By 'Gbenga Bankole
The District Superintendent and Pastor-in-Charge of Christ Apostolic Church, Bethel Toronto, Pastor Amos Dada has said that the Church and religious organizations should henceforth be major components in fighting corruption and to do this the Church must have a paradigm shift in her operational, teaching and preaching strategies.
In a term paper entitled “Fighting Corruption in Nigeria & Africa” obtained by CAC News, Pastor Dada further said that the Church must take responsibility for the ills in the society and seek to correct it using kingdom principles.
He noted that the Church should be people focused, develop and produce fearless, courageous, honest, holy, integrity focused and responsible Christians ready to fight for the kingdom and fight corruption in Nigeria and beyond.
The Cleric stressed that like David, we must be able to turn the debtors, distressed, the prostitutes and all sinners, to mighty warriors, saints who will turn Nigeria around for good, adding that consumerism message of the pulpit is consuming the nation, a message of hard work, productivity, perseverance and resilience will help the polity.
Pastor Dada urged Christians to be the change agent saying that "Unfortunately, most Nigerians and Africans point to others as the corrupt one. Everyone that wants to marry is looking for the right person, the issue is, are you the right person? Be the Nigerian that has a clean hand, not corrupt, not the problem but the reformer, repairer, not the bribe giver or taker, not the cheater. Every solution that is proffered in this paper or any paper or speech is driven by this point, the necessity for you the reader to change and be the right person.”
“In every endeavor it is you and I that are involved in human transactions and if everyone will resolve not to be part of any corruption and be the change agent to fight corruption, we shall have a better nation and continent. We must stop giving excuses for being corrupt. Hunger, poverty, lack etc are cheap excuses to destruction. There is no one without a need, find a way to meet your need in a way that does not involve corruption! There are no ‘magic bullets’ in the fight against corruption, but in Roy Cullen’s book, The Poverty of Corrupt Nations, a Twenty Point Plan is offered as a way of attacking these vexing problems.”
“War with Integrity. Fight for the cause of the Kingdom. We are to subdue, dominate, and restore God’s glory to humanity. We are to war against power and principalities that want to steal, kill and destroy our nation. They want to destroy our children, marriages careers, businesses and eco- system. We recognize these demons have been defeated thousands of years ago, so you are fighting to bring the righteousness and rule of the kingdom of God into your sphere of influence. We must live and teach integrity in the market and academic place. It is a shame for Christians to be stealing, and engaging in corrupt practices. Those are the things you are to fight. We are to attack ungodliness with righteousness and integrity, attack darkness with light, attack ignorance with knowledge and attack hatred with love. Success they say is the best revenge, we say, integrity is the cure for corruption.”