THE Catholic Church in Nigeria has asserted that though it will support and encourage its members to be involved in partisan politics, it will however not endorse candidates in the coming 2023 general elections.
The Priest in charge of Church and Society at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Uche Obiechina, who stated this at the media briefing, also said it encourages its members to register, participate in party politics, contest and vote in elections.
The Catholic Church, he said, also condemned the delay in signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law. “Politics is about governance, about the well-being of the people, so the church in Nigeria and Catholic Church anywhere in the world supports politics and encourages its members to play politics.
“Catholic Church does not play partisan politics but members of the Church are expected to play party politics, just that the church as an institution ought not to play party politics. Party politics means politics of APC, PDP, PRP and whatever.
“But the Church identifies with our sons and daughters in various political parties. And that is why the Church will not field a candidate and say vote for PDP or APC. The Church does not do that and would not do that,” Fr. Obiechina said, adding that the Church is mobilising Christians and non-Christians “to rise up to the reality of politics”.
“It is through politics and governance that you can bring about the common good and our country is in dire need because we have had terrible politics and party apathy amongst a good number of our Christians who will say politics is a dirty game, I don’t want to be involved in it. If you don’t get involved in it, then you are going to have the dirty men involved in it rule you and you become a victim,” he said.
On his part, the Director of Social Communication CSN, Rev Fr. Michael Umoh, advised Nigerians “not to dwell on tribal, ethnic, religious or political affiliations when choosing their next leader because most politicians use them as a smokescreen to hide their clandestine interests and ambitions”.
“The only reasonable political consideration now left to choose from, irrespective of our tribe, tongue and religious beliefs, is between truth and falsehood, the good and the bad, the oppressed and the oppressor, the loyal and disloyal citizens of Nigeria. These are the only two parties that matter in the country now,” he added.
He said “true Nigerians must rise in unison to act and lend their voices to all that is good and noble in order to save the country. We cannot wait for another chance, if we are blessed to have this one; and we may not have another chance to rescue this nation if we fail to take advantage of this one,” Fr. Umoh said.
