By Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

The Bishop, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Omu-Aran Diocese, Kwara state, Rt. Reverend Festus Oyetola Sobanke, has berated the country’s political leaders for lackluster performance, saying the multifaceted troubles the country is going through are “simply and squarely a failure of leadership.”

The Bishop, who spoke at the 2021 Synod of the Church in Omu-Aran, Irepodun local government area, said the country is in dire straits and in need of a leader with “the fear of God, Godly idealism, and one with standards and convictions, who can transform the country’s arid waste into a blooming garden of pure delight.”

He said: “Nigeria’s recent history raised hard questions on the issue of political leadership. Here is a nation with vast, enormous, and indeed awesome potential for growth and development and a surface of human, material, and natural resources. In the days of the attainment of national independence, Nigeria had some of the best leaders any nation could have. Sadly, today, the picture that emerged is unflattering

“Let me make it loud and clear, Nigerians are suffering and Nigerians are wallowing in poverty. This nation is sinking. I know I am not saying anything new but I am doing it for the sake of emphasis and to trouble the conscience of the political leaders and to let them know that they have not been fair to this nation and its people.

“What more can we say, we have moved from worse to worst. Our political leaders have made people to call God a liar, they have refused to allow our prayers to be answered by their selfishness and insincerity.

“Crime has increased very rapidly in this nation. Kidnapping has become the order of the day, tribalism and nepotism are ruling our decisions, our roads are bad and fast becoming death traps, electricity in this nation is an apology. Nigerians are in pain. We entrusted our votes into your hands, even if some of us had done it based on what you gave, all the same, we trusted you to lead us aright but you have failed us. We can not continue to celebrate failure. You have betrayed our trust and you back stabbed the church of God.

“In Nigeria today, being a Christian is a thing to dread. You are almost not safe for being a Christian in this nation. Go to North, see hundreds of attacks on the churches. In the Southeast, it is gradually coming up and our experiences in the South West are not palatable. Who has bewitched this nation? Where have we missed it, who are the troublers of our Israel?

Rt. Reverend Sobanke, said the time has come for Nigerians to take the bull by the horn, adding: “If you don’t have a voter’s card, please go and get yours.

“Our votes will count this time but you must be all out to vote. Let us vote out those who are perpetrating evil and giving unrest to this nation. We know them, they are ungodly leaders. They allowed killings and bloodshed. These are not signs of democracy, neither are they signs of godliness. They are signs of darkness. Please join in this campaign. Don’t let us miss it again. The N1,000 given to us during the election did not solve anything. We have a long list of youths seeking employment and we are not seeing the jobs coming. Let us do our best to save this nation; vote for the right persons.

“Secular leaders must be called by God if they are actually godly leaders. How can you just surface from nowhere and say you want to lead the people created by God, without God’s backing? That is the result of what we are experiencing today. Because you have been a good service boy on errands for politicians, now it is your turn to lead. to lead.

“As much as the churches and Christian bodies pray for our leaders, a larger percentage of our leaders are fetish and into idolatry especially when they want to go into offices All manner of rituals, killings, sacrifices, just because they want to lead in office, if such acquire the said office, do you think their loyalty will be to the Almighty God? Absolutely no. That is why today our leaders now avoid church services and programmes because they know they don’t belong to God.”

“If we have failed in raising leaders, the only situation is to go back to the drawing board and see what must be done to raise godly leaders. It amazes me when the leaders of this nation are arrogating the problem of this nation to the past government. I asked myself who were those in the past government? Are they not our senators and governors today? Were they not the governors and lawmakers yesterday? This is just to tell us that if we continue with these kind of leaders, who don’t fear God, this nation won’t succeed. In all sincerity, we need God-fearing leaders.”

On drug trafficking and drug addiction which are becoming rampant among the youths, the Bishop, however, lauded the President on the appointment of Gen. Buba Marwa as the boss of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as well as Marwa’s relentless efforts in the fight against the cankerworm.