Bishop Sosthenes Eze warns Governor Ugwuanyi not to behave like Chime

This years’ synod, the third session of the second synod of the Diocese of Enugu North came to a close recently.
The synod which was outstanding and a huge success saw Bishop Sosthenes Eze speaking to different levels of government on what is expected of them.
In his address at the synod held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 9th-Mile Ngwo, Bishop Eze formally bade farewell to the immediate past governor of Enugu State, Mr Sullivan Chime.
The bishop praised the former governor for allowing himself to be used by God to facilitate peace in the state and “rehabilitate some sections of Enugu city and his hometown Udi and environs.”
He noted that Chime had also ensured that part of Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu was commissioned and put into effective use even as he attracted a free trade zone for Eastern Region at the 9th Mile Corner.
Just as the congregation thought it would be all encomium for Chime, the bishop changed direction, saying “however, we must observe that he was very discriminatory in his development programmes, appointments of political office holders, and support for churches. He supported the Roman Catholic above all other denominations.”
Bishop Eze was not done as an impressed audience urged him on.
“He went ahead to sponsor masquerades which created problems for other members of the society by denying others their rights to free movement. He forgot that he was elected by the majority of Enugu State people to govern, develop, and utilize them equally irrespective of where they came from.
“He also forgot that even though he was Roman Catholic he was governor for all denominations and religious groups. He opposed those he felt were enemies or did not support him and even denied them development projects including the execution of New Market/Ngwo/9th-Mile road.
“From the foregoing we sincerely advise and encourage the new governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi not to follow the way of his predecessor. He should realize that even when he is a Catholic that he also is the governor for all Enugu people. Though he is from Nsukka, he is governor for all Enugu people. He should therefore treat all segments of Enugu people with fairness, equity and justice.
“We even encourage him to appoint people from the opposition party as a way of having an inclusive government. He must not use oppression like his predecessor.
We thank him for the policy drive to develop 9th-Mile and Nsukka town as urban centres in Enugu State. We encourage that he set his heart to touch peoples’ lives in all parts of Enugu State.
“We congratulate him also for quickly setting up 12-man urban renewal committee for the upgrade of Nsukka Township in keeping with his promises. We encourage him to therefore to do the same for 9th Mile as urgently as possible. The 9th-Mile Corner with its strategic position is the image maker for Enugu State as a nodal town. Its sorry state does not speak well of the government and the people of this state.
“Ngwo community where 9th-Mile is located was the goose that laid the golden egg of coal that was mined to develop the major cities in the old Eastern Region like Calabar, Uyo, Port Harcourt, Aba, Umuahia, Owerri, Onitsha, Awka and the present Enugu town and there is nothing to show for it here in Ngwo. Ngwo hosted the capital of Nigeria in 1929, and capital of Eastern Region from 1945.”
He, therefore, called on the government of Enugu State and Udi Local Government Area to give due attention to Ngwo land and other communities around her like Nsude, Obioma, Eke, Abor, Ebe, Egede, Imezi Owa and Oghe for industrialization and township status as it was planned in 1909 instead of the present negligence the area is suffering.
“Again we must observe that the governor cannot do it alone; each person in the service of Enugu State whether in private and public sector has a contribution to make. People should be productive not collecting salaries for work they did not do. We are not playing our roles as salt and light when we do not go to work of go late deliberately or abandon our duty posts for private businesses and at the end of the month we collect salaries for work we did not do. All these create social ills in the entire system. All that must stop if we must develop and grow our state as a modern state that will have social infrastructure needed for good living of the people.
State of the nation
God has continued to honour His word concerning our nation. Nigeria has continued to be a mystery. This is nothing but the finger of God. Everybody was afraid about the future of our nation before the elections. Everyone who was concerned prayed out his or her heart for the survival of our land; while evil men plotted our ruin. God had mercy; answered our prayers and delivered us from destruction. In His eternal destiny He brought in President Muhammadu Buhari to the seat of governance in Nigeria. He has been inaugurated as fourth democratically elected president since 1999.
We congratulate him on this serious responsibility of governing the nation of Nigeria for the second time. He has to work hard to fulfill his campaign promises to the Nigerian people. We wish to remind President Muhammadu Buhari and plead with him to see himself as a Muslim who is President of Nigeria and not a Muslim President. To this effect, you are the President of a
multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation of Nigeria. You must endeavor to give fair treatment to all people of Nigeria irrespective of their tribal background, creed and faith. Your promises on corruption, security, and economy must be pursued vigorously to put Nigeria where she belongs in the comity of nations.
Menace of Fulani herdsmen
The flooding of Fulani herdsmen in the Southern part of the nation is alarming and creating a lot of security risk. The leadership of the region must ensure that all these movements are genuine and must be verified to see if they are doing genuine businesses or not. They should be under serious security surveillance and we plead with our traditional rulers not to sell their birth rights in accommodating them here. They have been maiming and killing people here recently and it may not stop if we do not checkmate their actions.
Probe of past government
Every government that comes in claims the past one was corrupt and must be probed. They used it as propaganda to confuse us in Nigeria and gain power. Soon after they settle down and they do worse than their predecessor. We recommend that if this present government is serious about dealing with corruption they should first probe themselves and do restitution; then they will have moral authority to probe others. If not, what they are doing now is noise making and to distract and make us relax before they start their own looting of the economy. We therefore call on all those who have been involved in corruption beginning with those in power in families, villages, communities, local governments, state and federal institutions, establishments, agencies, parastatals, private sector, religious groups, including churches to confirm and return all stolen funds including investments whether at home or abroad.
Incessant strike by workers
The frequent strikes by various labour unions are clear indications of a sick country. The underlying factor is corruption in the entire system. There are all sorts of manipulations by both government agencies and labour unions and we are not honest with ourselves. We need to be sincere to ourselves and fair to all country. The wages of the various organizations should be tied to the productivity of the various groups; politicians, civil servants, public servants, and private sectors. We need a total overhaul of our wage system to be commensurate with our output and not using our privileged position to enrich ourselves and support others.
We call on government, political class, and entire labour groups to come together and renew the entire wage system for everybody and we believe it will assist greatly to reduce the frequent strikes which are affecting our productivity as a nation.