We greet all the people of God in Nigeria and in the diaspora We greet all the people of God in Nigeria and in the diaspora in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God on your behalf for divine protection in the face of all manner of threats that surround us.
Our hearts go out to all who have been victims of man’s inhumanity to fellow man in our land, and all over the world. Our attention in this pastoral letter / press release is focused on the Nigerian situation; and so we make particular mention of victims of robbery, banditry, kidnapping, ritual killings, mass murder or genocide and other forms of violence and inhumanity in various parts of Nigeria. We pray for divine comfort for all who have lost loved ones, and supernatural healing for the living who have been traumatised in one way or the other (displaced, dispossessed, raped, robbed, bereaved, etc.). It is painful and regrettable that our nation has been turned into a theatre of violence while our security agencies appear perplexed or overwhelmed.
We, hereby, join all well-meaning Nigerians to call on all our leaders of thought, and the generality of Nigerian masses, to arise and rescue Nigeria from imminent collapse. While we acknowledge that Government (or, political leadership) is the official force for ensuring stability and cohesion in a nation, we must admit that the current Nigerian federal government has surrendered the initiative to non-state actors. Before our Government surrenders the instruments of state to terrorists and insurgents, the people of Nigeria must arise to redeem their nation. Hence, we appeal to leaders of thought nationwide to urgently come together and convoke an emergency national dialogue aimed at finding amicable resolutions to the various threats bedeviling our nation – most importantly the problem of insecurity.
We are aware that Government does not want to hear the term “Sovereign National Conference”. However, by whatever name such a gathering is to be called, we need to urgently rally ourselves together as a people to discuss how to rescue Nigeria from imminent state capture by agents of evil. Recent events convince all right-thinking persons that terrorists and bandits have become more emboldened than ever, and that they are now totally unafraid of the agents of the State (as presently constituted). We shudder to think that the Nigerian state has lost its monopoly of violence, and that these non-state actors have accumulated capacity to demonstrate balance (or in fact, superiority) of terror against the State. However, the fact that they can roam free, and even grant interviews and hold public functions without consequence suggest that they are gradually becoming as powerful as (if not more powerful than) our legally constituted authority. It is, therefore, imperative and urgent that the people of Nigeria unite to fashion a way to overcome this existential threat, rather than wait for a government that is deep in denial! slumber.
Such a convocation of concerned Nigerians should mobilise:
- All past political leaders at the national level
- All past former governors
- All authentic traditional rulers from all ethnic nationalities
- Retired Generals and all past seniors officers in the military / intelligence services
- Present and past leaders of the organisedlabour and trade unions
- Leaders of civil society organisations
- Leaders of youth organisations
- Nigerians in Diaspora
- All those who have won international honours for Nigeria in the past
We recommend that no one should be paid for attending this Convocation of Concerned Citizens. All who are concerned about our nation should attend at their own cost, and contribute their quota towards resolving the problem on hand. At such a gathering, Nigerians should listen to all groups that have grievances against the state (including even the bandits / terrorists who are willing to come forward with their grievances), and seek true reconciliation rather than a victor/vanquished situation.
We are aware that many Nigerians have given up hope in this Government and are just waiting for the 2023 elections. However, with respect to the security and economy, the elections are still far away. Unless there is urgent and radical intervention to arrest our descent into anarchy, this nation may in fact find herself in a situation whereby elections are difficult to hold (if not impossible). This is why we must all arise to help the Buhari administration to stabilize the ship of state (after all, Nigeria belongs to all of us). As things stand presently, if Nigerians leave things entirely to our political leadership, these terrorists and non-state actors may actualize their threat that they would over-run the federal capital and kidnap the President.
We have reached a point whereby mere talk is no longer enough. Nigerians must act quickly to rescue this nation from destruction. Let us accept the fact that our political leadership has failed us, and let us galvanise ourselves (through aggregations of community action) and act now to save ourselves, before it is too late. Even though it may deny the fact, it is very obvious that the Buhari administration needs help – this Government appears to have run out of ideas and impetus on how to solve Nigeria’s myriad problems, security in particular. We the citizens just have to help our Government.
The time to act is NOW. May 29, 2023 may be too late.
God save our country Nigeria.
Akinfenwa is the bishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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