Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has dismissed
concerns that religious leaders should not be
involved in politics.
Osinbajo, in an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, which was monitored by our correspondent, was
responding to a Twitter post by a Nigerian which
read, “The combination of religion and politics is
sinful and not the work of God.”
But Osinbajo, who is also a Senior Pastor of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, said from the
beginning of time, the choice of national leaders had
always been the work of God.
“I think that people make a mistake. God has always
been involved in the politics of nations. There is no
time that God was not involved in the politics of a
nation. God has always sought good leaders.
“That is why the scripture says when the righteous
are in power, the people rejoice. God has always
been interested in good leaders and if you look at it,
in everything that God has done, He has always tried
to appoint good leaders.
“In fact, when the children of Israel in the Bible
wanted a king, God told them that this is how this
king will behave but they insisted: ‘We don’t want
your choice. This is the one we want.’ God even said,
‘You are rejecting my choice.’ That shows that God
has always been interested in leadership.”
When asked if he and his principal, President
Muhammadu Buhari, would continue the
programmes introduced by the administration of the
immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan,
Osinbajo also said it will depend on a case-by-case
review.
He said, “Government is a continuum; there are
many things that are going on that will continue, but
one can only deal with these things on a case-by-case
basis. It would be very difficult to say whether we are
going to adopt those policies or not. We will have to
review policies as we go along.
“One thing that is very important is that we will be a
transparent and open government. This is a
government that will not tolerate corruption.”
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