From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
This year’s Synod of the Diocese of Amichi (Anglican Communion), in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State, held at St Peter’s Church, Amichi. recently has come and gone but the anger of Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Revd. Ephraim Ikeakor, is still raging over the state of the Nigerian nation.
The Bishop noted that a nation where bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal elements take their nefarious activities to public infrastructures and facilities like the airport, railways, correctional centres, military bases, police stations and major highways without resistance from the nation’s security agencies is a worrisome green light, signalling a failed state.
He said: “At this point, I don’t want to talk about the welfare of the our military and police personnel. The Nigerian policemen are the most neglected police force in the world. A nation where policemen and their families live in the same public houses where criminals they are fighting against reside spells disaster to both policemen and the nation’s security architecture.
“What do you call a nation where a ward councilor earns more than a university professor in monthly take home? A nation whose leadership is anchored on deceit, tribal favouritism, religious fundamentalism, political parochialism and destructive media propaganda is nothing but a failed state.
“A nation where politics means all to the leaders and education means nothing to them is at crossroads. What do we call a nation where sacredness and sanctity of life is sacrificed on the altar of religious fundamentalism and extremism? How do we survive in a nation where borrowing for consumption has become a harmless economic strategy for economic growth and development?”
He said his candid advice to leaders of Nigeria was to purposefully ask themselves whether they were truly sincere and unbiased in struggling to keep Nigeria as one nation. He is of the opinion that leaders should ask themselves what are the causes of agitations from different groups in Nigeria.
He tasked the leaders to explain to Nigerians what are the causes of exponential growth in crime, youth restiveness, brain drain among professionals and general retrogression in all sectors of Nigeria’s national life. Ikeakor suggested aggressive critical restructuring of Nigeria with practical devolution of power from the center for true and functional federalism.
The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, who visited in the course of the Synod, announced that security in the state had received a boost with Anambra indigenes in Lagos, Abuja and elsewhere contributing to secure lives and property.
The governor, who was given an opportunity to address the congregation, said that the state’s Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), which was formerly abandoned had been repaired and made functional to add to other sophisticated weapons available to the security operatives in Anambra.
He said that the state had made a laudable achievement in securing and reclaiming the state from the hands of the criminals and would continue to maintain the tempo despite the odds. He reassured Anambra people that his governement would soon win the war against insecurity in the state.
“We are picking them one by one. Ninety nine percent of the hoodlums are not from Anambra State. They joined their criminal activities with idolatry. They make idolatry their wholesome religion, ” the governor said.
Soludo told the church that during a raid of one of the criminal hideouts at Aguluezechukwu, that the security operatives discovered financial records of the hoodlums with a comprehensive accounting system. He said the state’s forests and bushes must be free, regretting that investors had been going to nearby states to invest other than Anambra. He promised the Bishop that his governement would partner with the church to make progress.
The Bishop, who took his time thereafter to present the state of the Diocese to Soludo, told him that the Diocese had executed several projects with some others still ongoing and solicited the help of the state governement.
The Bishop explained that in addition to array of projects, including School of Nursing Science, School of Midwifery, a befitting chapel for the Seminary School in the Diocese, an ultramodern and state-of-the-art modular eye theater had been set up in the Diocese. He said it was set up, sponsored, and donated to the Diocese by the SECHUWARIIS Development Foundation in the Diocesan Hospital.
The Bishop said that the equipment and donation of the eye theater was as a result of the discovery made by SECHUWARIIS during a mega medical outreach they sponsored between August and September, 2021.
He explained that out of the 1,816 patients that were attended to at the medical outreach 975 had eye related problem.
“Our health system is in a sorry state. There are no more laboratories to teach physical science students practicals at higher institutions, no well equipped governement hospitals; political leaders travel overseas for medical tourism. Politicians have destroyed the nation,” he lamented.
The Bishop said that the Diocese had made significant progress in health, infrastructure, education, agriculture and social welfare.
“Our seminary was established in 2021. It was a multi-million naira project aimed at having a standard institution. One of the greatest challenges we had was that we did not have a befitting chapel for the seminary. Within last and this year, we have succeeded in building a standard and state-of-the-art chapel for that seminary.
“Within this period, we started our College of Nursing Science and after accreditation we went for School of Midwifery with massive administrative and lecture halls. We started it and to the glory of God we have completed and fully equipped it with a high commendation with an accreditation team,” the Bishop disclosed.
He said there had been a medical mission which was organized at the Diocesan hospital where1,916 patients with various ailments were attended to. He said these included those who had eye problems that received surgery at the mission hospital now elevated with modern equipment and a theatre that could take care of any manner of eye surgery.
The Bishop also said the Diocese had set up an Information Communication Technology (ICT) centre that had a high standard and registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. He equally mentioned the mission’s water factory which he said was doing well.
Archbishop Alexander Ibezim, Archbishop Anikwenwa, Archbishop Christian Efobi, Archbishop G.I.N.Okpala, Archbishop Samuel Chukwuka and scores of other Bishops from and outside Anambra State graced the event.