Discard Policies Without Human Face, Archbishop Tells FG

Archbishop of Kwara Diocese of the Anglican Church, Rev. Sunday Adewole, has advised the federal and state governments to discard policies that lack human face.

He said though infrastructure was essential for the comfort of the people, stomach infrastructure should take precedence.

Adewole stated this in Ilorin at a news conference to herald the 50th anniversary of Kwara Diocese of the Anglican Church.

The cleric admitted that some of the policies of the government at the centre were inflicting hardship on the people, saying it was high time a review was carried out.

“On the part of the governors and the president, we have told them several times. Any programme that you want to do that does not carry a human face, please, drop it. It is good for us to have infrastructure. But the stomach infrastructure should precede the physical infrastructure. A hungry man in an angry man. Yes, somebody that is hungry will be angry.

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Small thing, he would flare up. And if the government both at the state and federal, if they are sincere, and they are alive to their responsibilities, most of these problems would become history,” the cleric said.

Adewole, who is also the chairman of Kwara State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), expressed concern with the level of moral decadence in society, tracing it to what he identified as the dysfunctional educational system.

He stated that the decision of the military regime to take over the management of schools from missionaries had heightened decadence in society, urging the federal government to return the schools to religious bodies.

He said: “We have a lot of challenges as a diocese. For example, the issue of education. When the management of education was with the religious bodies, the moral laxity that we have today was not there.

“It was during the regime of General Yakubu Gowon that the federal government took over all missionary schools, both Muslim and Christian schools. And the excuse given at that time by Gowon was that the federal government did not have enough secondary schools. Because we had just come out of the civil war, they were looking for opportunities to reorganise the country at that time.

“But today, the moral decadence in our society could be traced to the decadence in education, honestly. In the olden days, we feared our teachers. But today, the parents would lead thugs to go and beat teachers in schools. Because of that, the moral values they inculcated in us are not there again.

“These are the challenges we have. If the government can return the schools to us, honestly, it will reduce the problems in our society. Once you have education, you have everything. If the education is haphazardly inculcated into you, it will be very difficult.”

He recalled that the Diocese of Kwara that was founded in November 1, 1974, had recorded a number of breakthroughs with the ongoing construction of hostel accommodation for students of Kwara State University, Malete, building of 37 lockup shops in front of Shoprite in Ilorin and skills acquisition centres for youths since February 2019 when he was appointed.