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Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The Bishop on the Niger, Anambra State, Rev. Dr. Owen Nwokolo, has called for a harmonious peaceful coexistence and tolerance among ethnic groups in the country.
He explained that for any meaningful desired progress to occur in the country love, mutual trust and peaceful coexistence among different ethnic groups must first be collectively and genuinely sought after.
Bishop Nwokolo stated this in his 2019 Easter Message in Onitsha, saying that Easter, as a time of sober reflection, should be judiciously used by Nigerians to seek the face of God collectively and individually for positive turnarounds in the political, economic and social life of the country.
He passionately appealed to all ethnic groups in the country to sink whatever have been their differences and work together to achieve the desired onemess as Nigerians.
Bishop Nwokolo commended the Federal Government for commencing work on the Second Niger Bridge, describing it as a landmark project in the history of the Buhari Administration.
While highlighting the economic and social value of the bridge to the South-East and the entire country in general, he prayed that the Federal Government should not allow petty politics make it abandon the work half-way, adding that a project of that magnitude should not be sacrificed on the altar of politics.
The Bishop expressed sadness over the way he said federal roads in the South-East are fast deteriorating because of inadequate Federal Government attention to them.
He was worried that despite several passionate appeals to the Federal Government over the years for her to fix the roads in the South-East, the roads still remain without qualitative Federal Government attention.
He particularly expressed regret over the condition of the Onitsha-Enugu Federal Highway, the Enugu-Umuahia-Aba-Port-Harcourt express road and part of the Onitsha-Owerri-Aba road, among others.
Bishop Nwokolo equally condemned the ever increasing insecurity in the country occasioned by what he described as the gradual spread of killings by Fulani herdsmen.
He called on the Federal Government to urgently call the Fulani herdsmen to order, and to prevent reprisals by attacked communities, which could lead to a regrettable, chaotic state of emergency in the country.
He called on the Federal Government to check the activities of Fulani herdsmen by establishing ranches for them, adding that the only way to end the long running farmers-herders’ crisis in the country is by establishing cattle ranches for the cattle farmers.
