The Archbishop of Anglican communion, Kaduna Diocese, Bishop Timothy Yahaya, has said that proliferation of unlicenced religious leaders is responsible for ethno-religious and socio-political crisis in the country.
Bishop Yahaya noted that a trained and licenced religious leader would not engage in unguided utterances, and called on relevant authorities to checkmate proliferation of untrained pastors to stop sensationalism in their preachings.
The cleric, while fielding questions from newsmen yesterday shortly before the Christmas homily at Saint Michael Cathedral, Anglican diocese, Kaduna, however expressed the hope that Nigerians will surmount numerous socio-economic challenges in the country.
The bishop also questioned the transparency of government’s transport fare reductions and compared it to past programmes like the COVID-19, school feeding initiative, expressing doubt about its effectiveness and potential misuse of the funds.
He emphasised the importance of proper planning, transparent implementation, and accountability in such initiatives for a positive impact on the weak and struggling economy.
“The greatest problem with Nigeria is that everybody is a clergyman, we don’t know who is licenced or not licenced, we don’t know who is qualified to preach or who does not qualified to preach. When you are faced with that kind of problem where there are quacks all over the place, who are making sure that they heat our polity, and our security agencies are looking at them quietly, I don’t think that that will help nation building.
“In nation building this country must sit down and think thoroughly, to think thoroughly about the types of messages that come out of our pulpits. What I am saying is that we must say the truth the way it is, but we must not sensationalise the message, we must not be seen to be politicians, because as it is today using the toga of religion, people are now partisan, and they are becoming political.
“If religion must be seen to build this nation, we must tolerate one another, we must preach peace. In this Anglican compound, you see a school, the school has produced doctors. That is part of nation building. In this school you must learn moral. There is no way you come here that you will be bad citizen of this country. We have about three hospitals now within the State. That is part of nation building. We are sinking boreholes. That is part of nation building. We are teaching people how to farm. That is nation building. We are doing empowerment. That is nation building.
“But I want to say that one of the problems of Nigeria today is religion. Religion that has helped other nations is becoming the bane of this country. I want to plead with religious leaders, let us think before we talk.”
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