Anglican Church Frowns At Buhari’s Recent Executive Order on Corruption

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Monday, July 9th, 2018

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Enugu Diocese of the church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) has expressed worry over the recently signed executive order No.6 of 2018 by President Muhammadu Buhari warning that it should not be oppressive to perceived enemies or those in opposition.

The executive order empowers the government to cease suspicious assets connected with corruption and other relevant offences.

It also frowned at the recent hurried nature of the investigations and trial of five Christians over alleged killing of a herdsman by a Yola High Court and their conviction calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the five condemned Christians were not executed.

Rising from the first session of its 17 Synod, which took place Sunday at St Matthew’s Church, Amechi-Awkunanaw, Enugu south council area of Enugu state, the church said it was worried that the order was coming into effect when the country was planning an election and when the fight against corruption seems lopsided.

According to a communique issued after the Synod signed by the Archbishop/Bishop of their Diocese, Most Rev Emmanuel Chukwuma, Synod Secretary, Venerable . Stanley Nweze and Registrar, HBC Ogboko, the church noted that corruption has assumed a rising trend in Nigeria.

It expressed displeasure that despite the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the federal government, there has not been prudence in expenditure of public funds, stressing that there was need to enthrone measures towards plugging the leakages and ensuring abatement of financial misappropriation.

On the power sector, the church noted the position of the government that power generation had risen to 7000 megawatts, expressing dismay however that the development had not materialized into stable power supply.

The Communique added that Nigerians have continued to grapple with epileptic power supply and attendant sufferings and called on the federal government to look into the development.

While underscoring the importance of education and poor budgetary allocation, the Synod urged the federal government to enthrone appropriate measures geared towards enhancement of education funding in order to meet UNESCO standard.

The Synod equally noted with dissatisfaction the rising spate of killings in Nigeria, such as in Plateau Southern Kaduna, Benue and Taraba states as well as last week’s killing of seven policemen in Abuja and called on the federal government to protect the citizenry.

It condemned the continued occupation in office of service chiefs, urging the president to overhaul the security architecture of the country to save lives and property.

The church further accused the federal government of treating herdsmen menace with kids-gloves, pointing out that the development had emboldened them to maim, kill and destroy properties in the country.

“The Synod suspects a possibility of strange collaboration between the herdsmen and the security agents, hence, the Synod calls for the immediate overhaul of the current security architecture, to inject new officers into the leadership of the Military and Police”.

It expressed dismay at the alleged reduction in the amount budgeted for some federal government projects in the southeast, especially the Akanu Ibiam International Airport and the second Niger Bridge project and called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency, put up a supplementary bill to return whatever that were removed.

The Church also frowns at the continued detention of Miss Leah Sharibu after her mates abducted at Dapchi were released because of her christian faith and urged the federal government to ensure her release without further delay.