Archbishop of Kaduna Province and Bishop of Kaduna Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Most Rev Timothy Yahaya, has taken a critical look at the wave of defection by politicians from one political party to another, saying that the politicians that don’t know where they were coming from, and where they are going to, but running after the national cake.
Bishop Yahaya said politicians’ actions could leave citizens politically orphaned because they are running after the national cake solely for their stomachs.
He called on the relevant authorities to ban politicians’ defections until a few months before the general elections to enable government at all levels to concentrate on good governance and the dividends of democracy for the people.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the 24th Synod of Kaduna Diocese of the Anglican Communion at St. Michael Cathedral, the Cleric further lambasted defecting politicians, saying opposition no longer exists in the country because of selfish interests being exhibited by politicians who were hitherto in the majority opposition.
He says, “These politicians who, if they can ask themselves, and I mean with every sense of responsibility, do they even know where they are coming and where they are going, that’s the truth. Everybody in APC today, I can say without any fear of contradiction that 70 per cent of them have been in PDP, so it’s the same group of people, and who they are, they are opportunists, anywhere there is national cake, they want to eat it.
“In fact what you call opposition in Nigeria as far as I am concerned it is not today, if the national cake goes into the hands of another party today, the same people will migrate because their stomachs are the reason for looking for power and leadership in the country, and it is rather miserable, miserable.
“In this country, we should think of Nigeria, we should be patriotic, we should put Nigeria forward. Nigeria and countries like Singapore were on the same strata in the 1960s. This same Nigeria borrowed money from the IMF. Look at where we are today; the Naira was begged in the streets of London. Can you take the Naira to Ghana today? Last December, I was in Ghana, and they were laughing at the Naira in Ghana, the same people who came here to look for jobs. So please, I want to beg, I am not a politician, but I pray for credible leaders that when you lead our country, you put the country first, nationalism and patriotism.
“This is the greatest country in the whole universe. No country is better than Nigeria, and if we do the right thing, the entire world will come to Nigeria. I pray God will touch the consciences of those leading in politics to remember Nigerians and not make them orphans in their land.
“I want to say this very loud and clear before this regime is two years in office we have started politicking, I think this is a bad culture for governance in our country and I want to plead with the authorities, let’s play down politics in this country, how can we, because we finished an election before a full circle, we are already campaigning for another circle, what happened to governance, I want to plead with our politicians, I want to plead with the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, if all activities of politics may be banned, only nine months to election that the ban should be lifted so that those who are elected to govern this country can give us the best of the best.
“Honestly speaking, it’s not good for this country that we have not seen governance, and we see billboards everywhere. It’s very insulting, it’s very denigrating, and other civilised countries will think we are jokers in this country. Let’s stop this,” Bishop Yahaya said.
On the issue of prevailing cases of drug addiction among Nigerian youths, the Anglican Cleric noted that, “when a society has no agenda for the young people, you see nature abhors vacuum and I want to plead with our government and the young people that are like, for instance, NYSC is supposed to prepare our young people for where they will take up responsibility tomorrow, what happens there, can you say if you finish NYSC today, you are sure of where you are going tomorrow, so they take to drugs because they feel something more of their life, they take to cultism because the only way to make money they believe is through rituals and they want protection and they see that insecurity is everywhere and these cultists will promise them, if you join a cultism your protection is sure, if you join our group the sky is your limit, that is why we have this menace today even in our Ivory Tower of learning, it has now gone down to primary school levels that people in the primary schools are in all. I want to plead with our leaders that this is a great danger for the future of this country; we should do the right thing so that the young generation will have role models they will want to follow, and they will do the right thing.
“My message summarises that God can do all things. Let’s not be discouraged, no matter the situation we are going through. Let’s trust God. Even our nation will be better because God has not forsaken us. That’s our message for this city. Even though 2027 is still far away, the message is that 2027 has dominated space,” Bishop Yahaya said.
