriots to join in the crusade rather than wishing people to keep quiet so that the status quo would remain the same.