2015 POLL: PASTOR OKOTIE AND HIS PRESIDENTIAL PACT WITH HIS GOD

Senior Pastor of the Household of God Church, Ikeja, Lagos, Rev. Chris Okotie, has declared his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election.

The pop star turned cleric told PUNCH that he’s ready to take another shot at the nation’s top job, after two failed attempts.

Okotie disclosed that he would contest for Presidency under the Fresh Democratic Party, a platform he founded but was de-registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, last year.

However, a court verdict in June, 2013 invalidated the action, ordering the electoral umpire to maintain status quo.

“I will run in 2015, God willing,” the cleric confirmed. “God spoke to me about my participation in the political process, which was why I took the step in the first place. He has not said anything contrary.”

“God has instructed me to go ahead” he told PUNCH in a recent interview.

When asked why he lost past elections even with the claims that he was being instructed by God to contest, Chris Okotie said, “these election questions are inter-related. If they didn’t rig, then I could have won. Apart from election malpractices, the duty of a servant of God is to obey his master when he gives him instructions, irrespective of whether he fails or succeeds. Like Moses in the Bible, who kept fighting until Pharaoh released the Israelites.

 “Those who opined that my presidential ambition is a dramatic serialisation of a political whim are indeed the unintelligent who seek to fathom the Okotie enigma. I consider such people a necessary comic relief from the tedium of the day. Why would I jeopardise my life, deplete my domestic economy, engage political rascals, hoodlums  and brigands and threaten the stability of my  ecclesiastical responsibility if I’m not fully persuaded that this a heavenly calling? My only reply to these gainsayers is, delay is no denial.” He further said.

 Re-affiriming his controversial statement on the Roman Catholic, he said “It is because the church perverts the gospel of Jesus Christ and that perversion is located in the leadership. Even as Pope Francis recently announced. However, there are many good Christians within the Catholic Church who are not aware of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church,  that has substituted Mary for Jesus, in what is known as the hyperdulia of the Virgin Mary. Salvation for them is not through Jesus alone but in accordance with what Pope Francis recently announced to the world. That, in itself, is a direct violation of the sanctity of the scriptures.

Defending his flamboyant fashion style and hairstyle, the controversial pastor said “Pastors are human beings, right? We could be fashionable like everyone else. King Solomon, the servant of God was the most fashionable icon in his day. My hair style is part of my fashion statement. I have no misgivings at all. Also, I do not wear jerry curls. It is now old fashioned. There are better innovations in hair styling today.