The Bishop of Anglican Communion, Kaduna Diocese, Timothy Yahaya, has urged Nigerian leaders to lead and carry out their duties to the people with fear of God, as they must render account to God.
Bishop Yahaya in a New Year message to Nigerians on Saturday, scored President Muhammadu Buhari zero on campaign promises he made in 2015 while running for the presidency, noting that fight against corruption, insecurity and economy where Buhari promised to bring sanity, are now worse than the President met them.
The cleric noted that the nation’s leaders are behaving as if they are not accountable to the citizens, warning that no one can escape giving an account of stewardship before God on judgement day.
He urged Nigerians not to lose hope, while predicting that there will be recovery and transformation in the New Year as God will show the people mercy.
He said, “they campaigned to stamp out corruption, but so far everybody on the street knows factually that there is corruption everywhere. They have not succeeded in fighting corruption. The fight against corruption should not be only when people have looted the country. What are we doing to nip corruption right from the desk it is found, right from where the contract will be awarded. So for me the fight against corruption has not even gone average.
“The next campaign promise was security; when this government came to power we knew that the only part of the country that was seriously challenged security wise was the North East. But today can the Katsina people say they are experiencing security when the governor said the people should buy guns and defend themselves? Can the people in Sokoto where some travelers were burnt alive said there is security?.
“The worrying thing is that when Nigerians are killed it becomes a number. It doesn’t look like human beings. I expected that power-that-be should visit every scene that killings happened in this country to show how affectionate they are to the people. Can we calculate how many Army generals, not talking of soldiers that were killed in the last six years now, how many policemen were killed, how many Air Force men were killed.
“The third pillar of their campaign in coming to office is the economy. How much was the naira to the dollar, how much was the pump price of petrol when they came to power, how much was the bag of rice? Let us also score the economy, and I want to pray that the year 2021 is gone with propaganda. But the year 2022 will be a year of reality, pragmatism and turn around for out great nation, Nigeria.
“My new year message to Nigerians is that there is still hope, in this year, we should not lose hope. In this year, there will be recovery and transformation. In this year, God will show us mercy. In this year, God will visit us in a special way. In this year, His grace will be sufficient for us. In this year, there will be peace in this country. As we call upon the Lord and depend upon Him, He shall restore our land to a place where there is peace and unity.”