Don’t Embezzle Public Funds, OAIC Tells Politicians

The Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) has charged political officeholders not to see public office as an avenue for corruption and selfish aggrandisement.

They asked the political class to, instead, become the agents of positive change that Nigerians are longing for. 

The international chairman of OAIC, Most Reverend Daniel Okoh, made this call while delivering his message at the 45th Anniversary Service of the organisation which was held at the National Christian Center in Abuja.

He faulted elected politicians who see their office as an opportunity to enrich themselves and their families. 

“They must know that when you are a child of God and given such a position, they should say God has remembered his people. Because you are put there to serve the interest of millions of people who prayed daily for God to do a new thing in their lives. 

“God has put you there to use you to bring the desired change in the lives of our people. When you find yourself there, you are the instrument in the hands of God to do a new thing and open a new door. Do not see it as an opportunity to enrich yourself and your family. 

“Do not see it as an opportunity to take a piece of the national cake home. It is a call to be used to do a new thing in the lives of the people.  

“When God put you in a public position, He is inviting you to participate where people will see what the Lord is doing and to be part of the vision of those who worked for the manifestation and actualisation of Change,” he said. 

Okoh said the positive change Nigeria needs will come because God is at work in Nigeria. 

“The change will come, but when and where, many will not expect it. In Africa, the attention is on faith-based communities to bring the much-needed solution to problems that we experience in our time. It was not like that before, but now, even at the level of policymaking, the input of religious communities is solicited.   

“It means that there is something the Lord is telling the world. The Lord is telling those people in political offices something new to look to the direction of the Church for solutions to many problems that they have. 

“Christians that have been elected and appointed into governance should see their position as a new thing that God is doing, not only for them but for their communities and the world,” he said. 

The chairman however noted that in Nigeria today, Christian leaders are being invited to high-level meetings where policies are made, because they believe that there is something the church has to contribute. 

“It is important therefore for us to know and recognise this new thing that the Lord is doing. Religious communities in Africa are now approached for partnership to work on issues of poverty reduction, climate change, food security, artificial intelligence, health, education, and so on. We should not misuse or abuse these golden opportunities. God is doing a new thing.” he said.