Economic Downturn: Buhari Needs to Act Fast, says Archbishop Amoo

Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

Nigeria’s economic landscape is on the brink, needing urgent and swift action by President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue it from imminent collapse.

Archbishop Israeli Afolabi Amoo of the Kwara Province of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), who gave the verdict at the 22nd provincial meeting held at the Diocese of Jebba, lamented the tension in the country in recent months owing to farmers–herdsmen conflicts, ethnic clashes, banditry, kidnapping and insurgency.

He said: “President Buhari needs to act fast because insecurity has taken its toll on the nation’s economy. Sadly, matters had now gone from bad to worse. And never in our sociopolitical history has the shadow of failed nationhood been so palpable.

“Mr President should not keep mum in the face of threats to national cohesion arising from inflammatory remarks, drumbeats of war and the likes by separatist groups in some parts of the country.

“The skirmishes which we have been seeing in some parts of the South–West, involving the indigenous people of the region (the Yoruba) and the settler Fulani herdsmen, do not encourage us to believe that the end of crisis is in sight.

“To make matters worse, the silence of President Buhari even in the face of this tragic assault on public peace and constitutional sanity, gives the impression that there are people in this country who own Nigeria more than the rest.”

He commended the President for backing the State governors in their efforts to guard and protect their forests, noting that there is extant law that empowers them to do so, which he said gives force to the resistance of the Western, Eastern, Middle-belt and South-South governors to open grazing.

For an assured security, the Archbishop called on the Fulani herdsmen and their collaborators cum sponsors to show respect for the rule of law even as he admonished other citizens not to take things for granted, saying: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

He enjoined Mr. President to see that his body language is not in anyway different from his public pronouncement.

Reflecting on the theme: “Look to Jesus And Live” (Isaiah 45:22), he enjoined all to look unto God for salvation. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else,” he quoted.

The Archbishop concluded by urging everyone to embrace peace, which, according to him, “comes from the Prince of Peace, which he won on the cross, ending the dominion of sin for mankind.”