The Archbishop elect, Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity Anglican Communion, Niger Delta Province, Most Rev. Tunde Adeleye has said that Nigeria is deeply sick.
Addressing a press conference in Calabar on Monday to mark the 2018 Synod of the Church, the Archbishop lamented that Nigeria has derailed from what the country was known for.
“Nigeria is failing as a nation, if not failed already. The rail on which the foundation of Nigeria was laid is rusted under our feet.
“We left the path our founders laid for us. We cannot now say that what we have now is what Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe etc fought for.
“I said in a meeting recently that if any of these people should wake up from their graves today and see what is going on in Nigeria, they might prefer to die again.”
He listed thirty-four problems afflicting Nigeria including: corruption, kidnapping, nepotism, terrorism, unemployment, insecurity assassinations and ethnicity.
Others were: diseases, strikes, lack of patriotism, greediness, no road, eye service, deceit, wicked negligence and abandonment of youth, malicious negligence of the aged, marginalization of ethnic group, witch-hunting, vandalism and religious segmentation leading to collusion.
He also listed thoroughly-failed government institutions, non-functional economy, painlessness – no human development, inequality in Nigeria, poverty, tribalism, violence, bad leadership, non ideological and directionless political parties, election rigging, demise of democracy, countless political parties and menace of herdsmen.
The Archbishop elect proffered 12 point-solutions which included: federalism, state police, financial autonomy, state to design her education policy, resource control, survival/prevalence of fundamental human right, separation of power, states constitution, no state religion, states should establish and maintain their own schools, criminal justice should be a combined responsibility of the state and federal government.
He said, “Judging from these, it is clear that Nigeria is not operating the federal system at all. Ours is more of a Unitary government. Until and unless we begin a federal system of government in Nigeria we may, unfortunately, continue to suffer in the ways we are suffering now.”
Adeleye however urged Nigerians to pray more than ever before, stressing that “Prayers can deliver us from this suffering we are going through now. The hearts of the Kings are in God’s hands”.
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