Red alert for the Pope

The visit of Pope Francis to Nigeria has become not only compelling but also urgent.  Indeed, it was the address of Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a meeting with Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) on youth development in the North that triggered off the alarm at the Vatican.

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said “I am proud to say that after two months of methodological work, statisticians have come up with a data that 1.8 million people enter the job market yearly.

“I am happy to tell you that last year, we created 1.6 million jobs.  So we are getting close to the 1.8 million, who enter the job market. We also have a pool of 5.3 million unemployed graduates, who have been accumulating over the years. So our strategy is to come up with policies that will cover the number of entrants every year before taking care of the backlog,” 

The minister noted that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was doing a lot to create employment for youths. Thorough YouWin programme, we have had 3,600 winners, among whom 2,400 winners have created 27,000 jobs so far.  Our target is to create a minimum of 80, jobs through this.

Through SURE-P, so far we have created 120,000 jobs, while YouWin is geared towards graduates, the SURE-P is for those youths, who may not have gone through school or did not complete their education.

The President has launched the National Mortgage Re-finance Corporation, which will not only provide housing for the low income earners, but will also create thousands of jobs for our youths.

We are targeting 10,000 mortgages this year and for every house you build, you create five direct jobs and two and a half indirect jobs, which can create another 75,000 jobs,” she said.

On agriculture, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said more than 400,000 part time jobs had been created and had become a source of income for youths. She said government was designing a special programme for states in the Northeast, adding that the scheme would focus on education and agriculture.

The President of AYF, Alhaji Gambo Gunjugu, said the visit was to deliberate on the issues of development in the North with regard to unemployment. “The AYF is making this important visit to discuss with you, issues of national interest, particularly the development of the North as it affects youth unemployment. We wish to also discuss the absence of peace and unity, which has divided the country, washing away the brotherhood we were known for”.

Gunjugu said the association had through the Chief of Staff to the President, presented a paper to the Presidency on the issues. What was strange was that the alarm went off again but this time it was more strident.  Vatican TV carried a live broadcast on April 1, 2014 and repeated it on the following day.  It featured the awful lamentation of Pastor Emmanuel Bosun, a delegate to the National Conference in Abuja on the platform of Christian Association of Nigeria [CAN].

It was left to “The Guardian” newspaper of April 2, 2014 to put matters in their proper perspective: “Contributions by Pastor Emmanuel Bosun yesterday accusing politicians of manipulating religion as a tool to cause distraction all over the nation created an uneasy calm among delegates at the ongoing National Conference in Abuja.

Efforts by a delegate and former Governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero to stop Bosun, a delegate on the platform of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) from going ahead with his submissions was turned down by the Deputy Chairman, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi who presided over the session.

Pastor Bosun had bemoaned the wanton killing of hundreds of Christians across Nigeria, stressing the need for the conference to address the issue with a view to putting an end to the massacre and avert the resultant effect of a division of the country.

His words: “Nigeria as of today is producing widows and orphans in thousands.  Mr Chairman, permit me to show this stone.  I picked this stone personally in a village called Dogo Nahawa in Jos at the mass grave of 501 Christians slaughtered in one night.  They were not thieves and they were not criminals but were killed because they chose to be Christians.

Our country today is facing a terrible calamity as religion has become a manipulative tool that is being used to cause destruction all over the nation. This conference needs to address religion squarely before religion is used to scatter Nigeria.

Mr President in his speech on pages 14 and 15 made reference to the need for us to review the constitution because it is inadequate. And when we look at the issue currently on ground, the bloodshed that is all over Nigeria, we find at the root, constitutional inconsistencies.  Section 10 of our constitution says the government is prohibited from adopting any religion as state religion, and the same constitution gives room for establishment and funding of one religion.

In the 1999 Constitution Sharia is mentioned 73 times, Grand Khadi 54 times, Islam 28 times, and Muslim 10 times but there is no single mention of Christ, Christian, Christianity or church. Some mischievous elements have taken this lapse in the constitution to come to the ungodly decision that probably the state is an Islamic state, and wonder what Christians are doing here.

Hundreds of our churches are being burnt, Christians are killed and in fact it has reached the stage of genocide and I will cite just one example: In just one denomination in Plateau State, the Women’s Fellowship as at 2001 had 500 registered widows.  By 2008 they had 900 registered widows, as at February 2014 they have 25,000 registered widows.  We have to talk to ourselves.

There is the need for us, according to what Mr President mentioned, for this conference to take a closer look at the constitution of Nigeria and make recommendations that will facilitate redressing every imbalance therein so that the citizens in Nigeria can live peacefully and in harmony.  

If we set Nigeria on fire for whatever reason none of us will be able to live there.

We Christians do not hate the Muslims; we are prepared to live together in harmony.  I live in the South-West in which Christians and Muslims live together and there is peace there.  We want to see that peace all over Nigeria, in the North, South, East and West.”

But raising a point of order to draw the attention of the presiding officers to a violation of the Conference rules, Adamu Aliero argued that the submission by Pastor Bosun was irrelevant to the discussions and capable of dividing the delegates and called on the chairman to prevail on him to discontinue with his submission.

“Our rules say a delegate must confine his contribution to the subject under discussion and may not introduce matters irrelevant thereto.  Mr Chairman, the speaker is bringing issues not related to Mr President’s speech.

We are discussing Mr President’s speech and I, therefore, want the Chair to call him to order.  He is bringing diversion; he is bringing issues that are very sentimental, he is bringing issues that cannot even be verified.  He is dividing the house; I therefore call on the Chair to call him to order.”

But ruling on the matter, the Deputy Chairman, Bolaji Akinyemi said: “I cannot uphold your point of order. However, I appeal that there are a lot of grievances that have brought us here.  This is the time for you all to speak your minds.  I therefore cannot uphold your point of order.”

J.K Randle