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Tinubu has what it takes to correct Nigeria’s situation
The Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence, Dr Oliver Ali Aba, has urged the Bola Tinubu administration to revive the ailing industries in the country to create employment for the youths instead of sharing N8,000 as palliative to some poor families.
In an interview with Saturday Sun, Dr Aba called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to depart from the style of previous administrations which was noted for sharing cash to some households and individuals that were not known. In his words, the past government adopted an almajiri kind of lifestyle which yielded little or no fruits.
“I think what the federal government should do is to depart from the previous regime which believed in sharing money to some individuals who we do not know. They told us that they were fighting corruption but indirectly creating corruption which I want the present administration to depart from.
“All we need is for the Federal Government to look for enough money and revive the ailing industries. If you go to the North, particularly Kano State, we have a lot of textile industries which are now dead. Let them revive the industries to create employment for Nigerians and I want to assure you that it will help rather than giving a family N8,000. I believe in a general belief which says, “don’t give me a fish but teach me how to catch the fish and I will not come back to you for fish,” he said. He spoke with VERA WISDOM-BASSEY.
Nigerians have been passing through a lot of hardship recently as a result of fuel subsidy removal. What’s your take on that?
While I want to look at the case, our story today is like a child who has been trying to crawl, trying to grow, trying to stand up. You know the child will try to rise and hit the head on the wall or on the ground, hit the face on the ground, the child will still rise. That is almost the same story Nigeria is experiencing. I want to believe that hardship is not good for human beings; even animals in the bush. But at times, when it comes, what we need to do is to pray, so that it will be for our advantage, in the sense that, whatever policies our leaders are trying to present to us, you look at it and pray with them, believing and hoping it will be change for better.
Take for instance the issue of fuel subsidy and the pain it’s causing some people. If you’re not sure of yourself, you cannot put your vehicles on the road today. And the distances that we have been using N1,000 to cover has turned to N8,000. So we know that it is not pleasant. But I think if we are patient enough, then the future will tell. God will change the whole situation for the better. So that’s what I am thinking about. Let Nigerians keep on praying and hoping for a better administration. The bedbug told his children: “My children, this water that the owner of the bucket poured on us, no matter how hot it is, it will get cooler in no distant time. So, let Nigerians be patient; the situation will get cooler and better. We will get used to it. Nigerians are good. We have shock absorber in us to accommodate everything. We can accommodate everything in life, and so, let the whole society, and those listening to me at this time, let us continue to pray unto God and be on our knees and be asking God for intervention.
You know, when the issue of structural adjustment came, Nigerians learnt a lot of lessons on how to be proactive in terms of how to survive. And that has helped many Nigerians today. Sachet water came out as a result of the Structural Adjustment Programme. And we were able to get out of it. So, I am hoping that nothing is spoilt yet. The government of today is not ignorant of what Nigeria is. Tinubu knows it because he is a Nigerian and he knows what it takes to correct the situation.
So, I am hoping, trusting and believing in him. He is the one that God will use at a time as this to better the lives of our society. Let’s keep on praying for him. My prayers again is that for him at this time, those surrounding him, that is, his advisers, may they never be evil advisers. May they never be selfish in their advice. They should look at the downtrodden Nigerian populace, the common man, because democracy is for the average citizens. Every citizen expects the dividend of democracy, which l know Tinubu has started already, and it will come to the climax. Allow him. Under these four years, let’s see what he can do. I believe in him. I trust in him.
The National Assembly is planning to spend about N40 billion to get cars for its members. What is your take on this?
I have said this before, when I attended a programme in the South East last week in Enugu. Let this issue of Almajiri administration be pushed aside. The sum of N8,000 per family cannot do us anything. That’s not what we are looking for. I tell you every typical Nigerian wants a better life than what they are seeing. There is a general saying that, “Don’t give me fish, teach me how to fish, and I will survive.” And not only that, look at the ailing industries, from Kaduna to Kano, Kano to Lagos. If the government has money, let them bring back these ailing industries. And I want to assure you that it will create a lot of job opportunities for lots of Nigerians. And nobody will ask any government to come and give them N8,000. What can N8,000 do when the money isn’t enough to travel from Lagos to Benue State? From Lagos to Benue now is about N20,000 per head. What can N8,000 do in the midst of all this trouble? I think we have to look for better life. The previous government was almajiri government. But this time around, I want my uncle, Tinubu, to run away from that kind of administration.
A Lagosian should know what is good for the people. If Buhari didn’t know what is good for Nigerians, can’t Tinubu know what is good for Nigerians?
The N5,000 they were giving before, how many Nigerians were reached? All you know is that they said they had so and so amount in billions, and they had already shared it. To whom? Is it to the pocket of the rich? Does anybody from my village have the money? Nobody. And that is how it happened to other villages. Let them not continue in that corrupt practice. Let there be a new structure. That structure is to go back to the old-time Nigeria, when everybody was happy and blessed. That was when everybody would rise up in the morning and faced his workplace or business. You know that there is nothing as bad as when you are an able man and early in the morning, 8:00 am, 9:00 am you have nowhere to go. Yet, before 1:00 o’clock, you’re expected to eat.
The Bible says, that “He who does not work, should not eat. That is the Christian standard. You must work in order to live and to survive. So, N8,000 or whatever they want to give has nothing it can do for us. It can’t bring peace, happiness to us. Rather let the government go and revive the ailing industries. And it will help us.
The textile industries, for example, in Kaduna, employ a lot of people in those days. But today, because of the closure of the textiles factories, there are no jobs, and so Kaduna is no longer bubbling as it used to be. I pray that this regime will think maturely, not like before. I hate the almajiri kind of government. So, every Nigerian becomes a beggar and you carry plates. Where are you going to meet them to collect N8, 000? Even the transportation to go and collect the N8,000, has it not eaten into the N8,000? So I don’t believe in that system. Let them go and revive the ailing industries and create jobs and job opportunities for Nigerians.
You’re the Prelate of the Methodist Church. How do you feel as the moderator of the church?
My church is where I am the head. It’s in the Nigerian society, and because it is in the Nigerian society, what is happening in the society called Nigeria is affecting the church. The problem has entered the church and the church is the one suffering. Everybody is crying because the problem has come in. Because if it is not well with our members, it cannot be well with the church. That is the problem. And so, I pray for the best. The situation will change for the better. Those who are living far away from church, by the time they pay transport, heading to church and it is time to pay, they realised that there is nothing in the pocket to give as offering any longer. So, automatically, we are also affected. And that is why they say the cooking pot for a chameleon is also the cooking pot for the Lizard and for all reptiles. So, these are things that happen in our society. We are praying. It’s not too palatable, but we are praying for a better change. Let the policies the current government is putting in have a human face, where there will be some kind of sympathy for the downtrodden, the commoners in the streets. The church is suffering too. That is what I want to say.
Are you satisfied the way Christianity is being practised in the country today?
In every society, there must be falsehood and there must be truth. What you see today, there are churches, and there are churches. Jesus even said it, by their fruits we shall know them. And he went further to say, not everyone that says Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom. So we ministers, heads of churches, we must be very careful, so that we don’t miss the mark. We must work according to the dictates of the scriptures; anything outside it is no longer for us. God called us. He said in the Book of Isaiah, ‘Who shall I send?’ And somebody said, ‘here I am, send me.’ That is our vocation. But in other professions, there is also falsehood. If you go to the areas of medics, you will see their kind of falsehood. Of recent, about two or three months ago, a newspaper and other means of mass communication told us that we have fake nurses in Canada and most of these fake nurses were Nigerians. Nigerians have gone as far as Canada to go and do fraud there. So, any profession you know on the face of the earth has the truth part and the falsehood part. But l am only trying to say that when it comes to religion, Christianity, we try to do our best. We will watch ourselves, counsel ourselves. We know some of us, many of us are derailing, but at the end, I want to assure you that we cannot say totally that some are not called. Some are called by God and some are not called. Some are self-called, and those who are self-called, either in their prophecy or whatever, you will see falsehood there.
You know before May 29, 2023, some were prophesying that Nigeria would scatter. I was somewhere in Calabar or Enugu, in one of my outings, and during my interview I told them that May 29 would come and go like another day and nothing would happen. All I know is that God is not the author of confusion. He who has started Nigeria, you know coming together as a nation is not an accident, but a calculated attempt of God, believing that the love that God has for Nigeria, even a father cannot have such for his children.
Everywhere you go today in Nigeria, there must be one natural resource or the other deposited in the soil of that place for that group of people to survive. You go to Nasarawa State, you have all kinds of mineral lime stones, and even when you go to Zamfara, you have gold, Benue you have another beautiful thing, even fuel. We have petroleum in parts of Agatu area of the state. They y have not gone there to tap it yet, but it is there. And they know, the White man wanted to start tapping it before they left finally. And when you go to Enugu, you have coal. Even the southern part of Benue, you have coal. You cannot dig a well there, because the little well you dig, coal will take over. And so, we have coal at Owokpa, Enugu and every community has something to depend on. And when you go to South, that is where we have God’s love with oil. Oil is what everybody is scrabbling for in Nigeria today. And so God has good intention for the Nigeria society. It is us – the mismanagement of the natural resource that is making us to go backward instead of to go forward. But l think this new government has good intention for the populace, and I am hoping and praying for them that they will succeed. They have to succeed. They have no choice than to succeed.
What should Nigerians do in this period of challenges?
I have said it already. It is a matter of waiting upon the Lord. Having issues cannot solve the problem, garagara cannot solve the problem. What we need to do is to pray for the leader. That is the whole thing. The issue of comportment have to do with believing in the Lord, because it is God that can change the tide of the situation. I am leaning on this God because he is a wonderful God. All that happened during the election, at the end of the day we came to a family circle and we are together. Before the elections, a lot of people travelled out of Nigeria, thinking that there would be problem, or that Nigeria would be divided. Those who went, some of them have started returning, because their expectation about Nigeria was not met. God is in control, and I am strongly convinced that, yes, whatever happens, the heart of the king is in the hands of God. That is why I am not afraid. Let’s give Tinubu a trial, a chance to see what he can do. I appreciate his effort. He has started very well, and that is looking at the appointments he has made so far. It is no longer about one tribe. The service chiefs were properly appointed. One is even from Southern Kaduna, where people have suffered a lot of persecution, destruction of lives and property. Now, the Chief of Defence Staff is from there. And that appointment alone covers Plateau, Kaduna and Benue, because these are the three areas that have suffered mass destruction. And he went to other tribes and did same. So it was not like the last regime which was Fulani and Fulani alone. But this one, everybody is involved. So that is why I like him. Because it’s like he has the fear of God. He can deliver the dividends of democracy. And when it comes to the appointment of ministers, from what I have seen, I discovered there is hope for Nigeria. Because every state has been remembered. It’s no longer one sided. So, I am happy. And I will continue to pray for him to succeed; because if he does, Nigeria will succeed.
