Leadership (Abuja)
13 May 2008
Anglican Bishop of Jos Diocese, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, has stated that the revelations currently emerging from the House of Representatives' Probe of the energy sector was a big indictment on the past Nigerian leaders for failing to provide the people with hope and right leadership.
Bishop Kwashi, in an interview with LEADERSHIP, said it was regrettable that the sum of 16 billion US dollars that was claimed to have been spent by the immediate past regime of President Obasanjo could not be accounted for by various contractors who were offered the contracts to build power generating stations in the country..
The Bishop, attributed their poor performances in government to greed and lack of the fear of God, adding that leaders must be accountable to the people they govern at any given time.
Kwashi argued that it was unreasonable for the government to have awarded electricity generating contracts to Chinese firms who are the same people that have flooded the Nigerian market with made in China generators.
His words: "Do you think they will generate electricity for Nigerians? The answer is capital No! It is the same China that supplied arms to Sudan which are now being used to kill Africans in the Dafour region of Sudan and were also the same people who three weeks ago shipped arms to Zimbabwe", he lamented.
Bishop Kwashi further advised the federal government to be careful in its dealings with the Republic of China, saying, that from what is on ground, Nigeria can not get the best from China.
He also decried the current increasing rate of corruption in the public sector and at the corridors of power and warned the present and past leaders who looted the treasury to consider the option of returning their loot back to the treasury to avoid the verdict of the people and God falling on them.
According to him, now that there are more resources in Nigeria than what was obtained in the 1970s, resources of Nigeria must be used by the leaders to re-build the country and restore it to its past glory. He wondered why there should be over 9 million unemployed Nigerians while those who were trained with tax payers' money in the 1960's to 70's and were placed in privileged positions should corner the resources of this country to themselves,their cronies and families alone at the expense of the majority.
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