While the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, is battling with the realities of the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government, more prominent Nigerians of goodwill have continued to expose the misgovernance of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the allied consequences. From Bishop Mattheu Kukah of the Catholic Diocese, Sokoto, to John Cardinal Onaiyekan, it is tales of woes in Nigeria.
The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, at the weekend decried the non-existence of a government Nigerians can trust. The Catholic Archbishop, therefore, articulated that Nigerians will be happy to have a government that can be trusted.
Onaiyekan in a media interaction lamented the falsehood being pushed to the public by those working in the government of the country, who he said do not believe in truth. He expressed disappointment over the lack of trust in the Buhari administration. The Archbishop regretted that Nigerians are deceived by people in government, saying that people are willing to listen to truth.
“We will be really happy to have a government to trust.
“All those who speak on behalf of the government should believe in the sacredness of the truth.
“Nigerians are ready to listen to the truth. But when they are consistently deceived, it is neither good for the government nor good for the governed.
“Here, everybody needs to do an examination of conscience. I will throw the ball back, not only to President Buhari himself but all those who are with him running the affairs of this nation.”
Cardinal Onaiyekan condemned the rage of violence and killings in the country, advocating that Nigerians should not be living in fear.
The renowned clergy challenged people in government to stop moving in the public with security escorts so as to taste the reality of the crises in the country. He stated that “until all citizens move about freely without escorts, no one is safe.”
The Archbishop had declared: “We should not be living in a nation in which we are not secured. We should not be living in a Nigeria where I cannot travel from Abuja without my heart missing 10 beats.
“I should be able to take my car and drive to my town in Kabba without fear of being hijacked on the way. And the fact that we are not safe is clear.
“Those of them who are high up in government know under what condition they travel around, if they ever travel by road. Until Nigerians can move around without escorts, we are not safe.”
Nigeria has been a theatre of violence and heinous crimes in the past years. From the Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast to the ravaging bandits in the northwest and Fulani herdsmen in the north central, to kidnappers in the various parts of the country, crimes and violence have become lucrative trade that the government has overwhelmed in containing and weakened in the functions of protecting lives and property.