On Saturday, the Christian Association of Nigeria advised President Bola Tinubu not to govern like former president Muhammadu Buhari.
The Christian group warned that Tinubu’s presidency will only succeed if insecurity is addressed first.
The Christian group’s warning comes during the Tinubu administration’s elimination of oil subsidy, which has boosted petrol prices by over 300 percent and caused greater misery and hardship for Nigerians.
On Saturday, CAN Vice President Rev. Dr. Stephen Baba-Panya addressed at the ECWA Headquarters in Jos at the installation of Rev. Ayuba Asheshe as the new General Secretary of the Evangelical Church Winning All.
He said that if the Tinubu-led federal government had first handled corruption, Nigerians would be fine with fuel subsidy reduction.
“If the oil subsidy was removed with honesty, nobody would have complained,” stated ECWA President Baba Panya. As beneficial as the subsidy’s removal is, the corruption accompanying its execution in recent years makes it undesirable.
“One would have wished that God will give the new government the political will to deal with the corruption in the system so that the subsidy payment that is being claimed will not be as high as they want Nigerians to believe, and it would have been at a reasonable level so that ordinary Nigerians will benefit from the commonwealth of the country that is coming through the oil resources”.
The former administration’s “distortions of governance” were decried by the CAN Vice President.
The CAN Vice President advised President Tinubu to involve everyone in nation-building to redress past wrongs.
“Insecurity should come first because, without people’s security, this administration won’t work. Even if you build an inclusive administration, revive the economy, battle corruption, and fail to secure the people, your labour will be well-spent.
“So, for us to witness progress and development as a country in the new dispensation, I call on the Federal Government not to make the mistake of the past government where the whole security architecture was biassed in favour of certain regions and religions because that action alone is not good for country security,” Baba-Panya said.
