By Kamsi Anayo
As the 2023 political campaigns gets to its peak with their attendant crossfires of mudslinging and name-callings, the Bishop on the Niger, Rt Rev. Owen Nwokolo, has cautioned politicians and their supporters against any form of bullying and political rascality.
He advised politicians to play the game of politics according to its rules rather than recriminating one another.
The prominent Cleric said that Nigerians looked onto them to exhibit some level of maturity expected of people aspiring to be leaders.
Speaking with journalists during a weekly Sunday briefing in his Bishopscourt, Onitsha, Nwokolo appealed to politicians to, instead, focus on issue-based campaigns than taking delight in what he described as campaign of callumny and character assassination.
He said that Nigerians want hear from the politicians the philosophy of their parties and their manifestoes and not unnecessary bickering against one another.
“The way some of them are going about it is unacceptable. Every game, after all, has its rule, and politics is a game, it must therefore be plaid according to its rules. Anything short of that was a misnomer.” The bishop said
The Bishop enjoined Nigerians, especially party supporters, to guard against anything that could disrupt the conduct of the February, 2023 polls.
He pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure a free and fair election by letting the people’s votes to count at the polls.
He advised every Nigerian to maintain watertight political decorum during and after the year’s general elections, saying, “We know we have people in our system who seem uncontrollable, who behave as if they are above the law. But it ought not to be so.
“Comportment and decorum are the duty of everyone; it is the duty of politicians and the voters and everybody to cooperate, and the security agencies are to ensure that the game is plaid according to the rules.
“Everyone will play a part. You are not going to leave it to the politicians, nor will you leave it to the government, nor to the INEC. You, as an individual or a group, if you discover where things are not going well, you are expected to report and say, ‘no, this should not be done like that, that we must do it right’.
“That is what will help our system. Once every one of us is taking positive steps and positive stand on things that partain to our country, our patriotism will be on the high side, and patriotism is what drives a successful nation,” Nwokolo said.
