Don’t politicise national security, cleric cautions politicians

The Archbishop of Bendel Province, Anglican Communion, Rev Friday Imaekhai, has cautioned Nigerian politicians against using sensitive issue as national security to play politics.
He called on them to be patriotic and nationalistic in their actions and utterances, warning that their negative utterances could adversely affect the image of the country and bring it to ridicule in the comity of nations.
The religious leader spoke with Daily Independent in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State.
He said ordinary citizen would bear the brunt of damage they would have caused the nation, as they were likely to be embarrassed at foreign embassies.
He advised politicians to dwell on issues rather than mudslinging, adding that blackmailing of opponents or government of the day to score political points is an undated political trick which no longer works on the electorate.
Archbishop Imaekhai, who is also the dean of the Church of Nigeria and bishop od Esan Diocese, implored politicians and political parties to join hands with the government to tackle the current insurgency, as according to him, security is the responsibility of every citizen.
Politicians should refrain from destroying fellow human beings all in the name of wresting political power. They should use more humane approach, an approach that has to talk about ideas and the way forward in resolving challenges that have engulf our corporate existence as a nation.
“The old trick of trying to blackmail politicians has faded. Nigerians are now more knowledgeable than they were in the years past, when you could easily come and deceive the electorate and have your way”, he said.
On national security, he said: Anybody using the current insurgency to assess the present administration may not have gotten all the facts and it is not the best. All political parties should join hands to fight the insecurity and not to use it to bring down the government.
It is too early for Nigerians to forget the causes of insurgency and pronouncements made by some political actors to make the Nigerian nation ungovernable.
“It is for this reason among others that we have called for humane approach to electioneering as the February 2015 general elections draw near.”