Excerpts from an article written by his Eminence, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie.
...But COVID-19 is also revelatory, a blessing in disguise, because it has exposed Nigeria as a country where quality of leadership is of low grade...
We are spending billions buying brand new cars for our political office holders, paying them sundry allowances, when we have no good hospital to handle the current emergency. Government impoverishes Nigerians, and, the same government has now decided to spray raw cash on the people it impoverishes. On prime-time television, we witnessed the spectacle of bales of naira notes, and a minister of the Federal Republic was doing the distribution...
In the same vein, we have heard how billions of naira are being donated to government without government telling Nigerians how the donation will be spent.
COVID-19 has also revealed to us that there are false prophets living among us. In a country where once you grab a Bible and a microphone you become a pastor or prophet or apostle, where you can become founder of a church without any serious theological formation, we have seen how some of our religious leaders have resorted to dishing out false prophecies. We have been treated to the cruelty of conspiracy theories woven by attention-seeking pseudo-apostles to nurture fear in the minds of people. We have seen how those who did not foresee any pandemic when, at the beginning of the year 2020, they claimed to be “prophesying” for Nigeria, now lay claims to have received a message.
Rather than join the government in providing palliative measures, we have also seen how some pastors have been asking their members to pay tithes even when those members are unable to venture out to earn their daily bread. Some who ventured out were brutalized by policemen and soldiers who are not held accountable for violating the rights of citizens they are paid to protect. Can’t we reason? Let us think!...
We are spending billions buying brand new cars for our political office holders, paying them sundry allowances, when we have no good hospital to handle the current emergency. Government impoverishes Nigerians, and, the same government has now decided to spray raw cash on the people it impoverishes. On prime-time television, we witnessed the spectacle of bales of naira notes, and a minister of the Federal Republic was doing the distribution...
In the same vein, we have heard how billions of naira are being donated to government without government telling Nigerians how the donation will be spent.
COVID-19 has also revealed to us that there are false prophets living among us. In a country where once you grab a Bible and a microphone you become a pastor or prophet or apostle, where you can become founder of a church without any serious theological formation, we have seen how some of our religious leaders have resorted to dishing out false prophecies. We have been treated to the cruelty of conspiracy theories woven by attention-seeking pseudo-apostles to nurture fear in the minds of people. We have seen how those who did not foresee any pandemic when, at the beginning of the year 2020, they claimed to be “prophesying” for Nigeria, now lay claims to have received a message.
Rather than join the government in providing palliative measures, we have also seen how some pastors have been asking their members to pay tithes even when those members are unable to venture out to earn their daily bread. Some who ventured out were brutalized by policemen and soldiers who are not held accountable for violating the rights of citizens they are paid to protect. Can’t we reason? Let us think!...
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