The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo has promised that his leadership will be one that will do the work of Christ through politics, as he urged Christian leaders to raise Christians who will represent Christ in politics.
Prince Adebayo made this known on Tuesday 17 January during his speech at the Extra Ordinary ECWA General Church Council meeting in Jos, Plateau State.
He noted that the role of the church remains to bring light where there is darkness, feed the hungry, and take care of the sick and vulnerable.
He said, “So I plead with you, we can be sure that we will do the work of Christ, not only for Christians and non-Christians, and that when we go out, everything we do, everything we say will be a form of evangelism through politics, and we will not disappoint, but look out for the flock of which we belong”.
The SDP presidential candidate further pointed out that the church should be concerned about the kind of government in power because it is dealing with civic problems, in other words, doing Caesar’s work.
“The government has a major role to play in the life of the church; in addition to that, government has a long, a serious role to play in the life of members of the church, and many of the problems that are been brought to clergymen are not problems of the spirit, they are not problems of spiritual growth, neither horizontal growth or vertical growth of the church. They are problems of a failure of the civic space”.
“When Christ said, let’s give unto Caesar what is Caesars and let’s give unto to God what is God’s, that’s right. But in Nigeria today, the church is also doing Caesar’s work. The church is protecting itself, the church is augmenting education, the church is doing so many other things, which means that somehow the church should be concerned about the kind of government we have”.
He said the church can send Christians to government to represent it and behave in a Christ-like manner.
“The church can also, send people to government to represent the church and behave in the manner in which we are raised in the church. That is the reason why people like us thought we should enter into politics. It is not for the power. The power is not important. What is important is the purpose.
“One Christian in the Ministry of Finance can change the history of Nigeria; one Christian as Minister of Education can change the history of Nigeria, so we must look for Christians who have a prayerful attitude and good character so that when they move into the state house, the tabernacle of Christ will move with them”.
In his response, the ECWA President Rev. Dr Stephen Baba Panya thanked Prince Adebayo for being a part of the gathering and for bringing this kind of message to the assembly.
“It can be sure that it is not regular for this kind of conversation, there are many people who know about Christianity, but they don’t know God and they are certainly non-Christians.
“We are thankful for the message that God has used you to bring to us. It is for us to come down to pray that God’s public news shall be sold out. And we are so grateful too, to have the presidential candidate of SDP in our home.
“And that today this has told us in much detail that and we know that this one is not just near the kingdom, he is a child of the kingdom”.
Prince Adebayo was accompanied by his entourage – Hon. Minister Solomon Dalung, D.G Adebayo Presidential campaign, Chief Godwin Osigbeme and Sen. Ugochukwu Uba. members of the presidential campaign council.
