As the dust raised by the comments of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministries, Enugu Nigeria (AMEN) on the 2015 presidential poll is yet to settle, another Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ikeri has said that President Goodluck Jonathan has failed Nigerians.
Fr. Ikeri who was preaching in a homily entitled,” Follow Me”, to mark the 3rd Sunday in the Ordinary time of the year at the St. Flavius Catholic Church, Oworonsoki Lagos on Sunday however stated that unless President Jonathan own up to the fact that he had made some mistakes, he may not win the confidence of Nigerians in the coming elections.
He decried a situation where President Jonathan failed to visit Borno state since the insurgents started unleashing terror on the state only to visit the state just few weeks to the presidential polls to identify with the people’s suffering describing that as the height of deceit.
He disclosed that the president having discovered that he was sitting on a “hot soup” was only trying to buy time culminating in his sending his National Security Adviser to America to seek for the postponement of the election to enable him correct some of his mistakes which according to him was too late for him to do now.
“Jonathan has failed, there is no gainsaying that he has failed Nigerians but if he can own up to his mistakes before Nigerians and say we have made mistakes in so, so and so areas but give us the benefit of doubt, we will correct the mistakes we have identified and apologize to Nigerians, I believe that will make a lot of difference”, he said.
He observed that the president has come to the realization that the 2015 election was not going to be like the 2011 elections where every Nigerian was singing Jonathan arguing that Nigerians were gradually waking up and shaking off the military mentality even though they are not there yet.
Fr. Ikeri who is also a resident priest at the parish bemoan the folly of the Igbos whom he said was the only tribe in the country that was yet to wake up to the reality of the Nigerian politics pointing out that it was regrettable.
According to him,” his people have rejected him, the Hausas have rejected him, the Yorubas have rejected him, the only people that are still queuing behind him are my brothers from the east, the Igbos. They have refused to learn, Yorubas will say to them follow us and they will follow, the Hausas will say to them follow us and they will follow. I don’t understand why Igbos have refused to stand on its own. It may be because they have no leaders. The Hausa has Emirs, the Yorubas have Obas now who did the Igbos have?” he queried
He further the decried the absence of night life in virtually all parts of the country contending that the absence of security to enable the people to work at night was responsible for the gridlock witnessed in Lagos State and other major cities in the country because everybody wants to work in the day.
The clergyman who lamented the institutionalization of corruption in the country recalled that in 2012, a report had it that about $20 billion was being siphoned in Nigeria on a monthly basis as a result of corruption which nobody in the government had refuted wondering what would be the amount now.
The Priest who subtly campaigned for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the bill up to his homily dismissed the claims that once Buhari takes power back to the North, they would hardly return it arguing that the constitution allows for only four year tenure after which if he perform well, he would be voted for again or the power may move down to the South.
While declaring that nobody had given him anything to say what he was saying, he however called on the congregation to meditate on what he had said before the presidential poll urging them to use the power which is in their hands to do the right thing.
