Fiery preacher and Pastor of Later Rain Assembly Tunde Bakare on Sunday put the blame for the unfolding cases of corruption in the country’s arms deal saga at the doorsteps of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying the apex bank was partly to blame for the way it discharged its duties to the country.
Bakare, who is one of the conveners of the Save Nigeria Group, in an annual state of the nation broadcast at his church headquarters in Lagos, said CBN has contributed more harm than good to the nation in the unfolding corruption scandal from the former Presidency.
He said, “To the discerning, CBN currently contributes negatively to the Nigerian state in more ways than one. First, CBN has become a conduit pipe for politicians to drain the nation. Otherwise, how can a letter of barely two paragraphs addressed to the current CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, by the then national security adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), become the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) leading to cash flow of $47 million and several millions of euros?
“In decent climes, the CBN governor cannot continue in office while the NSA is accounting for his alleged misdeeds.”
The clergyman, who tasked the President Muhammadu Buhari administration on its promise of change to Nigerians, said the change can only be realized if the citizenry keys into the vision of the government.
“The buzzword in our nation today is “change”. It was perhaps the keyword and message that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power as he campaigned all over the country on APC’s platform.
“Now that the election is over, it is incumbent upon us all, citizens and government, to do all in our collective power to ensure that we are not short-changed by the change we so desired and voted for.
“We the people, and those we put in power to serve our collective interests, must be willing to die to our inglorious past. We must expect and accept a clearly defined pathway to what we collectively desire to become. We must turn our backs on what used to be if we are ever to become something new. That is the secret to successful change. To settle for less is to short-change ourselves.
“Let me state clearly here that I firmly believe that change is possible. And, much more, I am fully persuaded that Nigeria can and will change for the better.
“We need to change our governance structure. The present system is severely wasteful. Left as is, it will continue to generate as well as perpetuate a syndicate of scams and profligacy at all levels of government
“We need to change our grundnorm by creating a true Federal system of government while making the welfare and security of our people the raison d’être of government. We need to change our cash-and-carry judicial and legislative systems.
“Thus, in order to obtain the new, we must release a decaying system that has arrested our development and growth as well as created a very wide gulf between the opportunistic elitist rich and unfortunate poor among our citizens,” he said.
On national security, Bakare noted that though government is doing all within its power to combat terrorism, the task would have been easier if the country decentralized its security system.
“Considering regional, geographical and cultural peculiarities, why not allow zonal coalitions of states to design and implement regional security strategies in conjunction with the federal government?
“Why have we bought into the deceptive notion that the security of our nation will be hampered if we introduce policing at federal, regional, state and community levels?
He pointed to the successes recorded by the use of the Civilian JTF in the fight against Boko Haram as an instance.
“The earlier we remove the legal bottlenecks in the way of achieving the maximisation of our local resources in this regard, the better our chances of defeating insurgents and terrorists in record time,” he said.
Arms scandal: It’s not enough to jail those indicted – Bakare
Another clergyman, Bishop David Bakare, has advised the Federal Government to reserve 10 per cent of the proceeds from the arms deal for the welfare of the families of Nigeria’s fallen heroes and ex-servicemen. Bakare, Chairman, North-West chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), made the call in his sermon at an inter-denominational church service in Abuja on Sunday.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo led service chiefs, some top government functionaries, political leaders and some members of the diplomatic community, to the church service
The service was in commemoration of the Armed Forces and Remembrance Day 2016. The clergyman, who decried the magnitude of corruption in the country even at the expense of human lives, said taking suspects to the anti-graft agencies was not enough to tame corruption.
He added that government and other stakeholders must begin to show more appreciation for the contributions of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the unity and peace of Nigeria.
“There is a reward that our soldiers in the battle-front deserve, there is a reward that our fallen heroes deserve and what they deserve is not for them to die and their children to die with them. “What they deserve is not to die for our country and their children cannot feed again. Those who laboured and died for our nation deserve honour.
“If we find those who have stolen our wealth, it is not enough to take them to EFCC, it is not enough to jail them, 10 per cent of every stolen money should be used to take care of the families of our fallen heroes.
“Today we are talking about the arms deal scandal and we hear that some people are returning money. That money was meant to buy arms. If it was not used for that purpose and some soldiers lost their lives as a result of the act, then their children should be taken care of from the money recovered.’’
The clergyman urged government to use part of the money as scholarship and free education to the children or family of every soldier that lost his or her life as a result of the insurgency in the North East. Bakare said Nigeria must do more to motivate its trained military personnel in order to get the best out of them.
Bakare added that those found guilty in the ongoing probes of financial mismanagement in the country should be stripped of previous honours given to them by the country. According to him, streets in Abuja that have been named after those indicted in the ongoing probe should be replaced with more patriotic Nigerians that have sacrificed for the unity of Nigeria.
“In addition to the 10 per cent reserved from the proceeds of the arms loot, I want those concerned to go to the streets of Abuja and remove all those people’s names and put the name of a soldier who died one month after being married without a child. “Name a street after that soldier and others will be happy to serve this country.
“If we remember our fallen heroes, I believe that God is calling on us all to do a little more for our soldiers still serving and those who have fallen in the service of our fatherland.’’
The clergyman warned that God at His appointed time would intervene if the relevant authorities refused to do the right thing at the right time.
According to him, we must do the right things because if God decides to do what we have refused to do as leaders then it is going to be disastrous because there will be anarchy and calamity in the land. Speakers at the forum, in separate remarks, paid glowing tributes to the gallantry and sacrifice of Nigeria’s ex-servicemen.
-Leadership/Vanguard