Prelate and moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Dr. Ekpeyong Akpanika, has posited that next year’s general elections would be dicey.

He said the country needs a man that would cater for the masses not the elite, which according to him, are already enjoying themselves while the common man is suffering.

Akpanika spoke to Daily Sun during his Pastoral visit to St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, lamenting that the masses were in serious pains because of bad leadership.

He prayed God to enable a man that would care for the people to emerge as next Nigeria’s president.

“The 2023 general election is going to be a dicey one. We are praying seriously that God will give us a man after His own heart. We’re all aware of the sufferings, the pains that we are currently passing through. It is our prayer that God will give us a man.

“We, as a church, do not belong to any particular political party but we are praying that the sovereign will of God be done in our country. We need a man that will sanitize our country. You know the level of corruption, you know the level of immorality. The bible says righteousness exults a nation but sin is a reproach. We have come to a point in our national life that we have become a reproach and we need somebody, therefore, that God will raise to take away this reproach from us.”

The new head of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria described the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the general elections as sectional, not nationalistic and should be condemned.

He said: “Obviously, in a multinational or multicultural nation like Nigeria, we don’t need a prophet to tell us it is wrong. It is sectional and it is not proper if you are sensitive to the feelings of others, then it shouldn’t be Muslim-Muslim. However, you are left to your own conscience, we do not tell any of our members to vote for a political party but you will leave them to their own by conscience to vote but as the head of the church, I believe that the idea of the Muslim-Muslim ticket is not nationalistic and it is too sectional and therefore to be condemned.”

On the security situation, the Prelate bemoaned that no place was safe again in the country.

Stressing the issue, he queried, “how can anybody be comfortable with the security architecture of the country? You cannot travel from Kaduna to Abuja, from Abuja to the entire south, everybody is living in fear. And obviously, people are not traveling again anymore. You cannot travel by road, you cannot travel by air. Just yesterday, I saw that December ticket for traveling from Calabar to Lagos was at N185,000. How many Nigerians can afford that? And yet, the roads are not safe, the rails are not safe, the sea is not safe, the air is not affordable. So, how do we live?” (Daily Sun)

Update news