Elections: Adventist Church tells FG to “respect worshiping days”

Elders of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nigeria has appealed to the federal government to reconsider their appeal of changing the nation’s election day from Saturdays to any of the working days.

The Church stakeholders claimed that letters have been sent to the appropriate government quarters on the need to fix elections for any other day except Saturday.

They noted that their demands were not only limited to just Saturday, but include other two days (Sunday and Friday) which are normally used by Christians and Muslims as their worshiping days.

The newly re-elected President of the Western Union of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nigeria, Pastor Oyeleke Owolabi, who spoke with reporters on behalf of the elders at a press conference in Akure, the Ondo state capital, suggested that it would be proper for the government to choose any working day for elections.

He noted that other countries in the world do not normally conduct elections on Saturday, stressing that such was to allow religious Liberty.

Owolabi added that government should respect religious day, saying Nigerian Constitution permits freedom of religion.

His words, “We are not speaking with a selfish mind, but what we are clamouring for is that elections should not be conducted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays because these days are important worship days for Christians.

“We have our brothers and sisters in other religion who have their own worship day on Fridays and events like elections and other crucial activities are not normally fix for such day.