In his message at the 78th International conference/convention of the church in Orile Igbon, along Ilorin/Ogbomoso expressway at the weekend, the nonagenarian cleric reminded politicians to play the game according to rules stipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“Vying for elective position, be it at the national, state and local government levels should not be a do or die affair. In fact, the campaign should be issue based and not on personalities so as to avoid setting the country on fire rather than preaching the gospel of unity, tolerance and understanding.
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“We have witnessed use of political thugs during campaigns across the country in the past and recent times and this should be discouraged because these jobless youth turned into thugs used by these politicians will definitely graduate into all forms of criminals and give innocent Nigerians sleepless nights shortly after the general elections.
“Any political party or politician seen to be engaging these political thugs during the campaigns should be seriously sanctioned and the thugs arrested and prosecuted under the laws of the land to serve as deterrent to others.
“Though the Federal government has taken steps towards alleviating the sufferings of people of the country, much still have to be done to put smiles on the faces of most Nigerians and this can be done by providing gainful employment for jobless Nigerians especially the youth, provide quality and accessible education to all Nigerians, reinvigorate the economy and empower the women.
“Government should realise that embarking on gigantic projects of different kind without putting food on the tables of Nigerians will be meaningless because hungry people can never see clearly or even appreciate any type of project provided for them while in abject poverty.
ASUU/GOVERNMENT DISAGREEMENT.
“It is unfortunate that we are still experiencing different types of strike in our educational sector.
“If it is not ASUU today, it will be Lecturers in our various Polythecnics, Colleges of Education and other Tertiary Institutions.
“We are supposed to have passed this stage in the life of this country.
“The present administration should therefore wade once again into this demands by these various segments in our Tertiary Institutions especially that of the ASUU and put a rest to these incessant strike which has crippled and still crippling our educational sector in this country.
“While I urge the lecturers to be reasonable in their demands, the Federal government should not also into agreement it won’t be able to implement now and in the future in order to forestall future strikes again.
“The rapid development of any nation depends mostly on sound education and this is why government should not in any way you with this sector at all.
“As we come close to the Yuletide season and new year, government should make sure that Nigerians are not thrown into unwarranted hardship through scarcity of fuel as this had always being the trend in the past years.
“Though the NNPC has assured Nigerians of adequate supply of Fuel during these festivities, however, Nigerian have been greatly cajoled and deceived with similar assurances and later thrown into untold hardship.
“Besides taking steps towards tackling the petroleum scarcity, the issue of prices of kerosene and Diesel skyrocketing without official pronouncement from the government is embarrassing and should be looked into immediately.
“Finally, the situation the country has found itself cannot be seen as totally hopeless or irredeemable.
“Though the government of the day is yet to fulfill mostof its campaign promises, I urge Nigerians to be patient and continue to pray for the success, peace and unity of the administration and not its division because our being together as a Nation is not by accident by God but by design and since we don’t have any other country except Nigeria, we should therefore stay together and pray for the present administration to succeed”, he said.
and then