The Anglican Church in Lagos has warned
that the security challenges in the country may be compounded if the
strike by university lecturers persists.
The Bishop of Diocese of Lagos West, the
Rt. Revd. James Odedeji, said this on Thursday while addressing a
one-day synod of the church at Archbishop Vinning Memorial Church
Cathedral in Ikeja, Lagos.
The Bishop said there could be an
explosion of sophisticated crimes as the students could become idle
hands hired or enlisted by criminals for nefarious activities that could
worsen the country’s security challenges.
He wondered what had happened to the
soul of the country with frequent attacks of innocent people by the Boko
Haram sect in the North, the rising wave of kidnap and rape.
While calling for a stiffer punishment
for those involved in the crimes, Odedeji called on the politicians to
be faithful to the mandates they obtained from the electorate.
He said, “It is only in a country like
this that teachers in our universities will embark on strike for as long
as three months without a solution to the problem which led to the
face-off.”
The bishop berated politicians who had
turned electioneering to permanent vocation, rather than service to the
people who elected them.
“A lot of events are now being revealed
to convince Nigerians that our elected office holders have abandoned us
to struggle for positions in far away 2015,” he said.
Adedeji called on the Peoples Democratic
Party that controls the Federal Government to shun undue bickering and
face the task of developing the nation.
On the Judiciary, Odedeji, who was
addressing the first synod after he was enthroned in April, said the
third arm of government had failed to play its part as the last hope of
the common man.
He hinged this on his observation that
“the penalty for the big thief is light punishment, while the one for a
pick-pocket is life punishment often times, depending on how the
prosecutor is treated by the people concerned.”
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