By Otuekong Uket
Keynote Address By The Rt. Rev Barr. Otuekong Uket Ph.D, Bishop, Diocese of Atamunu At The 47th/24th Biennial Archdiocesan Convention/Rally Competition 2023 Of Archdiocesan Youth Fellowship, Archdiocese of Calabar, On September 10, 2023, At Methodist Boys High School, Oron, Akwa Ibom State
Protocol and Greetings
Preamble:
Nigeria is in bondage and is in dire need of freedom. The chains has suffocated the country to asphyxiation. Nigeria is now a failed state. The worst is the total clampdown on the youths of the country by an atavistic political class set to bring the country to total ruin. It is time to set the country free and to set the youths free.
What are the chains of bondage?
Ruling Elites
These set have identified themselves and coalesced to a ruling class at national and sub-national levels. They have recycled themselves over the years and distributed themselves into various organs of government – executive, legislative, judiciary – stealing and looting and frolicking in wanton display of proceeds of corruption. They exist in all the parties, switching parties at will and conferring largesse to those they deem suppliant – youths, clergy, women.
They have eliminated the middle class and what we have is the ‘Haves’ and the ‘Have Nots.’ This class have squandered Nigeria’s common patrimony and mortgaged the future of the youths with huge unsustainable national debt. The group has depleted the Foreign Reserves to a mere $3 billon and reduced the GDP of the country to about $200 billion from a height of $600 billion. They have ruined every government institution and destroyed any check and balance which are the hallmark of a strong nation. To be honest, the country, Nigeria has ticked all the indices of a Failed State. It is time to set Nigeria free from their strangle hold. How? We will get there
Religious Extremists
Another group that have held Nigeria captive are the religious bigots, especially of the Muslim faith. This group have succeeded to make the world see Nigeria as an Islamic nation. Taking Nigeria into Organization of Islamic Countries, OIC, Presidency being totally Muslim-based in a secular country, the ruling party being Muslim-based and most key institutions allotted to Muslims. All these are deliberate Islamization agenda pushed to favour the Muslims and entice – evangelize – others to the religion. As we speak, many sub nation states like Kaduna, Adamawa, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kwara, etc that have majority Christian population have been subjugated to only Muslim governorship. Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, ISWAP, have displaced hundreds of Christian communities, taken over their lands, killed, murdered, raped, kidnapped and driven them into internally displaced persons’, IDPs, camp. They are aided and protected and these dastardly acts are operated as Jihad – ‘Evangelism’ in Christian parlance.
International Collaborators
The major Western countries of the world see Nigeria as their free ATM. Nigeria’s oil and other rich resources are underpriced and taken away to develop their countries. This unequal relationship started during the infamous slave trade where slaves were bought for ogogoro and dane guns, the palm oil was bought for pennies and soaps, gin, clothes were imported for hard dollars and pounds. When the ruling class of Nigeria centralized all revenues to a consolidated federal account, it became easier to dip hands into the pot and also bring up schemes to help the ruling class to squirrel the looted funds into their own economy. Nigeria has been sucked dry by Britain, USA, France, etc, and now has been rejected by the Eastern block alliance. What is the way out?
Leader of Tomorrow Fallacy
One of the very sarcastic, condescending and patronizing statements frequently used by the rapaciously corrupt ruling class that has kept the youths of Nigeria down and choked is the statement “You are leaders of tomorrow.” This statement implies that the youths must wait for tomorrow, which never comes. Little wonder that since the 1999 political odyssey, only old men in their 70s; 80s; and 90s with fake sworn age declaration and doubtful academic attainment have attained the top leadership positions of the country. The youths have been choked out of the scramble and some have resorted to PA to the PA to the PA of the old man. Others have taken to criminality: Yahoo Yahoo plus, money ritual and outright murder machines. The choking is suffocating. Let the youths breath
Unity in Diversity
Another statement holding Nigeria captive and choking the youths is the believe that the over 400 ethnic nationalities and nation states can be blended into ONE! It is absolutely utopian and a clear example of heads in the clouds. Nigeria has indigenous population and not a migrant country and so loyalty and patriotism is to the ethnic nationality NOT to an amorphous disparate conglomeration cobbled together by British colonial mercenaries and hurriedly abandoned in the wake of the independence gale that blew across African colonial administrations. Nigeria is merely a geographical expression according to late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. All attempts “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done” must fail because the foundation is very faulty. That is why primordial tendencies persist and increases till date and has crippled Nigeria to a failed state.
Solutions
Prayers 1: The youths of this country need to pray that the rapacious ruling class develop deep Godly conscience and change from their lootocracy to genuine democracy. They need to realize that corrupt enrichment at the expense of millions of citizens is evil – empty did we come to this world and empty will we return.
Prayer 2: The youths of this country need to pray that the ruling class re-engineer and restructure the disparate conglomerate called Nigeria into its smaller manageable units. They must accept the obvious fact that they do not have the competencies, the discipline, the moral turpitude, the vision to throw away their ethnic affiliation to build a nation. The ruling class in former Yugoslavia, former USSR, former British India, Singapore/Malaysia, Rwanda/Burundi, etc., re-engineered and today are very viable countries with very high standard of living for their people
Prayer 3: The youths must prayer that God will arrest the sponsors of Islamization of Nigeria and disgrace the arrowheads of the Jihad that is maiming, killing, burning,and kidnapping Christians in Nigeria.
Prayer 4: The youths have to pray for a people’s revolution that will change the status quo and bring a new life to the country or the different countries therefrom.
Las Las, the youths must set the country free. It’s a matter of survival. The youths must breathe!!!
•The Rt Rev Barr Otuekong Ukut, Ph.D., is the Bishop, Methodist Diocese of Atamunu, Cross River State.
