Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

No true Christian can survive in Nigerian politics

Participation of Christians in politics has been a raging debate for long. While some people see nothing wrong with it, others insist that politics is no-go area for Christians. One of such people is Mr. Mathew Akpoviri Soko, the Managing Director of Soko Engineering Services Nigeria Limited. The Ethiope, Delta State-born engineer spoke with Tony Iwuoma on the Boko Haram insurgency, increasing poverty in the land and diverse national issues but concluded that it is impossible for true Christians to partake in politics in Nigeria without burning their faith.

What can you say about Nigeria as a Nation and its resources?

 Nigeria is a nation of nations with her many diverse ethnic groups. Nigeria has more than 250 disparate ethnic and linguistic groups.  It is a very populous country with over 190 million people; one out of every seven black persons is believed to be a Nigerian. Nigeria is blessed with material resources. Our mono-economy is sustained by the revenue generated from crude oil. The discovery as well as production of oil, which yields us huge money, displaced agriculture as our chief income earner.

READ ALSO:Resurgence of old conflict as Kwara APC is embroiled in internal crisis

How has this affected our one-time buoyant economy?

Sadly, our oil wealth has become our national curse, as our successive political leaders corruptly enriched themselves from the national treasury. Since our attainment of political freedom, our country hasn’t been led by its best political leaders, who posses leadership qualities and nationalistic fervor. They are the products of the warped and despicable culture of imposition of leaders by kingmakers and other interests. It is an incontrovertible fact that bad political leaderships with despotic military regimes stalled our national development.

What do you think is the cause of high rate of crime in Nigeria?

Simple; political leadership. Nigeria is the home of the extremely rich and the extremely poor. The Bible says when the righteous are in power, the people rejoice. Nigeria is a country where justice is all about two things; power and money. Our society is marked by several social inequalities. Majority of our people live in economic poverty, being deprived of the most basic necessities of life; food, shelter, healthcare, water, land, livelihood and other opportunities for growth. The perceived wealthy man being celebrated can afford to pay for police protection. The society is careless how he acquired the wealth. When the rich is arrested, nobody will manacle their hands and feet and their case files declared missing, but when the poor get arrested, they suffer all the indignities associated with incarceration, beginning with being stripped of most of their clothing and other forms of custodial dehumanisation. Poverty is the key reason for vices in the society.

The gap between the rich and the poor is too wide. There is really no middle class, but unfortunately they buy from the same market.

Why have you not contested in any political position through a political party of your choice?

I am sorry to tell you that my faith cannot compromise the rot in politics right now. As far as I am concerned, no true Christians who want to serve the people can survive in Nigerian politics today.

To start with, your party members will not allow you to truly work for the masses. I am non partisan.

Did you have a strong Christian background growing up?

No! Not at all. My father was a strong cult member. He was not just ordinary member but a top notch leader till his death. I had a running battle with the fraternity when they wanted to take over my late father’s corpse for burial rites. I had planned to use the burial ceremony to win souls for Christ. It was an open confrontation. They were enraged but I stood my ground, as nothing can compromise my faith. They were practically infuriated. Recently, I have been receiving some threats to my life. I travelled to Port Harcourt and Warri on the 11th and 25th of March, only to come back and my home had been broken into twice.

But to my surprise, not even a pin was taken from my house. I reported to the police. But most recent and more frightening was that, I was jogging on the 25th on May, 2019 and I felt someone was just very close behind me. I had the urge to slow down almost to a halt to allow him get ahead of me. Within two to three minutes, I was shocked when I heard a warning shout to watch out for a car that came from behind to try to run over me.

My turning and jumping over the road divider prevented the car from crushing me, as it smashed into the road divider. I was stunned, as I watched the car now with damaged front fender sped off. I was surprised when it stopped for a fellow unknown jogger to jump and it finally sped off and disappeared. The threat did not stop there, as I have been receiving phone calls, sometimes the voice would say, “You think you have escaped; No, you have not. We will get you.”

READ ALSO:Lagos City Marathon: Organizers open registration for 2020 race

Where do you think the threat may be coming from?

Well, I wouldn’t know because I preach against injustice and oppression of the poor at the slightest opportunity I find myself.

Even in my type of business, which is inspection and certification of vessels and also NDT test, we have many portfolio contractors, who know nothing about the job but rather use their connection, while many of us, who are qualified to carry out the job, are sidelined.

Why do you think that Boko Haram insurgency is still causing havoc in Nigeria?

If you want to solve a problem, you must deal with the root cause of it. Nobody wants to deal with it. That initial error of killing the leaders and followers of Boko Haram sect after their arrest was a big blunder. I think that was the beginning of our doom. Has anybody questioned who killed him, his followers and why? If the government wanted to solve that problem, the world would have known who formed it, who is funding it and what can be done to bring peace if need be instead of violence. The other day, we read in the papers, May 5, 2019 edition of the Sunday Sun, that Boko Haram overran military base in Borno. Many have been wasted to this sect, which would have been avoided if wisdom was employed from the beginning. I see the fight against Boko Haram as a big business to some people. Do you know the amount of money that the Federal Government is budgeting every year to fight the sect from taking over our country?

Comments
Loading...