Chairman of Kaduna Peace Committee, Josiah Idowu-Fearon has urged clerics to live what they preach and stop pointing fingers at others.
He charged Christian and Muslim clerics in the country to seek the face of God in repentance and live by example, saying that religious leader should live the life that is above board.
Idowu-Fearon who gave the charged Tuesday during a Fact File programme of Ray Power F.M monitored in Lagos, regretted that most clerics in the country do not live what they preach.
He said that clerics are expected to speak truth to power and not to take sides with any of the political parties; tribes or any of the interest groups, adding that men and women of God should be honest and speak the truth in love.
“Unfortunately, I am afraid we are not experiencing that in this country at this point in time, and there are many reasons for that; the clerics must live a life that is moderate, a life that is not flamboyant and they must display what we call the principle of the kingdom of God.
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“But you have other clerics who live flamboyantly, who want to drive the latest car in town, how will this not encourage the young people to want to do the same. So clerics must live by example, if you tell others not to play tribalism, clerics must be seen not to be doing that. If you say, ‘don’t play sectionalism’, clerics must not be sectional,” he said.
According to him, “If you say to the people, ‘stop the evil of killing people for the sake of money’, clerics must also live simple lives as Jesus Christ did for Christians or as the Prophet Mohammed did for the Muslims. That should be my simple advice to all of us because today, we are not living what we preach.
“The truth is very clear; God has given to us the blueprint in Koran for the Muslims and the Holy Bible for Christians, if you try to manipulate what the scripture teaches, you end up with where Nigerians are today, because there is no fear of God. There is no love. Even though we talk so much about love and caring but we do not exemplify these things in our own way of life.
“Regrettably, the so -called men of God and women of God who think they are called by God are not living up to this and they need to also repent. We should stop pointing accusing fingers at the Western world, let us look inward.
“Our problems are within us Nigerians, not from the West or the Arab World, I will not accept that. Let’s look inward. God has blessed us and he has told us how to use the blessings he showered on this country. So let the clerics live by example.”
