From Nkechi Oginyi
Rev. Cornelius Eke, the Secretary General of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, has described 2023 as a defining year for the country as it is both an election and census year.
Rev. Eke who stated this in his New Year sermon at the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Redemption Congregation, Abakaliki Parish in Ebonyi State, noted that this year’s election was crucial and required the participation of all registered voters to ensure that the right candidates were elected.
He advised Nigerians not to sell their voters’ card or their votes so as not to be like Esau in the Bible who sold his birthright for a paltry pot of porridge and suffered the consequences thereafter.
Rev. Eke in a press statement made available to Journalists by Dr. Joseph Chukwu Head of the Media Unit in the church was quoted saying, “Your voters’ card is your birthright and power, use it wisely to install a credible government so that you will not live in regret for the next four years; do not sell it no matter how much the politicians price it”, he charged the congregation.
He urged Church members in Nigeria to participate actively in politics so that credible candidates who will salvage and rescue Nigeria would emerge in the next polls.
On the 2023 Census, the clergyman said it is a milestone in that it would be the first time in more than a decade that the actual population of Nigeria would be known, adding that it would usher in proper planning in all facets of governance.
“If you refuse to be counted, it means you don’t count in Nigeria so you must present yourself and your family to be counted when the time comes so that you will count in Nigeria, Rev. Eke admonished.
Rev. Eke noted that the 17-year census data was not only obsolete but unreliable in national planning, adding that with new census data to emerge later in the year, it would help the government to plan with certainty instead of estimations.
He prayed that 2023 would usher in open doors, new opportunities, progress, blessings, plenty, and prosperity to Nigerians who build their trust and dependence on God only and advised that people should not dwell in the past or allow themselves to be distracted by irrelevance.
