It is Not a Must That Nigeria Remains One – Calabar Anglican Bishop

by crossriverwatch admin

Rt. Rev Tunde Adeleye, Synod President, Anglican Communion, Calabar Diocese during the briefing

Making Nigerians live together as one nation has always been an inherently difficult task such that under the present circumstances, it is not necessary that the country remains the same if the overwhelming opinion of the people is to go their different ways.

Rt. Rev Tunde Adeleye, Synod President of the Anglican Communion of Calabar Diocese stated this on Monday while speaking to newsmen on the occasion of flagging off the 2013 activities of the Church synod.

Rt. Rev Adeleye said Nigerians did not come together to agree that they would live together as on nation but the decision of colonial officials who didn’t even have a knowledge of the cultural differences and religious differences of the different people before forging them to live together as one nation.

“It has always been inherently difficult to keep this country together as one nation and this has worsen under the present turbulent climate and if the panels of the National Conference which the President is inaugurating today eventually say that we should split, then so be it.”

Adeleye said the Boko Haram insurgence, the religious intolerance and the corruption that plaque the country today are a clear testament that the people are tired of living together and therefore should be allowed to go their separate ways.

“It seems that our country’s problems have defied all known solutions; other nations have had similar challenges and quickly went through them with the same solutions which have not worked for us in Nigeria”.

He said the Boko Haram insurgence is a spiritual manifestation of evil in the country, which is tearing the nation apart and has defied all efforts to put pay to it as the relentless killings across parts of the north of Nigeria in spite of the state of emergency declared in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.

“Everywhere is affected: residential houses, police stations, motor parks, worship places, hotels, and public places are bombed and burnt at will, we cannot go on like this”.

On the 2015 elections, Rt Rev Adeleye stated that even as the elections are still two years away, campaigns have since started by the political class with terrible words being used on opponents without recourse to decency and fair play which all point to looming crisis.

“Our expectation is that we should be talking about how to get food on the tables of Nigerians, repair our roads, improve our educational system, make our hospitals functional, provide houses for the people to live in and create jobs for our youths but this is not the case as the preoccupation of our leaders is how to win elections in 2015”.

On the high rate of unemployment in the country, Rt. Rev. Adeleye asserted that it is responsible for the insecurity and armed robbery as youths desperate for survival end up engaging in those vices to keep themselves alive.

“There are graduates of up to five years who do not have any work whatsoever to do. This has a chain of effects on the lives of the people; a young man can neither marry nor settle in life and eventually the devil uses them for armed robbery or kidnappings”.