Collect And Guard Your PVC –  Archbishop Onuoha Tells Nigerians

By George Best Okoroh

In a wake-up call, the Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province (Anglican Communion) His Grace, Most Rev. David Onuoha, PhD, has added his voice to  the call for registered  voters who have not collected their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) said to be ready at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) offices, to do so without further delay.

Most Rev. Onuoha who spoke  in an exclusive interview with our correspondent at the Archbishop  Episcopal villa at Ezeoke  Nsu Ihitte-Uboma LGA, Imo State, was quick to add that the processes do not  end at registration and collection of the PVCs, but safeguarding the PVC’s by not selling them or exchanging them for anything. Rather, proper and paramount is using it to vote wisely on the election days, he stressed.

The Archbishop who marked the second year of his election as Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province (Anglican communion) whose view is not different from that of former President and elder statesman, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo noted that the 2023 general elections will make or mar Nigeria, whence the need to get it right; now that another opportunity has presented itself for Nigerians to do so.

Those who sell their votes according to Most Rev. Onuoha will be re-enacting the story of Esau in the Bible. “Anyone who sells his vote is Esau of the present day, and will end up submitting himself and his family to slavery. And in that case, they should not blame God”, the Prelate said. He noted that Esau sold his birthright only for him to seek it with tears when it was too late. He enjoined Nigerians to involve themselves and participate in all the electoral processes to bring about a new Nigeria..

He postulated that the new Nigeria of our dreams is in the hands of the suffering masses and suggested a paradigm shift void of the primordial narratives of ethnicity and religion allowing the masses to vote in response to their feelings based on what they have passed thruogh under the present administration.

According to the Archbishop; poverty, insecurity, injustice and other vices bedevelling the Nigeria nation have no regards for ethnicity and religion. They cut accross all these, and for the wise; the 2023 general elections should not be between political parties or between the  North and the South, neither should it be Christians versus muslims. It should be  the rich versus the poor, the powerful versus the weak and the lords versus the vassals..

Therefore, “the poor in both religions should unite in this election against those who trouble the land”, the religious leader said. They should unite and vote out the rich who impoverished them and inflicted hardships on the masses. The masses should convince themselves that this election is not North versus South or Christians versus muslims. It is the rich versus the poor.

Archbishop David Onuoha enjoined all those not in politics to critically analyse their operations and performances and state whether they are not affected by the economic and social ills occasioned by bad governance. He emphasised that holiness and righteousness are basics in every human endeavours, regretting  that the duo are lacking in the governance of Nigeria. “Those serving us should do so in holiness and righteousness. Do unto others what you would want them to unto you. That is the golden rule”, Most Rev. Onuoha noted. He pointed out that one cannot appropriate the commonwealth of the masses to himself, family and cronies and at the same time expect to have peace, identifying it as the bane faced by Nigerians.