Methodist priest urges Buhari to tackle corruption

May 29, 2015 : Samuel Awoyinfa

The Archbishop of Remo, Ijebu, Yewa and Egba, Methodist Church Nigeria, Luke Odubanjo, has called on the incoming President, Muhammadu Buhari, to tackle unemployment and corruption.

He made this call on Thursday in Abeokuta while briefing journalists on the apostolic visit of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Chukwuemeka Uche, to Ogun State, beginning on Sunday, May 31.

The cleric said the incoming administration should provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths and block all the channels through which the nation’s commonwealth was being siphoned so that the country could witness a new dawn.

He said, “The Muhammadu Buhari’s administration should tackle the problems of unemployment and corruption. No parent prays to spend so much to send his children to school and those children still return and still depend on that parent.

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“Again, corruption starts from the family. So, the President, governors, and legislators must all decide to end corruption by blocking all the channels through which corrupt practices are exhibited. They all must serve the people sincerely and kick corruption out of the system.”

He advised Buhari not to discriminate against any religion or political party, but to carry everyone along in the interest of the nation.

Odubanjo, who said the Prelate would be in the state for seven days, asked that the church be allowed to partner government in the area of provision of education as government alone could not fund the sector.

He said there was the need for government to address infrastructural decay and declining education quality in the nation’s institutions.

The cleric called on the state government to return missionaries schools to their founders, adding that this would bring back discipline and moral values into the education sector.

He said, “No government runs education alone. In so many climes, the government allows individuals and churches to run education. We are appealing to government to return all mission schools to their founders.”

Odubanjo, who called on members of the church in the state to give the Prelate a rousing welcome, said His eminence would also pay courtesy visits to the state Governor, Ibikunle Amosun and the paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo.