From Ekpo Okemiri, Umuahia
Rising from its 56th Annual Diocesan Synod, the Methodist Church Nigeria has called on the government to harken to the appeal of well meaning Nigerians to release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who has been in detention for many months, as a way of promoting national unity, peace, cohesion and curbing youth restiveness.
The synod also observed with great and grave dismay that the menace of cattle and their herdsmen were causing intolerable food insecurity, hunger, traffic obstruction that leads to avoidable road accidents and loss of lives.
It also raised the alarm over the recent moves by the Federal Government to delist some non-core agricultural courses at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU).
These were contained in communiqué signed by both the Secretary and Archbishop of Umuahia/Chairman of the Synod, Very Rev. M. Evans Onyemara and Most Rev. Dr. Raphael Opoko at the end of the synod at All Saints Methodist Church, Amuzukwu in Umuahia, the Abia state capital.
In the communiqué which was obtained by Thisage, the over 450 delegates said the move to delist the courses was without recourse to its effect on the staff and students of the University, recalling that the state is the only one in the country that has only one federal tertiary institution.
The Synod lamented that the move was coming after a recent town hall meetings in the state where both Vice President Yemi Oshibanjo and Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed assured the people of government continuous support.
It however commended the whistle blower policy of the government, which it said had occasioned the recovery of billion of dollars looted and dumped in shallow graves, dustbins, and lodges, while the people were wallowing in abject poverty
According to the synod, the government should not only sustain its efforts at recovering the funds, but should also use them to establish industries that would give employment to the teeming Nigerian youths while the culprits should be prosecuted.
It frowned on the state of federal roads in the Southeast, which it said had become death traps and nightmare to the users and called on the government to urgently rehabilitate the roads and also call back to site contractors who had abandoned their projects.
Condemning other social vices in the country such as kidnapping, armed robbery, herdsmen/farmers clashes and youth restiveness, it recalled that both past and present leadership of the church had embarked upon and continued to fight against corruption in the country.
“We commend the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari for the aggressive fight against and zero tolerance for corruption in Nigeria. The synod prays that this fight against corruption should be sustained without respect to any sacred cows.”It concluded
