Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye has tasked Nigerians to demand accountability from elected representatives.
This, he said, will go a long in deepening democratic and participatory governance in Nigeria
Adeboye gave the charge last Sunday at the Special Prayer and Thanksgiving for Professors, lecturers, teachers, youth Corps, students and their families at the RCCG Headquarters, The Throne of Grace, Ebute-Metta, Lagos.
The event tagged rising stars attracted thousands of students, lecturers and academia for different parts of the country
He said Nigeria should be prepared to hold leaders to account.
“The issue of song praising corrupt leaders and given them titles is actually establishing, amplifying and concretising deterioration of the state.
“In the community where I grew up, if anyone is found to be a thief, he or she will be ex-communicated from the community but today people give excuses for corrupt leaders because he or she is from their tribe or culture.”
Adeboye, who spoke through the Assistant General Overseer, Administration and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odesola, said: “I have not seen anywhere who has gone to jail and is still in politics and holding public offices.
“It will take goodwill and strong courage for Nigeria to move forward. God will help us, but we should learn from nations where law and order has broken down”.
Adeboye noted that Nigeria was expected to be a rising star but bedeviled by a lot of problems ranging from insincerity, non-challant attitude towards accountability and corruption that have all continued to dwarf the status of the nation as a star in Africa and comity of nations.
He described ‘star’ as a burning gas that needs a substance inside to become a rising star, adding that leaders in Nigeria would continue to be ordinary burning gas until they allow God to empower them from inside, without whom they can do nothing.
“They have been spending money on education, health, roads and light but with nothing to show for it because the vacuum of the true and righteous God in them is not filled.
“God is the solution to our problems and as long as leaders refuse to recognize this salient truth and give Him position in their hearts, they would continue to chase shadows and have no answer to their confession that Nigeria’s problems are so complicated that as they are solving one, other bigger ones are raising up their ugly heads to the extent that the latter would even rubbish the problems they thought they have solved,” he said.
Adeboye further charged government to stop paying lip service to education but fund it robustly and equip higher institutions with every necessary aid to carry out research and begin to perform like similar institutions in developed nations.
He said the government should show more commitment and pay more attention to uplifting our universities where we have the best brains, adding that given the proper environment and needed tools to function, they would bring innovations into many sectors and boost our image and economy.
