Pastor Ituah Ighodalo Says He Is Shocked By Buhari’s Indifference |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

Before now, most people knew Pastor Ituah Ighodalo as a calm and collected Cleric. Polished, decent, the Senior Pastor of the Trinity Church, a Church he founded after the Redeemed Christian Church of God, showed him the other side of life, is also a Corporate man. He is a high flying accountant, and runs an Accounting Firm.

Quiet looking, the Pastor is even regarded by many as an establishment man. But no longer.

Ighodalo has shown in the last couple of months that beneath that calm and quiet mien is a raging volcano. He is a very angry man, and frustrated by what Nigeria has descended to, especially, security wise.

The first time he spoke up, he wondered how Nigeria got where it is. He offered advice here and there, and bemoaned the state of the Nation.

Last week, he was one of the signatories, on behalf of the New Fabian Society of Concerned Professionals of Nigeria, who, in a strongly worded article titled “Time To Raise The White Flag”, advised President Muhammadu Buhari, to forget Nigeria’s ego, and seek for help over the worsening insecurity in the country.

But Ighodalo’s latest intervention which began to make  the rounds on Sunday,  was a direct indictment of Buhari over the state of affairs. It was a cry for help for Nigeria.

He held the President responsible for the insecurity in the country, and said he was shocked at Buhari’s indifference , a retired Army General, to the worsening insecurity.

If Buhari wants to stop the horrifying situation, the Pastor said, he would. But he wondered why the President is, Ighodalo observed, exhibiting an I- don’t-care-attitude while innocent Nigerians are kidnapped, raped and slaughtered. He accused the President of conplacency and unseriousness, insisting that those in authority were making money out of the pains and blood of innocent Nigerians.

Following is an angry Pastor Ituah Ighodalo in his own words.

“Let me say it bold, loud and clear. The problem of insecurity lies on the table of Muhammadu Buhari.

“If Buhari is ready today to stop all this insecurity, he has the power, he has the ability, and he knows what to do. You can read my lips, he knows what to do.

“The reason why he is not doing it, I don’t really understand. The reason why he is not showing more energy, effort, interest and direction on this, I really don’t understand.

“For a person who was a General in the Nigeria Army, he looks a little bit complacent, lackadaisical concerning this issue of insecurity.

“The insecurity problem started with the tone at the top. The last four years we had a bunch of security leaders who were disunited, quarrelling among themselves. They couldn’t agree on anything. They couldn’t stand behind one common purpose. They were just doing what they liked and Buhari, tha gentleman, was just looking at them.

“Everyone told him that these people are not united, these  people are not working together, these people have different ideas and agendas, and he did nothing about it.

“That can’t  continue to work. Now, we have a new set of security leaders, let us hope that these ones can come together and face this common problem.

“You know, how can you capture 256 girls and we don’t know where they are. It is not possible in this day and age with technology and everything. Do you know the amount of efforts it takes to move 250 People across a certain place, and nobody saw them and they disappeared.

“And we heard that this girl Leah Sharibu,  is captured and having babies every year. And you can’t find her. What nonsense is that? What does that mean? And you are telling us that she had a baby. Who made that announcement that she had baby?

“Why don’t you bring the person and ask questions about who she saw? And we can’t find her?

“We cross our hands and we are looking. If Leah Sharibu is my daughter, I will go and look for her, because you see we are not really serious about these things.

People come into the village and rape 20 people. They carry the women, and the children and we cannot find them. Who does that in this time and age, who does that?

“They pick up a man and take him out to the forest and cut off his head, eight of them. They  are videoing, they cut of the head and video it, showing it to us and nobody did anything.

“I mean, how can that happen. All these herdsmen and kidnappers in the forest,  the Police know them and know  where to find them.

“But nobody is saying anything. Nobody is engaging them, Nobody is eyeing them. It is a business. And people are making money from this.

“People are selling arms and making money from security votes. People are making money from these things, people are making money from the pain and death of innocent ones, and that’s why this problem is not being solved.

“Somehow we are all looking away.”

The President’s Party, APC, this other day, said the President is capable of stopping the deteriorating insecurity in the country. Why he has not done that is a question nobody has answered.