From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
The newly promoted Archbishop of Okigwe Archdioses of Methodist Church Nigeria, His Grace, Most Rev Livinus Onuagha has declared Nigeria a country only existing in name.
Archbishop Onuagha who was the former Bishop, Methodist Church Nigeria, Onitsha Diocese made the declaration at St Andrew’s Church Awada Obosi, Anambra State when priests from the Onitsha Diocese organized a reception in his honour for the new elevation.
He said that Nigeria had been divided, adding that experts had already pronounced it so.
Quoting literary legend Chinua Achebe he said that those who were supposed to hold Nigeria together had put knife to what held the country together leading things to fall apart and the center could not hold again.
“Must President Muhammadu Buhari be told to protect Nigerians? What did he take as his oath of office? Banditary is now a great trade in Nigeria.
“Look at the massacre in Jos and the President keeps quiet only for the security operatives to react when the youths decided to defend the people. Human lives have become nothing in Nigeria. And you cannot advise the Federal Government because the man in charge and his people have a mindset.
The Archbishop wondered what the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was waiting for before it could rise to the occasion to say no to what he described as the holocaust sweeping across the country.
” Christian leaders are keeping quiet. What is the CAN doing? If all the religious leaders could come out enmass whether Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican and whatever denomination, indeed all church leaders and stage a nationwide protest for the whole world to hear them, that would be a good step in the right direction, ” he said.
The Archbishop said his support for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu hinged on the fact that Kanu, as he described him, is the Moses of the present generation of the Igbo.
“Let them let us go because it is even in their own advantage because we will be exporting a lot of things to them as we are highly enterprising.
“Our Governors keep quite because they get peanuts from the center. The economy of South East can receive a boom if railway lines are built crisscrossing the major cities in the zone.
“The Nigerian military has been compromised. How can bandits swoop on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), kill three Christian military officers and escape just like that. People are being killed like rats every day and you want me to be happy as a religious leader. No. That is too bad, ” he lamented.
The Archbishop said going to Okigwe Archdioses was like sending him back to his root which he said would offer him the opportunity to put in his best to reposition the place.
He said his becoming an Archbishop was divine as there was no struggle for it.
“God told me that I was not competing with anybody, that I should walk at my own pace. My elevation to the position of an Archbishop witnessed the hand of God in it and what God has destined can never be changed by any man. I thank the Prelate, His Eminence, Dr Samuel Uche and every other person God used to elevate me and I promise that I will never disappoint anybody. I give God the glory, ” he said.
The lay president of the Onitsha Diocese, Mr Onyeka Nwulor who flanked the Archbishop in the course of the interview said the election of the Archbishop Onuagha was unopposed and the hand of God as he witnessed it, saying that the Onitsha Diocese was very excited.