Former presidential candidate, Peter Obi has addressed the controversy surrounding his suggestion to convert church vigils into night shifts, stating that his words were twisted and misrepresented.
Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 candidate, initially made the comment during an interview on the Honest Bunch podcast, emphasizing that Nigeria’s poverty and unproductivity stem from an overemphasis on politics and religion.
He argued that attending church services from Monday to Friday takes up too much time, sparking mixed reactions among Nigerians.
Many criticized his stance as an infringement on religious traditions.
In response to the backlash, Obi’s media aide, Ibrahim Umar, issued a Sunday statement claiming that Obi’s words were taken out of context.
“Our attention has been drawn to a huge twist in his recent media interview, saying erroneously that he called for the dismantling of churches in Nigeria,” the statement read.
According to Umar, Obi is a man of strong faith who respects all religions and aimed to highlight the importance of worshiping through work.
He referenced Apostle James’ phrase, “Faith without Works is unhelpful,” and noted that Jesus Christ chose his disciples from among workers, not those praying.
His message, Umar said, emphasized the need to balance work and prayer, rather than exchanging work for prayer.
“There is no evidence in the scripture that Jesus blessed an idle person.
“When Obi said that he would turn night vigil into production night, he was only stressing the importance of worshipping God through work.
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“Even Jesus Christ never picked any of his 12 disciples where they were praying but where they were working: fishermen, tax collectors, etc.
“Proverbs 14:23 even copiously explains what happens if you fail to work: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
“What we are doing in Nigeria, which is what Obi’s interview is highlighting as wrong and should discontinue is exchanging work for prayer when the two should go together.
“There is no evidence in the scripture where Jesus Blessed an idle person; rather, we see abundant evidence of him blessing hard work as captured in the Parable of the Three Servants (Mathew 25 Vs14-30). The servant who delivered greater profit out of harder work got a bigger blessing.
“The problem In some of Nigeria’s worshipping communities is that they are not following St James advisory (James.1.22) that we should be ‘doers of the words’
“So, Peter Obi’s media office wishes to put it in an unmistakable tone that the slant being given to our Principal’s interview by some media houses negates the essence and should be disregarded.
“As a man whose campaign mantra is on taking Nigeria from consumption to production, and watching the country going down because of lack of production, Obi’s message should resonate properly away from the intention of mischief makers.
“Obi’s two main quotes in the interview ‘It’s attractive, politics and church, but it has to be dismantled. We are going to turn night vigil into night shift so that people can be productive,’ all try to explain what is wrong in our worshipping culture that should change so that we can be in a good state of mind and body while glorifying our creator.”
