Cleric Laments Corruption, Poverty In Nigeria

A prominent clergyman in Port Harcourt and Presiding Bishop of Kingdom  Life Gospel Church, Bishop Victor  Uzosike, has condemned the twin problems of corruption and insecurity ravaging the African continent, particularly, Nigeria, saying, they have been the cause of poverty and lack of development.

According to him, when insecurity is juxtaposed  with endemic corruption, perpetuated in high places, the future of the country and the continent is highly threatened.

Uzosike  who bared his mind in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, decried a situation where expatriates and other foreigners who came to Nigeria to help with vaccines and also attend to the health needs of the people as well as improve the wellbeing of the nation, are kidnapped and killed, saying, the time to prosecute  and punish those behind the dastardly act had come.

He said it was also a crime against God and mankind for those entrusted with the people’s future, those who represent them in all the tiers of government, to corner the nation’s resources and covet same for their personal use, saying, those behind such thievery  must not go unpunished. “Anybody who thinks  he can  loot this nation and get away with it should think again. Anybody that has been indicted of corruption  should not be let off the hook”, he pleaded, and described stealing in public office as an aberration.

Uzosike noted that the way out of corruption and insecurity, was for all institutions of government, the judiciary, the executive and legislature to be thoroughly reformed, in such a way that laws are churned out and  enforced, describing as disturbing a situation where the National Assembly had not enacted laws to tackle  headlong  the security challenges staring the nation in the  face. “This country can only be salvaged  if people  are accountable and pay for their actions”,  he said.

He also decried a situation where politicians and other rich Nigerians establish hotels instead of factories and cottage industries to provide employment to the youths, stressing that the trend had engendered  poverty and unemployment, as young people are daily seen hawking groundnuts  and other items on the  streets.

To this end, the cleric posited that what Nigerians needed badly today was visionary leaders in all facets of life, whom he said would see their political positions and assignments as divine, for which  reason he noted, they would  project into the future and chart a path for sustainable  development  of the country.

He said lack of visionary leadership had robbed the country of the opportunity of producing made-in-Nigeria cars through the instrumentality of the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Plant, lamenting that in spite of the fact that Nigeria  was endowed with abundant  human resources including  good mechanics and engineers, “we are still importing steel and many other things”.