Speaking at the ceremony, Nigeria’s Acting President,
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan appealed to religious leaders to support government
in the fight against corruption and other vices plaguing the country, “we plead
with our Christian brothers and sisters to ensure that we don’t support
corruption and other evils currently affecting our country”.
Descibing the outgone Primate Archibishop Peter
Akinola as a vibrant preacher, Jonathan said, “I believe in what you have been
saying. As I was coming for this programme, I was wondering whether the new
Primate would be able to fit into your shoes because he looks more gentle than
myself but after listening to his sermon, I bowed.”
Highpoint of the occasion was the decoration of
Archibishop Okoh with insignia of the Anglican church by the out-gone primate
Akinola with applause from the crowd.
Speaking
after his installation, Archbishop Okoh reiterated the commitment of the Church of Nigeria under his tenure to continuing
with the fight against same sex marriage, “They have spent a huge sum of money
to pervert and undermine this institution, the family. They want us to accept
homosexual lifestyle and same sex union as normal as marriage between male and
female and we said we are sorry, we dissociate ourselves”
On the Niger Delta, the new Primate commended
President Umaru Yar’Adua for initiating the amnesty programme and urged
government to vigorously pursue the amnesty programme to its logical
conclusion. He assured that the Church
of Nigeria would support
government in the actualization of projects aimed at revamping education and
the health sector in the country. Primate Okoh also called on Christians with
good leadership qualities to join politics instead of criticizing from the
background, “Jesus Christ is Lord over politics and election. He is Lord over
our private and public life. So, if you want to transform a society, and you
have what it takes, the patience, the perseverance and ability to endure
persecution, come out and take part and things will get better bit by bit”. On
Jos Crisis, the cleric urged government to bring to book all the perpetrators
of the killings, “They should not be allowed to go free. The law should be made
to follow them because if it doesn’t happen, we will get into a state of where
dog eats dog,” he stated.
Leave a Reply