Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Afikpo, Ebonyi State, Rev. Paul Udogu, has called on federal and state governments across the country to be sensitive to the suffering and welfare of the masses.
According to him, if nothing is done to address the rise in insecurity in the country, Nigeria will become a failed state like Somalia.
The bishop stated this during the fifth synod of the church held at the Church Cathedral in Afikpo, Afikpo North Local Government Area at the weekend.
Udogu also frowned on the present state of the economy which is biting hard on private businesses and organisations.
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“Price of essential commodities changes per minute. The price of foodstuff, cement, and other building materials, petrol is on the increase. This has made life difficult and unbearable; many Nigerians lost their businesses, and their investment and plans were rendered useless.
“Naira has continued to lose value in the international market as the government continues to borrow money from foreign countries and agencies.
“Civil servant’s monthly take-home salary cannot take them half the month in the face of rising prices of consumable commodities. Many Nigerians cannot eat three times daily let alone affording good medical treatment. The cases of people slumping and dying are now prevalent in our society”, he said.
The Bishop further noted that virtually no region in the country today is safe.
“Everywhere, is completely engulfed with mayhem. The recent attack on the Governors of Benue, Borno, and Imo states with the daily banditry attacks on communities and kidnapping of school children and youth in the tertiary institutions in the North and the raping and molestation of our women by terrorist herdsmen are unacceptable.
“There is fear everywhere. Sadly enough, we heard that some schools in some parts of Northern Nigeria are being closed down for fear of kidnappers. South-East was turned into another North East as unknown gunmen almost paralyzed life and economic activities and soldiers and security men that were brought bro maintain peace and order, added to the pains of the common man as many people were maltreated and some were falsely tagged IPOB/ESN members and were arrested and killed”, Udogu said.
He condemned the high rate of unemployment in the country, adding that yearly, tertiary institutions are graduating thousands of students without the government making any plan to absorb them into the labour force.
“Many of our brilliant youths/graduates are unemployed. This has led many of them to engage in social vices such as 419 or Yahoo Yahoo business, kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism because an idle mind is the workshop of the devil. We are yet to see the millions of jobs this present government promised Nigerians during the electioneering campaign. The EndSars protest by our youth has come and gone, yet our government has refused to learn lessons from that”, the cleric submitted.
