The National Director of Politics and Governance of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Femi Emmanuel, has called on Nigerian Christians to get involved in politics at all levels if they want to see a change in the system of governance.

He said it was totally wrong for any Christian to say politics is dirty, noting that it was because of this disposition that “we abandon it for dirty people”.

Emmanuel, who doubles as the Lead Pastor, Living Spring Chapel International, made this call at a forum held in Lagos on Thursday, where he also urged Christians to not only get their Permanent Voters Card but also join political parties to have a say on who gets the parties’ tickets.

“You will not lose your salvation if you go into politics. I was the deputy speaker in the (Oyo State) House of Assembly. My anointing did not reduce. My understanding of the scripture did not reduce. I came out of it to be the pastor that I am today.

“It is a fallacy to say politics is dirty. If you leave a dress for a mad person, he will turn it into rags. Nigeria has been torn into shreds because we have abandoned it in the hands of these people. To dispel darkness, we must switch on the light. We are the light of the world. Why not take your light there and dispel darkness.

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I always tell people that even as a classroom teacher, you can be corrupt if you want to. You can exploit your pupils. Politics is the act of governance and administration. In fact, in the Bible, to be in governance is a calling. The Bible said, ‘There is no power that be except the one that is established by God.’ It is because we have left it for selfish, corrupt people to fester their own net and have done that for so long. They own the platform and that is what makes it dirty,” he said.

Emmanuel also described as ‘strange’ the brand of democracy practised in Nigeria, where persons could own political parties.