27th May, 2019
The Umuahia Archdiocese of the Methodist Church Nigeria has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to reinvigorate the fight against corruption in order to achieve the desired result.
The charge was contained in a communique issued at the end of the 58th synod of the church, held from May 22 to 26 at the Wesley Cathedral Methodist Church, Umuahia.
Most-Rev. Chibubuzor Okpoko, the Archbishop of the Umuahia Methodist Archdiocese, who read the communique to newsmen in Umuahia on Monday, said “it appears from all indication that the war against corruption is becoming a mirage.”
Okpoko said that media report portrayed a scary and unimaginable proportion of corruption and corrupt practices prevailing in the nation.
“The fight must be total, the fight must be frontal,” he said, adding that the war against corruption “must show clear evidence that it is yielding results.”
He said that there should not be any sacred cows in the fight.
He also said that anybody found engaging in corrupt practices must be made to face the full weight of the law, irrespective of his social status, religious, tribal and political affiliation.
The cleric also decried the increasing spate of insecurity in the country and called on the security agencies to rise to the challenge in order to ensure adequate security for lives and property of all Nigerians.
“We live in palpable fear. No one is safe again on the roads, in offices and living rooms,” he said, citing the numerous kidnapping and other violent crimes.
The synod also took exception to the inability of some state governments in the country to pay salaries to workers as and when due, pointing out that many workers were owed for month.
It stated: “Civil servants and indeed the entire public are suffering. Some have had to lose their dear ones by death because they cannot afford the cost of medication.”
It also expressed concern over the poor waste management in the state, pointing out that heaps of refuse now littered streets and roads in major cities and towns of the state.
“Our streets in some parts of Abia are affected, including the capital city of Umuahia.
“Waste management must be given a priority. It is not only an eye sore to behold but also a harbinger of disease-causing germs,” the synod stated.
It decried the burning of refuse on the streets, saying that it constituted air pollution and danger to human health.
The archbishop said, “Sometime ago, the situation was so bad that the Diocesan Women’s Fellowship, led by my wife, hired tippers and cleared all the refuse from the Shoprite Junctio to Umuwaya Road by Crowther Street.”
He therefore urged Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu “to call the management of ASEPA and other agencies in Abia to effectively tackle the refuse menace on our roads and states.”
The synod further charged the Federal Government to find a more lasting solution to the lingering herders/farmers clashes through the construction of ranches.
It described as illegal, the handling of sophisticated weapons by those not licensed to do so, saying that “such persons should be arrested and prosecuted.”
The clergyman charged the incoming administration at the federal and state levels to initiate new measures to deliver more dividend of democracy to Nigerians.