President Bola Tinubu should be magnanimous in victory and pay “serious attention” to the observations made by PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi. The president of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Stephen Panya, said this on Thursday as he called for peace, understanding and unity among Nigerians.
Messrs Abubakar and Obi had accused the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Independent National Electoral Commission of deliberately ambushing them in favour of Mr Tinubu, calling for overhauling the electoral process. Mr Obi specifically censured the apex court for overlooking hefty evidence of perjury, forgery and identity theft against the incumbent president.
The ECWA spiritual leader called for peace at a news conference heralding the concert and conference of the church, which will be held from November 9 to 12 in Lagos.
“Now that the Supreme Court has affirmed the election of President Tinubu, we appeal for calm, understanding, peace and unity in order to move the nation forward. Without the support of all and sundry, the administration cannot succeed,” said Mr Panya. “The beauty of democracy is that it provides periodic opportunities for political contestation.”
The ECWA head added, “We call on Mr President to be magnanimous in victory while paying serious attention to the observations made by the opposition. He should also ensure that the plethora of loopholes identified in our electoral system are comprehensively addressed through appropriate administrative, institutional and legislative interventions.”
Mr Panya lamented the challenges the ECWA family faces, ranging from the negative impact of the economic downturn to pain and sorrow occasioned by persistent insecurity.
“It is not out of place to reflect on national issues confronting our nation. The idea is to take every opportunity to intercede for the nation in the place of prayer. The church is an integral part of the larger society,” the ECWA leader stated. Therefore, whatever affects the nation will also affect the church.”
He noted that as one body, “let us continue to uphold each other in prayers, assist one another, and stand together in view of the end time terrible onslaught from the enemy against the church of God.”
Mr Panya appealed to everyone not to give up on interceding for the freedom of thousands of “brethren in captivity of terrorists and evil groups.”
“Let us continue to uphold these brethren, especially ECWA daughters such as Leah Sharibu, Alice Loksha Ngaddah and Lilian Gyang, who have become the symbol of many that have been held captive for many years,” the ECWA president added. “We have also lost many pastors and members due to the evil and wicked acts of these terrorists.”
Mr Panya also called for prayer “for the comfort of our brethren whose family members were killed and churches that were burnt in Plateau, Southern Kaduna, and other places, for God to bring this evil in our nation to an end. “
(NAN)
