Worried about the poor state of affairs in the country, Scripture Union Nigeria, an international, national, interdenominational and non-denominational faith-based Christian Organisation, has called on the federal government to engage in serious policy rejig and strategic implementation of programmes and value reorientation that will set the nation on the path of glory and honour.
They also identified injustice, inequality, nepotism, ‘ethnicism’, kidnapping, corruption, poor funding and misappropriation as major challenges facing Nigeria.
The union raised these concerns on the state of the nation in a communiqué signed by the trio in Scripture Union Nigeria, national chairman, Madu .O. Iwe, a professor, and the general director, Odelana Phillips Adewale during her 104th residential national council meeting held recently at the Training and Conference Centre (TCC) Ibadan, Oyo State. The union said Nigerians should be reminded that they have no other country but Nigeria and everyone should work towards its existence irrespective of religious, ethnic, linguistics and tribal differences.
According to a statement by the Scripture Union, unemployment rate in the land is getting alarming among the youthful population, thereby providing a platform for all kinds of crime.
The union therefore calls on the federal government to provide professional avenues where young people should be employed, especially in agro based industries and small-scale technical centres
Also, the Union notices with dismay, skewed appointments in many sensitive positions in favour of some ethnic groups in Nigeria to the detriment of the others. The situation, it said, creates bad blood among the Nigerian citizens and generates avoidable tension and crisis in the polity.
‘’Despite appeals and agitations from the citizenry, merciless killings of innocent Nigerians have continued unabated with the consequential effect of sacking agrarian communities, which results in deepening hunger owing to lack of cultivation of agricultural food materials.’’
The union urged the present administration to see every citizen of Nigeria as a Nigerian who must be treated with justice, fairness and equity.
The Union said the education system is still suffering decay with incidences of strike actions, poor educational facilities and graduation of unskilled graduates in Nigeria, due to repeated inadequate fund allocation from annual budgets.
“The Union observes with dismay, the level of degeneration of democratic processes in Nigeria with the recently concluded elections accompanied by agitations from many citizens who were disenfranchised,” the statement said, noting that if this is not urgently checkmated, the nation could degenerate to a racist state.
However, the union commended Nigerians for the atmosphere of commitment to democracy which prevailed during the last elections, calling on government to ensure grey areas are properly addressed.
It said the three arms of government must remain independent, void of interference by the executive. “Our judicial arm must be secrosant as it remains the hope of the common man,” it said.
While commending the present administration for its fight against corruption, the Union notes that for the fight to be effective, it has to be comprehensive, devoid of partial treatment of some people due to their religious, political or ethnic affiliations.
On power sector, the Union said that distribution is still very low and noted that government should look intently on why despite privatisation availability of power has not significantly improved.
The union called on all Christians to go back to the Bible as the basis for their faith and shun all forms of pseudo Christian teachings, which do not assure one of eternal life in Christ. “Christians must intensify fervent prayer for our nation, as that is the only way the situation of our country could be improved.”
Zebulon Agomuo
