INTRODUCTION

Political Leaders decide what happens in the land of their jurisdiction. Whether we realize it or not, these people are – or are supposed to be – God’s representatives to us. Just like the minister of the Gospel – perhaps a Pastor or a Prophet – is an ambassador of God to the people He is sent, so is the political leader to the land he leads.
In terms of public representation, the leader, whether political or religious, is supposed to always represent God, and act in His stead. No matter what happens in the state, certain things should never be tampered with in the man leading the people. Things like His integrity should never have a minus attached to it.

As a Minister of the Gospel, I have come to realize that most of the people that are pulled to a Pastor and to the messages he preaches, do not come because they think the man is anointed of God. No matter how anointed a man of God is, he is still a man, and most people will not follow him because of the anointing they think he has. But nobody can resist a truly honest man. When he leads, people automatically follow. Honesty is what pulls people to men of God – whether the honesty is true or faked. And whether the man only shows himself to the public to be a honest man, but does something else in private. Once people know – or even think – that a leader is honest, something inside of them want to be led, even if to a certain degree, by the influence of that leader.
Even in the context of marriage, people do not want to get married to someone of beauty, who cannot be trusted. The beauty of a woman can attract men to her but what is sure to keep them is her character – one of which is Honesty. And even after the marriage contract has been signed, character – more than charisma – is what keeps marriages going.
People don't usually recognize the economic value of integrity because we want to eat today and die tomorrow. Rather, a wise man uses the currency of integrity to buy the future. The future is very cheap but the present is costly. It is amazing today, how many people place a very low value on integrity.

When you pour water on the floor, it gradually flows in one or two directions. That is the way cities expand. They usually expand in one or two directions. A wise person studies the trend and goes to where the city will expand into in the years to come, then buys land there. In the years to come, the city will catch up with that land and its price will shoot up.
A leader should believe in the success of the people who follow Him. That is one of the main purposes of this book. To point us to some of the things to look out for, when choosing our political leaders.

As Christians, we vote for values, and not just on the basis of political parties. Whenever the season of election comes around, there is always a clamor for the right person to empower with our votes. This is always a question in the minds of the voters.
When choosing political leaders to vote for, we all want to put on the presiding seat, someone who will selflessly pursue the progress and development of the people and the entire community.

And this has to start with the church of God. The principle of social reformation states that “as goes the church, so goes the society.” If the church lowers her standards, the standard of the society would only be in the dusts.
As the Bible said in Proverbs 14:34, Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin [is] a reproach to any people. (KJV)

GUIDELINES TO CHOOSING A POLITICAL LEADER
As we have agreed in the previous pages, the political leader is supposed to be a representation of the God of heaven. If this is true, then there must be things that the political leader must have inside of his person, to qualify as a worthy representative of God.
And who else would have the marking scheme, if not the God who is to be represented?
And we have the answer. He gave it to us in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20

When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that [are] about me; Thou shalt in any wise set [him] king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: [one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which [is] not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of [that which is] before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, [to] the right hand, or [to] the left: to the end that he may prolong [his] days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel. (KJV)

From the above passage, we can agree that God has described to us, the kind of leader we must choose to lead us, when we come to choose our leaders. For ease of reference, I have marked them out in the above passages.
Shall we explore each of the points?

1. “…Whom the LORD thy God shall choose…”
The first quality of the leader we must choose, is that he has to be someone chosen by God. And the only way to know whom God has chosen is to ask Him in prayer. We are supposed to seek the face of God in prayer, and then allow the hand of God to influence our conscience in making the right choice of a leader. It would be very wrong to vote a man into power just because He is from a particular denomination of the church, or because he is from a particular ethnic group.

2. “…[one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee…”
The Bible says that we should set one who is among our brethren. This means that the leader – whoever you vote for – must be someone who is a bonafide and patriotic citizen of the nation. And no, this doesn’t mean just anyone who parades himself as a native of the nation or region. He has to have been a patriot in not just words, but in both deeds and heritage.
Secondly, he has to be a son of the household of faith. It would be very unwise for Children of the Promise to sell their votes to Esau for a pot of red lentils. Like in the time of Moses, complaining to a Pharaoh about the hardship that the people are facing would only bring more hardship on the already suffering people. As God told Abraham, the Son of the Bond woman is not supposed to be heir to the promise.
To put it in black and white, I am saying that it would be very unwise to give our votes to someone who does not have the DNA of God in Him. Let him who has an ear hear these things I have written.
The leader to be chosen must be someone who worships the one true God of Heaven, and lives by God’s laws. We can take the Ten Commandments for starters.
God had said: “Thou shalt not kill…” (Exodus 20:13). So anyone who has been known to kill others, especially when the killed were innocent, should never be allowed to sit on the Throne. Such a person should never be empowered by our votes.
There is an old adage that states that Leopards never shed their spots. It also applies to the corruption in the heart of a Pharaoh. If you empower a killer into power, he would always do that which he has always done, and will only kill more.

3. “…But he shall not multiply horses to himself…”
In the time of Moses, when these words were written, horses used to be known as beasts of burden. They were even more importantly, known for their strength and therefore were used to carry soldiers during battles. According to the commentaries from several scripture scholars, what the above passage was talking about, was weapons of warfare.
Therefore, the leader who we must choose must not multiply ammunitions and military might just for himself. If he is to provide any kind of security, it must be for the safety of the citizens and not just for his personal protection.

4. “…nor cause the people to return to Egypt…”
Egypt, at the time of these writings, represented slavery of all kinds, represented occultism, represented idolatry. This was because Egyptians were known to be well versed and very dexterous in the dark arts of Sorcery, Witchcraft, and Idolatry. That can still be said of the land of Egypt even till this day.
Whoever must lead us, as a people, must not cause occultism and idolatry to multiply in the society. In the quest for power, most politicians get involved in blood rituals, where they have to kill someone to gain power, and most times, it happens that they offer the blood of innocent people to these evil gods to whom they bow.
We must, as a people, make sure that we do not use our vote to put on the Throne, someone who has to kill one of us to sacrifice to one idol or the other, just in the quest for power.

5. “…Neither shall he multiply wives to himself…”
Research has shown, and even common sense dictates, that political leaders who cannot manage their homes with a single woman and children, cannot deal with the higher matters of the state.
Through the annals of history, from the time of King David, who was one of the greatest political leaders known to have walked the earth, down to our present time, from Alexandra the great, who conquered the known world in his youth, from the time of the Trojan wars, down till very recently, Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods to mention just a select few, we can see that great leaders have always been known to make stupid mistakes in their otherwise outstanding power of judgment, because of the influence of a woman other than the first one they got married to.
It is common knowledge that emotions cloud reasoning.
According to Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich, men who use their sexual energies indiscriminately never make sound judgments, especially when it has to do with issues concerning the lives of others.
And this is why it seems men become more stable and focused in life, in business and career, and in their finances, once they get married to one wife and settle down with her, as long as man and wife both love each other.
Once he introduces a second wife, he gets dragged this way and that emotionally, and it takes a toll on his decision-making faculties.
This is why God admonishes in the passage we were reading, that the man to be chosen must be someone who does not multiply wives to himself.
What it means is that whoever we are to give our vote to, must have only one wife, in a stable family that is healthy, happy and well-structured.
This is why in the Western politics, Politicians involved in scandals of a sexual nature are immediately removed from office. It is one of the principles that have kept the West as top world power.
Simply put, Immorality corrodes mentality.

6. “…neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold…”
I believe this line is self explanatory.
Whoever we must choose to lead our people must be someone who is not more interested in fattening his bank account than he is in the collective wealth of the nation and of the individuals on the streets and in the offices.
Whoever we are to vote for, must be a man of financial integrity. He must one who is not corrupt, and is known to have gained unexplainable wealth. He has to be one of transparent honesty.

7. “…he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of [that which is] before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein…”
Here, God is giving us another very important principle.
In the days when Moses penned these words, the only law the Israelites had were those found in the Talmud – which was their scripture of those days.
Here, God is saying that whoever must lead us, must be a man who has his own copy of the scriptures. The man must be known to have his own Bible, to study it day and night, and to live by it in all he does.
Whoever does not fit into this quality should not be given our vote whatsoever. This is because whatever law the leader proposes has a high chance of being signed into. If the leader is going to represent God, how can he lead us as a representation of God, if he doesn’t know the laws of God, as contained in the scriptures?
Also, this ensures that the man who must hold power must be controlled by a higher power, and be held accountable to that higher power. There is no power higher than God. If the man cannot be held accountable by the laws of God, then he can just wake up one day and do whatever he likes, and there would be nothing any man can do about it. After all, by this time, you must have already given him the only power you have to keep him away from the throne – which is your right to vote.
These points, culled from Deuteronomy 17:14-20, should always judge our choice of political leaders. If this is the case, we would never have a cause to regret voting one person or the other into power of any form.
As you vote in this season of elections, remember that the person you want to sit on the throne in someone whom God has chosen, and not just some stranger who is going to come and take us back to bondage. So exercise your God-given right.
Go out and vote.

And follow these guidelines.
God bless you all.
Dr David Ogbueli