On the state of the nation Cardinal Okogie It is the responsibility of  government everywhere in the world to provide the enabling environment for the citizens to eke a living. In the case of my country Nigeria, it appears the reverse is the case. The poor masses are left to roam about without proper guidance; and so majority continue to wallop in penury in the midst of plenty. So much have been said and written about the 16 years misrule of the People’s Democratic Party. Many more policy analysts will readily tell you that the problem with Nigeria originated right from independence in 1960. Be that as it may, the swearing-in of President Muhammadu Buhari last year was perceived as a  milestone in the people’s quest for positive change and improvement in their quality of life. But a year later, the people are still grumbling. Indeed, the hardship has  doubled. Thousands of workers are being laid off every day; the value of the naira is falling while  states are owing  workers months of unpaid salaries. Buhari may mean well for the country, but so far, his actions and utterances have failed to help put food on the table of the average Nigerian. So, my advice to Mr. President and his associates is this: do not take the goodwill that you enjoy from Nigerians for granted. Do all that is necessary to revamp the economy before things get out of hand. On renewed N-Delta militancy For the years that the late Musa Yar’Adua and his successor, Goodluck Jonathan, held sway, we saw drastic reduction in the activities of militants in the Niger Delta. Unfortunately, the militants are now back to the trenches under different pseudonyms. Their recent attacks on oil facilities in the region are daily crippling the country’s capacity to produce oil. The oil and gas pipelines bombed in Warri West Local Government Area have also worsened electricity generation plan of government. How long would this continue?  One thing is certain. Ours is a mono-economy that relies solely on oil for our foreign exchange earnings. With the sorry state of our economy, we cannot at this crucial time afford the stalling of oil production in the Niger Delta. That would further put the country’s finances in a precarious situation. I am aware that the Niger Delta Avengers have reeled out a number of conditions to be met before they can agree on a ceasefire. I am equally aware that President Buhari has vowed to deal decisively with the militants. Only few days ago, the dailies reported that the military invaded Gbaramatu Kingdom believed to be the hometown of a wanted ex-militant, Tompolo. While condemning the disruption of our oil facilities under any guise, I equally want to stress that the use of military force is not the best solution. It would only aggravate the situation. I therefore want to plead with President Buhari to consider dialogue as a major option to end the crisis. Considering the high casualty rate and huge losses so far expended in our on-going fight against Boko Haram, it would not be out of place to settle the Niger-Delta issue without wasting human lives. Equally, I want to plead with the aggrieved militants to please sheathe their swords and allow for mediation. On herdsmen’s excesses One of the most contentious issues facing the present administration is the carnage linked to herdsmen in some parts of the country. We are all too familiar with the Agatu killings and the massacre in Nimbo, Enugu State. Firstly, I want to use this medium to express my condolences to families of the deceased and pray that the good Lord will comfort them in their period of grief. The loss of lives in any form is very sad, particularly if such lives are cut short in tragic circumstances as the attacks by the herdsmen. Such barbaric acts only dehumanize us. Some have opined that the failure of the President to make a public pronouncement immediately the issue came to national discourse is borne out of his affinity to those concerned. That aside, I want to reiterate that it is the responsibility of government to safeguard the lives of its citizens. No life is more important than the other. The questions many are asking are: who provides the herdsmen with AK 47 weapons? Are the herdsmen truly Nigerians or extension of the Boko Haram sect members particularly as global terrorist watch have listed them as a number on terrorist list? However, I am glad at the outcome of the recent courtesy visit of the Catholic Bishops to the President during which he gave an express order to the law enforcement agents to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly acts and bring them to book. Such a move, if well executed, will go a long way to restore the people’s confidence in government. Meanwhile, a lasting solution must be found to placate the herdsmen and restrain them from invading farmlands. I gathered that the National Assembly is seriously considering creating designated areas for them in the North for grazing purposes. This, I believe, is a right step in the right direction. On fight against corruption One of the slogans of the APC last year during the electioneering campaigns was the fight against corruption. Coming in the wake of alleged endemic looting credited to past administrations, cleansing the land of supposed corrupt elements was perceived as a sure way of stabilizing the country and entrenching speedy growth and development. The past one year has seen the present administration making spirited efforts to recover looted funds and prosecuting the offenders. Despite these, Nigeria’s perceived reputation as one of the most corrupt nations was re-iterated by Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain on the eve of an international parley when he branded Nigeria as fantastically corrupt. The psychological impact of that statement made before Queen Elizabeth II is still fresh in the minds of many of us. While it is true that corruption has become endemic in this country, I also want to stress unequivocally that there are still men and women of high integrity who have not sold their birthrights to the monster called corruption. We must therefore not shy from telling the rest of the world, when the occasion arises, that there are still honest Nigerians among us. How can we best do this? By joining government to expose the corrupt and unrepentant elements amongst us, no matter their identity, tribe or religious inclinations. I want to commend the President for his commitment to clean the polity. There is also need for him to be systematic in the fight so that even after he leaves office, the structure in place would make it difficult for corruption to thrive as has always been the case. There have been complaints by members of the opposing party that the fight has been selective and only targeted at the PDP. The President must respond to this proactively by allowing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to truly work independently, based on facts and figures at their disposal. It does not matter the party the accused belongs to; anyone found wanting should be made to face the music. That is the only way the President can prove to all that “he belongs to all and to no one,” On Biafra agitation Many of us who witnessed the pogrom that is the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970 are yet to come to terms with the devastating effect that war could have in a society like ours. That is why it is imperative that we do not have a repeat of a civil war. God forbid. Mr President should therefore do the needful by releasing Mr. Nnamdi Kanu as a sign that he is ready to dialogue with his pro-Biafra group. He must remember that it is the right of any group to peacefully seek for secession if they feel marginalized in their present abode. The use of force is never the right approach to quell such agitation. As the father of all, let him do the needful by addressing the issues that led to the agitation in the first place. On Chibok girls It is good news that some of them are trickling in but among those found, some people are still doubting if these girls are among the over 200 girls we are talking about because not until there is  proof that they really belong to this group of girls. Right now, I have not seen any parent or guardian that came out to claim that yes, the girl is his or her daughter.
On Rev. Father Mbaka’s claim that those who transferred him wanted  him dead As a priest I was shocked when I heard that from his mouth. Nobody will take your life if God did not sanction it. That he was wanted dead, who told him that? Were assassins sent  after him or he was only imagining it or he saw it in a vision as he always says he always sees visions? These are highly contestable and as a priest what will he say about death? Why must he fear about death? And that he was not happy about the transfer, why is he a priest? A priest should be ready to go anywhere. I was in the war front two years after my ordination as a priest. If he was not happy about his transfer, then there is something wrong about his priesthood. His priesthood should come to question. On the present administration applauding former President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat in last year’s elections. The truth cannot be hidden. That President Buhari commended former President Goodluck Jonathan is an open confession. President Buhari has to be very careful because people are watching him and people are saying why can’t he take his inaugural speech, meditate on it and start afresh. I think why the government is not getting it right is because of the ministerial list, various candidates from different quarters and he was trying to satisfy them and that is why we are in this mess today. Reflections on CAN… When we started this association, the CCN, CSN  realized that there were other Christian groups who were not members and  decided to bring them in. Gradually, other people that came in tried to disorganize us. I was there for eight years as CAN President and the others were not satisfied, they wanted to lead because they had hidden agenda, After that, Sunday Mbang came in who was a Methodist and also a member of CCN. He made a bad decision by warming up to President Olusegun Obasanjo and since that time OBJ did not have respect for us (CAN) because we sold our birthright. During my tenure as CAN leader, any time we wanted to meet, we did not source for fund from  government. We did it on our own. During the Kaduna riot, I and my Secretary had to sort out ourselves financially. But unfortunately when these gentlemen started coming in, they wanted to see the governor, President and money started rolling in.  In this situation, what effect could they make?. I know how Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor came in, they were all saying it was time for the Pentecostals to be the President of CAN and I replied that the leadership is not about turn by turn and that is why we are where we are today. In the last election, some people came to me and asked me to vote for them and I asked why should I vote for them. I am sorry to say this, what is happening there is a disgrace to Christianity. On the Kaduna State religion regulation bill We are watching, these people are attempting to islamise this country but they are failing. They have been on it for a long time and God did not allow it to happen. El-Rufai has caused a lot of problems since he assumed office as Kaduna governor. He will just get up and take a decision without thinking about the repercussion. He said he did it in Federal Capital Territory and people only shouted but he had his way. He is always at loggerheads with Christians. There was a time he made a statement that Jesus Christ is just an ordinary human being like every other person, no divinity about him. He admitted that Jesus Christ is a prophet but not a great prophet while Prophet Muhammed is the greatest prophet. How can he be uttering these statements? Is it because of his position. He has to be checked. The second person we have to check is Governor Amosun. He and El-Rufai are very close to President Buhari. Anytime Mr. President is travelling, it is either Amosun or El-Rufai is there already or meet Buhari in such place. Why will El-Rufai destroy this country with religious statements.  Does he know what is called war? El-Rufai must be watched, he does things without passing through the House of Assembly and the funny thing is that Buhari will never talk and that is wrong. What kind of father is that? He’s supposed to be the father of the nation. In one of my comments, I said they want to destroy our youths so that they will not come up.  Look at their own youths, majority of them are Almajiris begging left, right and centre. On what the Christian community can do in the face of all challenges They should hold fast to their faith; even when they try to make them deny their God, deny their beliefs, they should hold fast to their faith. When I was the President of CAN, the Federal Government gave us N100 million to build a cathedral and also asked the Muslim to build such a thing in Abuja but I told my colleagues that we were not collecting the money but to show you the kind of people we have in Christendom, some of my colleagues said even if we did not want it, we could put it in the bank and when they need their money back we give it to them and we keep the interest. Christians should not be afraid but bold to confront challenges. There is a pastor that abused El-Rufai and he said he will die and they said he is not dead yet. I think that man should be checked and at least warned, he should remember that Nigeria is not his whole constituency and he should not be talking carelessly because he is in office, they are there today, tomorrow it will be somebody else.[b] As I said earlier, the real problem with the Buhari administration is that this one will bring his candidate notwithstanding if such person can perform or not, and another will bring his. He should change three quarters of the ministers. They did not know where they are going, that is the problem. Lai Muhammed challenged me on a write up that I wrote tagged ‘Enough is enough’. He came to my house one Sunday night with Chief Jim Nwobodo and said  I should have asked for audience with the Head of State and he would have granted me such instead of writing such article. I asked him to tell me what was wrong with the article that I wrote and that if not for Alhaji Bola Tinubu, he will not be where he is now. He replied that he has been together with Tinubu right from his youthful days. I know how Buhari came in. I warned Tinubu seriously when they were debating about Muslim, Muslim ticket. I told him, `Bola, I do not care if you produce two devils or Muslims provided the two Muslims are patriotic and fear God’. He said his main concern which was giving him sleepless night was to drive the PDP away and that he had got the solution. Tinubu asked me if I knew Buhari and I replied that was he not that man that did examination three times and failed? I said `Bola, he will fail again’ but he replied that he will not fail because he had gone round and that politics is a game of numbers. He said if Buhari was dying tomorrow and he went to the North to present him as candidate, he was sure to get over two million votes. He was even boasting that Buhari had changed or that they will change him.[/b]

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/told-tinubu-buhari/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/told-tinubu-buhari/

Revealing

rightly dividing the word of truth