Alfred Martins Adewale, yesterday, took a cursory look at the state of
the Nigerian nation and gave thumbs down for the Federal Government's
lack lustre handling of the security challenges and the war against
corruption, declaring the Boko Haram sect as terrorists bent on
destabilizing the country.
The Archbishop said: "Our government is not doing enough to deal with
corruption. It needs to do much more than it is doing so far. I can
immediately refer to the corruption in the oil sector of the economy
where certain individuals were indicted, taken to court and suddenly
we begin to hear that the cases were not thought through before they
were taken to court.
"That leaves a lot to the imagination. If the office of the Attorney
General is not in the position to think out cases to the minutest
detail before charging them to court, only to go there before the
trial gets under way, to say there was a mistake, leaves much to the
imagination," the archbishop lamented.
He added that the agencies fighting corruption should be strengthened
to fight the war to its logical conclusion.
While restraining Christians from any form of violent attack on
anybody, the archbishop threw his weight behind calls by the Christian
Association of Nigeria, CAN, for Christians to defend themselves by
whatever means whenever they come under any attack, saying that human
life is sacred and must be regarded as such by anybody.
He also urged the Federal Government to urgently deal decisively with
all acts of aggression against the people, while also giving thumbs up
for the option of dialogue where necessary because "war has never
brought about lasting peace in the history of humanity."
In his maiden chat with newsmen at the Church of Assumption, Falomo in
Lagos, the Archbishop with his Archdiocesan Director of Social
Communications, Rev. Monsignor Gabriel Osu, also used the occasion to
condemn the brutalization of journalists on their legitimate
assignments.
The archbishop argued that true federalism, which was the pathway to
national development created by the nation's founding fathers before
the military intervened in the political process, is non-negotiable
because that is the only basis for Nigeria's aspiration to level up
with other nations that began the political voyage with Nigeria but
have left her behind.
Archbishop Martins argued that the nation had gone back to democracy
after a long period of military interregnum, pointing out however,
that "we have not addressed the real positions where the real Nigeria
began at independence. Unless we consider we where before the
truncation of democracy by the military we will not be able to know
exactly what to do, because true federalism was what the fathers
proposed the nation's development."
Arguing that the major developments the nation had witnessed since
independence took place during the first republic before the military
intervention because the true federal nature of governance, he said;
"we didn't have a situation where everybody had to go to the seat of
the federal government to queue for allocation in order to carry out
projects.
"If at this time of period of our nationhood we are not making
progress as those who started the journey like us, then we need to go
back to the basics to find out why we have not made any headway," he
argued, "it is on this basis that I argue that true federalism is not
something to negotiate or debate about. It is just necessary because
that is the only way we can be at par with other nations in the
world."
The Catholic Archbishop also linked the current agitation for state
police to the call for true federalism, noting "if it was a federal
system truly speaking then it will be possible for all the federating
units to have the kind of apparatus that is needed in order to
maintain the security in their own part of the country."
According to him, if the federating units have a measure of control
over their own police they will be able to manage the current security
situation better, noting "naturally it is absolutely impossible to
have knowledge of what is happening all over the nation. The creek of
the Delta cannot be policed as the savanna of the North."
On the brutalization of journalists, Martins expressed happiness that
Lagos Gov. Babatunde Fashola and other well meaning Nigerians have
been speaking out unequivocally against this negative trend, saying
there is no justifiable reason why anybody should attack a man who is
going about his constitutional duties.
"While calling on government, our law enforcement agencies ad other
stakeholders to rise up to the challenge of safe guarding our
journalists against any form of molestation in the course of carrying
out their legitimate business, I equally urge the Nigeria Union of
Journalists, NUJ, not to relent in its efforts to ensure that the
rights of its members are protected at all times," he stated.
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