From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Most Rev. Timothy Yahaya, serving as the Archbishop of Kaduna Province and Bishop of Kaduna Diocese of the Anglican Communion, has taken a critical look at the wave of defection from one political party to another by politicians in the country, saying the majority of the All Progressive Congress (APC) members were originally from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“I can say without any fear of contradiction that 70 percent of them have been in PDP, so it’s the same group of people, and who are they, they are opportunists”. The Cleric said.
Bishop Yahaya noted that the defecting politicians are running after the national cake for selfish interest, rather than national interest.
He called on the relevant authorities to ban defection by politicians until a few months before the general elections to enable government at all levels to concentrate on good governance and dividends of democracy for the people.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the 24th Synod of the Kaduna Diocese of the Anglican Communion at St. Michael Cathedral, the cleric further lambasted defecting politicians, saying opposition no longer exists in the country because of selfish interests being exhibited by politicians who were hitherto in the majority opposition.
“These politicians, if they can ask themselves, and I mean with every sense of responsibility, do they even know where they are coming and where they are going? That’s the truth. Everybody in APC today, I can say without any fear of contradiction that 70 percent of them have been in PDP, so it’s the same group of people, and who are they? They are opportunists. Anywhere there is a national cake, they want to eat it. In fact, what you call opposition in Nigeria, as far as I am concerned, is not today. If the national cake goes into the hands of another party today, the same people will migrate because their stomachs are the reason for looking for power and leadership in the country, and it is rather very unfortunate, very, very unfortunate.
“In this country, we should think of Nigeria; we should be patriotic, and we should put Nigeria forward. Nigeria and a country like Singapore were on the same strata in the 1960s. This same Nigeria borrowed money to IMF, and look at where we are today. The Naira was begged for in the streets of London. Can you take the naira to Ghana today? Last December I was in Ghana, and they were laughing at the Naira in Ghana, the same people that came here to look for jobs. So please, I want to beg, I am not a politician, but I pray for credible leaders that when you are going to lead our country, you put the country first, nationalism and patriotism.
“This is the greatest country in the whole universe. Honestly, there is no country better than Nigeria, and if we do the right thing, the whole world will come to Nigeria. I pray God will touch the consciences of those who are leading in politics to remember Nigerians and not make them orphans in their land.
“I want to say this very loud and clear before this regime is two years in office we have started politicking, I think this is a bad culture for governance in our country and I want to plead with the authorities, let’s play down politics in this country, how can we, because we finished an election before a full circle, we are already campaigning for another circle, what happened to governance, I want to plead with our politicians, I want to plead with the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, if it is possible all activities of politics should be banned, only nine months to election that the ban should be lifted up so that those who are elected to govern this country can give us the best of the best.
“Honestly speaking, I don’t think it’s a good thing for this country that we have not seen governance and we see billboards everywhere, it’s very insulting, it’s very denigrating, and other civilized climes will think we are jokers in this country. I think we should stop this”. Bishop Yahaya said.
On the issue of prevailing cases of drug addiction among Nigerian youths, the Anglican Cleric noted that, “when a society has no agenda for the young people, you see nature abhors vacuum and I want to plead with our government and the young people that are like, for instance, NYSC is supposed to prepare our young people for where they will take up responsibility tomorrow, what happens there, can you say if you finish NYSC today, you are sure of where you are going tomorrow, so they take to drugs because they feel something more of their life, they take to cultism because the only way to make money they believe is through rituals and they want protection and they see that insecurity is everywhere and these cultists will promise them, if you join a cultism your protection is sure, if you join our group the sky is your limit, that is why we have this menace today even in our Ivory Tower of learning, it has now gone down to primary school levels that people in the primary schools are in all. I want to plead with our leaders that this is a great danger for the future of this country, we should do the right thing so that the young generation will have role models they will want to follow and they will do the right things .
“The summary of my message is God is able to do all things. No matter the situation we are going through, let’s not be discouraged. Let’s trust God. Even our nation will be better because God has not forsaken us. That’s our message for this city. Even though 2027 is still far away, but the message is that 2027 has dominated the space”. Bishop Yahaya said.