The Bishop, Diocese of Amichi Anglican Communion, Anambra state, Rt Rev Ephraim Ikeakor has declared that unless the right people are in leadership of the nation, that Nigerians would continue to wallow in agony and abject poverty.
Bishop Ikeakor made the declaration at Emmanuel Anglican Church, Ekwulumili in Nnewi South Local Government Area during a press briefing to herald the 2024 synod of the diocese coming up between June 6 and 9.
He said that the greatest problem Nigeria has is having the wrong people in leadership.
“The Bishop said: “A poor man is not asking for his granted rights again, he is asking for survival and that’s why they can take us for granted. Nobody is standing up for his or her rights anymore. They enjoy it when they see a great number of the citizens suffer.
“The other time we were watching them throwing packaged garri and sugar to the masses in one city in the name of palliatives. That means they have reduced Nigerians to animals.
“One politician once said that the greatest problem Nigeria had was that the former President Muhammadu Buhari succeeded in reducing even professors to the level of his thinking.
“Nothing is working in Nigeria, tell me what is working in Nigeria, if you contradict me.
“The other day we had an issue and we went to the police to investigate the matter and the police said that the area is volatile, that we should provide them with security. Can you imagine that? What kind of country is this where security agents are asking civilians to provide them with security. Is it not a collapsed nation?
“The day of salary payment used to be a day of joy for civil servants. But today a civil servant cannot buy half a bag of rice with his total salary. And how do you fight corruption in the midst of poverty and joblessness?”
He said that even in the academic sector that the standard of education had fallen so much so that some students of higher institutions could not tell you what degree they would be awarded on graduation let alone defending the discipline in correct English language.
He talked about the petroleum sector and described as pathetic a situation where an individual was celebrated for building a refinery where Nigeria as a nation could not boast of one functional refinery. He further described the situation as shameful.
The Bishop said it beat his imagination that Nigeria could not have a steady power supply in a nation that has gas and oil in quantum.
He insisted that the current leadership of Nigeria suffered from conscience credibility and could not offer credible leadership.
The Bishop said he never liked to discuss Nigeria and its problems which he said always provoked him.
