A cleric, Arome Tokula, Senior Pastor of Christ Family Centre, Abuja, says Nigeria will rise from all its challenges and become a greater nation.

Mr Tokula spoke to journalists after the church’s special Independence service tagged “The Conversation: The Nigeria of our Dreams”.

“I believe that we are at a very defining season, I can feel the birthmark of change, and I know that this birthmark will lead to the delivery of the next phase of the nation.

“With the things happening and with the level of awareness and consciousness, it is just obvious that what we have been praying for is close,” he said.

The senior pastor, however, said the country must take steps to deal with the challenges of insecurity to secure the lives of citizens and their property.

The clergyman advised politicians to always put the country’s people first in whatever they do.

“Politicians have to change the narrative that you can’t cling to power and neglect people for too long because eventually, it is about the people.

“Politicians have to start addressing issues, hear what the people are saying and address it. They should not come with the usual rhetoric and regular promises,” he added.

Mr Tokula advised the electorate to assess every politician to ensure that they would be able to take the country “where we need to go”.

“If you are handling a project which I call the Nigerian project, you do not do a project because you like it, you do a project because the recipients need it.

“So we should look out for candidates who have a plan or a track record that we can attest to.

“We have seen what they have done before, which gives us the confidence for what they can do, as such things like competence, capacity, should be factored when going to the next election,” he said.

The cleric cautioned the electorate against selling their votes, saying doing so would lead to unending dangers to the country.

According to him, most of those selling their votes are in rural areas because they don’t know what it is worth and are ignorant of the consequences.

He said the church would continue sensitising the youth against electoral violence through seminars and conferences.

(NAN)