Dele Ogunyemi
26 October 2009
Ibadan — President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Oyo State Chapter, Archbishop Joseph Akinfenwa has decried the planned deregulation of the petroleum sector by the federal government saying it is not the solution to Nigeria's ailing economy, saying it will lead the country into chaos.
Akinfenwa who is also the Archbishop of the Anglican Archdiocese of Ibadan said over the weekend that the solution to the revival of the nation's economy "is for the leaders and the led to be honest and have the fear of God at heart."
He spoke at the grand finale of the annual "Jesus Festival rally" of the Diocese of Ibadan held at Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Adamasingba, Ibadan.
He said the Nigerian masses would suffer immensely if government goes ahead with the deregulation policy.
"The church is warning now because if you deregulate, what else will the common man will benefit from? The regulation incidentally is the last benefit of the common man from the government. Every other things have been taken away - transportation, water, electricity have all been yanked away. We provide our generators by ourselves, we provide our water by ourselves, and we provide our transportation by ourselves.
"The only thing that is remaining is this subsidy on fuel. And if you take it away, then you have removed everything. So, what does the common man benefit? We don't benefit anything."
While maintaining that the orchestrated national transformation programmes must start from the church "if Nigeria will be better", Archbishop Akinfenwa enjoined Christians all over the country to practicalise holiness in all they do or say.
He also enjoined Nigerian politicians to have the love of the country at heart and imbibe the spirit of patriotism to halt the noticeable treasury looting and other acts of corruption that have hindered national development, in all its ramifications.
His words: "It is high time we faced the fact that there are looters in this country who have so amassed the wealth of the nation that should have been used to better the lots of the citizenry.
"If all our politicians who have stolen our money would be faithful and fear God and come back and return all these money, we will not be talking about deregulation -electricity will be functioning, we will have potable water supply and the roads will be good.
"It is sad that in a country where we have a lot of wealth, a lot of resources, we are still suffering because a few of our leaders have stolen the money. A few of our leaders are wicked, they don't think about tomorrow. They are amassing and amassing wealth for parochial interest.
"But tell me, these wealth that have been amassed, all these monies that have been stolen, can they use them? They can't. They are just there in banks. It is another person(s) that will use it. Of course, the Bible says it clearly in Jeremiah that if you take something that does not belong to you, you will not live to enjoy it.
They will not live to enjoy it. So, the best thing for them to do is to return the stolen wealth and by not stealing any longer so that others will benefit."
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