In his Christmas message to Nigerians, the Archbishop of Anglican communion, Kaduna Diocese, Bishop Timothy Yahaya, has said that proliferation of unlicensed religious leaders is responsible for ethno-religious and socio-political crisis in the country.

Bishop Yahaya noted that a trained and licensed religious leader would not engage in unguided utterances, and called on relevant authorities to checkmate proliferation of untrained pastors to stop sensationalism in their preachings.

The Cleric, while fielding questions from newsmen on Monday shortly before the Christmas homily at Saint Michael Cathedral, Anglican diocese, Kaduna, however expressed the hope that Nigerians will surmount numerous socio-economic challenges in the country.

The Bishop also questioned the transparency of government transport fare reductions and compared it to past programs like the COVID 19, school feeding initiative, expressing doubt about effectiveness and potential misuse of the funds.

He emphasised the importance of proper planning, transparent implementation, and accountability in such initiatives for a positive impact on the weak and struggling economy.

“The greatest problem with Nigeria is that everybody is a clergyman, we don’t know who is licensed or not licensed, we don’t know who is qualified to preach or who does not qualified to preach. When you are faced with that kind of problem where there are quacks all over the place, who are making sure that they heat our polity, and our security agencies are looking at them quietly, I don’t think that that will help nation building.

“In nation building this country must sit down and think thoroughly, to think thoroughly about the types of messages that come out of our pulpits. What I am saying is that we must say the truth the way it is, but we must not sensationalise the message, we must not be seen to be politicians, because as it is today the toga if religion, people are now partisan, and they are becoming political.

“If religion must be seen to build this nation, we must tolerate one another, we must preach peace. In this Anglican compound, you see a school, the school has produced doctors. That is part of nation building. In this school you must learn moral. There is no way you come here that you will bad citizen of this country. We have about three hospitals now within the State. That is part of nation building. We are sinking boreholes. That is part of nation building. We are teaching people how to farm. That is nation building. We are doing empowerment. That is nation building.

“But I want to say that one of the problems of Nigeria today is religion. Religion that has helped other nations is becoming the bane of this country. I want to plead with religious leaders, let us think before we talk. And lets us be very circumvent that when we get into religious conundrum in this country, only God knows when it will stop. And God forbids. Jesus is the prince of peace. We pray for peace in our nation.

“Let’s go to other countries of the world, Singapore is better than us today, let us go and learn from Singapore, the religions in Singapore is more than religions in Nigeria, but nobody preach rubbish. We have our holy books that should direct us on what to say. Even me as a religious leader when I listen to what other religious leaders say I get perplexed, I get worried, I get disturbed and I ask myself where are these people trained because if everybody becomes medical doctor over night people will be scared to be attended to for medical surgery. So why are you thinking that religion is not as sensitive as medical. When we get it wrong we will regret it.

“For me, we need to sit down and think on what to do to ensure that it is the right people passing the right messages in this country. Every religion is affected here, not only Christianity. In the last election, it is God that saved this country, the way people were talking as if heaven should fall. I mean that is not what we were trained to do. We are supposed to be men and women of peace.

“If we must open our mouths we must make sure it will lead to peace, tranquility and development in our country because we have followers and some of the things you say send wrong signals. I think as leaders we must have to think twice and do the right thing.

“Christmas is the time that rekindle hope to all humanity. And our message is that there is hope in the midst of all the conundrums in our world today, in the midst of summersaulting economy of the nation. I think I have to tell Nigerians that Christmas is hope, there is hope, the hope that God will restore our economy, God will restore our security, God will restore our education, God will restore our judiciary, God will restore all vissitudes. That is the message of Christmas,” Bishop Yahaya said.

On transport fares reduction, Bishop Yahaya said, “Government announcement in Nigeria at times become very mystical. I asked people who are leaving Abuja to the East, they told me they didn’t see any subsidy. So we want to call on President Tinubu that this reduction in transport fares should not be like school feeding programme.

“That even when there was COVID and people were at home, children were said to have been fed when schools were not going on. Let this not be another white elephant project in this country. How do we know statistic of people traveling, how do we the money released for the subsidised transport is going to the right hands. When we are going to declare things in this country, we need to think thoroughly because for me, this may be the money for the boys again in an economy that is struggling to survive.

“It is a very good thing if it will be done properly. But for now the implementation is almost ground zero. No implementation, yet I believe some people are claiming money. Claiming money for what; we don’t understand. When you planning something, be sure that the strategy is there, if not the impact will not be there.” (Daily Sun)

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