The General Overseer of Soul Revival Ministry, Nnewi, Anambra state, Prophet Ikechukwu Uzukwu has suggested that the Nation’s lawmakers at the National Assembly need to acquire acres of land to start what he calls national farming to be more useful to their constituents and the entire nation, if passing a bill on an old national anthem was all they remembered to do.
Prophet Uzukwu who expressed great anger to the return to the old national anthem asked whether it would bring more food to the table of the masses, reduce cost of living and revive the dying Nigerian economy. He wondered where in Africa colonial anthem was still in use.
He said in 2017 he declared that Nigeria was moving backward which he noted former President Muhammadu Buhari tried to reverse. But now, according to him, the National Assembly has knocked the engine of the vehicle descending a hill and other than finding a way to stop the car, they stood at a place singing ‘Nigeria we hail thee…’.
He said that since old things had not passed away in Nigeria that it would then be ideal to return to old parliamentary system, use of old pounds and shillings, old school fees for secondary and university students, old regional system and other things of old.
The Prophet said the only fastest bill the National Assembly had ever passed in recent history was the old national anthem bill as if that is the problem facing Nigeria.
Uzukwu said the lawmakers had refused to do something about looting which he identified as among the major problems of Nigeria and turned their eyes away from poor power supply, bad road infrastructure and the naira value that drops every day.
“The best thing for the members of the National Assembly is to give them hecters of land at their various constituencies and senatorial zones to begin mechanized agriculture for their constituency projects. That will keep them busier and they will become more useful to the masses.
“They enjoy fat salaries and allowances and forget that many Nigerians die of hunger every day. Technological advancement like innovation of electric vehicles since before the end of the next decade use of fuel cars would be a thing of the past, is not their concern. Instead of finding solutions to those problems, they are going back to old national anthem. This is the reason the country has not moved forward as a nation. Since there are no preparations to move with the world trend, tell me what will happen to this country when oil is gone, “he said.
On the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its demand, Uzukwu said the labour was selfish and friends to politicians.
He noted that the workers were talking about wage increase for themselves without recognizing that there were many unemployed Nigerians and other segments of the population that were in business who also needed help.
“It is unfortunate that there is no single functioning refinery in this country but labour is not talking about that. Let NLC give the federal government ultimatum to fix the refineries which is one of the major problems of this country. If you bring down fuel prices every other thing will fall in place. I can see what labour is doing is to get their own cut from the national cake.
“We already have four classes of people in Nigeria. The first class comprises those in government; second class are friends of those in power; third class are the working class and the fourth class is made up of the hungry and poverty-stricken masses in this country.
“If you receive N60,000, for instance, and you can’t buy anything with it, what is your benefit? But if you fight for a reduction of cost of living, with N30, 000 a month you can buy a lot of things. So, NLC should fight for reduction of cost of living not salary increment, “the Prophet concluded.