Bishop of Diocese of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, Timothy Yahaya, has slammed Nigerian political leaders over the recent completion and commissioning of Dangote Refinery in Lagos. He said what a whole country could not achieve, an individual has done it.
Bishop Yahaya said the only thing the nation’s leaders could do was to play politics with oil, the mainstay of the country’s economy to the detriment of over 200 million Nigerians.
Dangote Refinery is owned by Kano-born business mogul, Aliko Aliko Dangote and was commissioned early last month by the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bishop Yahaya who fielded questions from reporters yesterday at the end of a 3-day Synod of the church said the nation’s leaders should bury their heads in shame for failing to provide such huge functional economic value and benefits to the teeming population of the country over the years.
The theme of the third session of the 22nd Synod was “The God of Restoration”.
However, the Anglican cleric tasked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to, as a matter of reality, declare a state of emergency on Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills, saying that it was high time the nation’s economy was diversified to stop overdependence on the oil sector.
He described Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills as a diamond mine that has been neglected for several years, adding that a lot of people will be lifted out of poverty if the mills is revived to boost the economy.
“Another thing that I must talk about is that if Dangote can build a refinery, a world class refinery, the biggest of its kinds in the world, it is a shame to the leaders of this country. You mean an individual can do what 200 million people cannot do? And today fuel has become politics in our country. The reality of what is happening in the oil sector can only be imagined, the rot and corruption in that sector, only God can deliver this country.
“We want to see a situation whereby if you want to revive the economy we must talk about Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills, that is a diamond mine that we have neglected in this country. And you know the triple effect of Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills? A lot of people will be lifted out of poverty. Apart from that, another agenda for this new administration is agriculture, any nation that cannot feed itself can never progress.
“When I say agriculture I don’t mean political agriculture. The Anchor borrowers’ money, I make bold to say that it did not reach farmers. It was shared among politicians, 80 or 90 percent of the money went to the politicians. We know what we are talking about, we are talking about nationalism and patriotism. When we talk of agriculture, we want to go to the market and see a bag of rice for N5000 because rice is actually produced in Nigeria. We also talk about the value chain of agriculture, not just producing raw materials and then importing finished products.
“Apart from this, human capital development is through education, look at our schools today, every parent except he is not financially empowered is ashamed to take his children to the school he graduated from. The people leading us today went to government schools, went to unity schools, went to federal schools, went to public schools. Let’s be sincere, even you journalists, are you proud to take your children to government schools? That is why today most corps members cannot write essays, they cannot defend the certificate they have. In this nation that means the future is not there. If you joke with education, you joke with the future of this country,” he said.
