Founder of Household of God Church, Oregun, Lagos, Rev Chris Okotie has warned that Nigeria will collapse if he’s not allowed to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said to avert a national catastrophe, he would have to head an interim government, The SUN reports the pop star-turned cleric as saying this in an interview.
Okotie disclosed that the current political system in Nigeria, including the National Assembly, state assemblies and other government structures must be dismantled, noting that an interim administration headed by him would then midwife a brand new political system for the country.
REPORTERS AT LARGE had earlier reported Reverend Okotie as lamenting the imbalance in the government of Nigeria, which he attributed to the downward spiral of the country, while also appealing to all the presidential candidates in the 2023 election to withdraw for him to succeed President Buhari.
When asked about what informed the strange talk about an interim government after Buhari that must be headed by you, Okotie said: “We are in a juncture in our political evolution that it becomes the logical and the next step to take. The presidential system of government that we have been operating for so many years now has failed woefully. We redefined democracy to be the government of the party by the party for the party. To that extent, they excluded Nigerians from the entire process and that is why things have degenerated to the level that we see today. To bring democracy back to the people; to re-establish the parameters in which we operate as federalism, to rekindle brotherhood, to avoid war, segregation, the interim government is the only next logical step to take.”
He added that “Not at all. What I’m proposing is inspiring a conversation in the country where all our people begin to talk about the problem that we face right now. When those conversations have been collated, I will send them as a transcript to the president and to the National Assembly so that they can energise the process that can lead to a transition, not from a regime to a regime, but from this regime to an interim government because Nigeria should be fixed.”
Talking about the likely reaction of the National Assembly to such an unconstitutional arrangement, he said: “I expect that they are patriots. There comes a time when a man must prioritise the needs of other people than himself. They were sent there as representatives of the people; the government is representing the people. So, if you find out that there is a political system that is not practicable to bring harmony to our society, it is the responsibility of these people to rectify that situation; it is a patriotic duty. I believe that with the scenario we have in the country today where things are really dilapidated, there is enmity (these politicians play the card on religion and ethnicity), we are so polarised, balkanised, I feel that they must recognise that as the only solution and therefore will rise this time as patriots and do the right thing. There comes a time in the affairs of men when you recognise that if you do not do the right thing, it would be catastrophic and cataclysmic and therefore, as intelligent people, lovers of this country, I believe that they would be galvanised by the circumstances to rise to the occasion of this reality. I also believe that the president has been kept by God in the means of all the debilitating illnesses that he had so that he can do something to protect this country before he leaves, and I believe that this could be his greatest legacy.”
He, however, opined that a sovereign national conference would address the problems he has identified in Nigeria.
“No. It is impossible because no subsisting or extant government can give that kind of latitude. It is an interim government where you do not have political considerations that usually work against that which is conducive to harmony and the wellbeing of the people. It is an interim government that can do that because it has no political agenda of its own; it is a corrective mechanism to salvage the political process, otherwise, there may be great catastrophe and calamity. That is why none of these confabs has succeeded because an existing political institution like the government cannot take that kind of responsibility. That is why it is inevitable at the moment that we move with the interim government for the sake of the corporate existence of our nation,” he said.
