Poverty in Nigeria worse under Buhari – Bishop Ikeakor
· Says anti-corruption war not enough
Less than 24 hours after the Catholic Bishop of
Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, scored President Muhammadu Buhari
low on the economy, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Amichi, Rt
Rev. Ephraim Ikeakor, has also taken the President to the cleaners.
In an interview with The AUTHORITY, Bishop Ikeakor declared that
the poverty level in Nigeria had not improved under the watch of
President Buhari.
Bishop Ikeakor, who spoke to our correspondent at the Bishop’s
Court, Amichi, Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State,
appealed to the President to sit up with his team and fix the economy
before it collapses.
He said that even though the fight against corruption was welcomed
and commendable, when wrongly prosecuted “it may boomerang hence the
need to fix the economy, compile the names of the looters and come hard
on them rather than playing to the gallery.”
Bishop Ikeakor continued:
“Then, coming to Dasukigate, all I can say is that we have
problems in this country. For those who can advise our leaders, I want
to paint a picture of what we are seeing in Nigeria.
“Nobody is commending corruption; nobody is aiding or abetting
corruption but like I said in the case of the Indigenous Peoples of
Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign
State of (MASSOB), when you fight a battle with the wrong approach,
you’re going to cause more disaster. Here you are shouting that you
inherited a government that is almost collapsing or is dead.
“Assuming it is a hospital and somebody in a coma is brought to
you. As a doctor, would you abandon the person in a coma to start
looking for who caused the sickness? The first thing is to treat this
person in coma before looking for the cause. What am I driving at? The
fight against corruption is right but the timing may boomerang. The
duty of the present government now is to fix this country so that it
can start working.
“Our education is collapsing; our economy is going down the drain;
there seems to be confusion in everything. Poverty is growing
exponentially and we are abandoning these things and saying we want to
arrest this person, arrest that person at this onset.
“You have four years, why should this first year be a year of
arrests? That is my own view. Let the problems of Nigeria be treated by
its leadership first. Let them sit down and make a comprehensive list
of who these people are,” he said.
On the face-off between former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra
State and his successor, Governor Willie Obiano, Bishop Ikeakor said: “I
don’t know what you’re talking about. They have a private matter. They
should settle it with each other. Politicians have their way of handling
themselves and if you throw yourself in there, you may become the
scapegoat. When they will resolve it, you’ll not be there.
What you’ll see again is where they’re waving at you in the
television. So they know what their problem is. They have not told us.
Let them not, because of their personal gains and interests, destroy our
dear state.
“Both of them are wonderful people. Nobody can deny that Peter Obi
did great work in Anambra State. Anybody undermining it is an enemy of
progress. We can’t also take it away from Chief Willie Obiano that he
has picked up a lot of things Obi started and he is working on them. So,
two of them are great men we have produced but let them throw away
their selfish desires and work together for the good of the state.”
The Bishop said Governor Obiano needs to listen to the church if he must succeed.
“You must listen to the people who will tell you the truth,
eyeball to eyeball. It is the church that will tell our governor the
bitter truth. These men and women running around him are only interested
in what they can get from him,” Ikeakor stated.
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