Nigeria@64: Primate Ayodele Calls  For Sober Reflection

By Akinwale Kasali

As the nation marks its 64th Independence Day Celebration, vocal Clergyman, Primate Elijah Ayodele,  Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, has stated that Nigeria has no reason to celebrate its 64th independence because the country has not recorded any significant achievements worthy of being celebration.

The alleged controversial Clergyman in his Independence message to Nigerians stated that he has not seen anything special in Nigeria’s 64th independence celebration because the country is still far behind in terms of development, human capital, economy  and leadership.

Ayodele described Nigeria’s democracy as a failure, explaining that independence is more like bondage for the people and the country is gradually moving into a hopeless state because of the kind of people that have emerged as the country’s leaders.

‘’Sincerely, I have not seen anything special in Nigeria @ 64 because there is no serious improvement in terms of what the government needs to do. In terms of human capital, everything is on standstill, in terms of judiciary, it’s something else. We are still seeing things that we can’t be proud of despite being 64 years old. Our democracy has been destroyed, what we have is democracy of failure, starvation, bondage, difficulty. Nigerians have voted for leaders with no conscience. We have been praying but it doesn’t look like this country will get better.’’

While speaking on the current administration, Primate Ayodele said the Government is confused and has no fear of God. He also called on the Government to embark on seven things to restore hope to the people.

‘’The present Government is confused; they don’t have the fear of God and don’t understand why they are ruling. Nigeria @ 64 is nothing to celebrate. The government should do seven things that include stable electricity, educational reforms, Restructuring, Judiciary reforms, economic reforms, security and total overhauling of our petroleum ministry to bring back hope.’’

Speaking further, Primate Ayodele noted that a serious government leading a country that is 64 years old will not allow mediocrity and would let go of any unserious minister or appointee. He frowned at the EFCC chairman for failing to arrest the former governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello but quick to go after ordinary Nigerians that have committed lesser offences compared to Bello’s.

‘’A serious government leading a nation that is 64 years old would sack people in the oil sector including NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari, Minister of Petroleum and others in the sector. We have ministries that are not performing, the President should remove their leaders.’’

‘’For months, EFCC has been trailing Yahaya Bello all to no avail but if it is an ordinary Nigerian, he or she would have been arrested and paraded. It appears the EFCC chairman doesn’t know his job too, the president should find something to do if not, we will keep encouraging corruption.’’

In the same vein, Primate Ayodele blasted the national assembly for not working towards achieving success in the country.

Generally, he noted that leaders of the country have to reflect on what has happened and what should be done instead of celebrating independence at 64.

‘’The national assembly has also failed, they are just going there to relax, President Tinubu should improve and enhance workers welfare. Our sectors are not doing well including communications, we don’t have anything to celebrate at 64, it’s a period to evaluate what we have done so far. It’s a time of sober reflection. There is hunger in the land, a bag of rice isn’t affordable anymore. At 64, a fertile land has failed in agriculture. We have voted for the wrong choice and of course, the result of that will be wrong. It’s 64 years of sadness, without achievement, and failure.’’

He furthermore expressed disappointment in the religious sector especially Christian leaders who are fond of hiding the true situations of things with ‘all is well’. The prophet noted that all pastors have been compromised and what they do now is fashion.

‘’The religious sector too has failed, all the pastors have failed. We have been compromised and all we know how to say is ‘All is well’ but it is not. We only have fashion pastors, they don’t talk when they are supposed to talk apart from ‘All is well.’’