Founder and General Overseer, Calvary Kingdom Church (CKC) International, Lagos, Archbishop Joseph Ojo, in this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, speaks on the church and current challenges facing the country.
The country has continued to face economic crisis; Do you think Nigeria can experience a stable economy any time soon?
I think we are just trying to have hope that things will improve; things will get better. I do not know how God will do it, but I did not think that leaders can be so heartless not to listen to the cry of the people.
God will give them wisdom to find a way out of this hard time. Maybe, by the time those who think they are green become brown, I am sure God would have heard our prayers because many of them are trying to rely on the reserves that they already put in place.
But the reserves will somehow fade; so, I pray that God will touch their hearts and ensure that there are some good policies that should reduce the level of suffering. The removal of the oil subsidy was a good thing, but at the wrong time. I think the government should have settled down first, look at how things are going before implementing a policy as strategic as that. We are just hoping that things will get better; that’s the truth.
President Tinubu has also unveiled plans to disburse palliatives. Do you agree with the process?
The palliatives will go back to their pockets,;it does not work. The people that will swallow it are like those people that said snakes swallowed how many billions the other time…? So, they are human snakes. Policies like that favour those that have already been favoured.
It does not work; they are not thinking about the poor masses because palliatives and all these things will end up in their pocket. They have their own people that it is going to – it does not work. That is not the type of policy that someone will think is meant to help the poor.
What is your assessment of the impact of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria so far?
PFN as a body has not been quiet before, during and after the election. People that are thinking or saying that PFN is quiet are people that are expecting PFN to take a stand whether we are for this government or whether we are not for this government.
As responsible PFN leadership, we cannot do a thing like that. Like any responsible body, the PFN is made up of people from different political parties. Definitely, we just have to be careful because we might make decisions, which we think will please the majority of the people, which might not go down well.
So, PFN is very outspoken, but maybe it’s not the way people expect it – that’s why they are saying PFN is quiet. But I know our leaders; those of us and the president have been talking, but very positive also. It may not be what people are expecting; they can’t expect PFN to come criticising and condemning. No, we are not condemners; we are reformers.
What is your advice for the government?
The approach I will suggest is that before removal of the subsidy, which is too late now, all these billions, if they put half of it to revamp our refinery, the prices will come down. I have never seen them talk about fixing the refineries. At least, we have three to four refineries in this country, yet we are exporting crude oil, and we are importing refined oil. It is not good.
If they use the money to fix our refineries, within one year there will be a turn around and prices will come down. If we are refining here, definitely people will buy cheaper. That would have been my suggestion. I have never heard them talk about revisiting our refineries. So, what are they actually looking for?
If we can fix the Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries people will buy petrol cheaper, and all the small refineries in the creek things will get better.
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