AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
President Bola Tinubu has been tasked on the need to rebuild the country’s economy and restore confidence in the currency (the Naira).
Also, other key stakeholders, including those who participated in the 2023 presidential election but lost, had been urged to ‘drop their tools’ and join hands with President Tinubu in building the country at this critical time in history.
Making the calls after a joint CPFN/PFN meeting held in Lagos, on Thursday was the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, led by its President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke.
Bishop Oke, who addressed the media after the meeting, said President Tinubu should not relent in his determination to reposition the economy and bail out the long-suffering masses from the current state of the nation.
According to the Bishop, as a body the CPFN/PFN appreciates the efforts being made by President Bola Tinubu to get the country up and running. But he said that the situation in the land called for collaboration in order to get the country back on track as quickly as possible.
Bishop Oke, who doubles as the President of Sword of The Spirit Ministries, advised President Tinubu to review salaries and wages of the civil servants for the workers to have what it takes to match the hyper-inflation sweeping across the country.
Assuring that the PFN and its leaders were praying for Tinubu and his team to succeed, the clergyman said, “We appreciate the efforts of the President of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu and his cabinet members. If they fail, Nigeria has failed and it means we all have failed. So, we are praying for him and his team.
“But, the fact of the matter is that things are difficult and there is hunger in the land. Everything has gone up but salaries have not changed. So, we call on him to tackle the economy. A situation where $1 is almost N2000 is totally unacceptable. When you look at the cost of cement, the cost of flour (etc.), you wonder how builders will be able to build houses or how bakers will be able to bake bread for people to eat.
“Everything must be done to avoid economic disaster. We, therefore, call on him to ensure that salaries are reviewed for workers to be able to cope. Ensure the prompt payment of salaries and pension.”
On insecurity, the PFN President urged the Federal Government to come down hard on kidnappers and make them pay for their crime. “We called on the government to declare a state of emergency on insecurity the last time. I think the government should make kidnappers pay heavily for their crime. There is no zone or region that is free from the scourge of kidnapping now. Almost every part of the country is feeling its effects and something has to be done about it.”
He criticised the ostentatious display of opulence by bankers in the country and called for caution by those in the sector, stressing, “We also like to draw attention to the banking sector. In a country where there are no jobs for the youths, people dying, pensioners can’t get their money, you have the display of such opulence among bankers. I think the government should sanitise the banking sector and check the growing opulence.”
The PFN President went further to say that “Those who are questioning the authority of the word of God in the Bible are not true men of God. Jesus said in the last days, false prophets will arise. All we can say is that they are not part of us and they do not have our authority to speak and they don’t listen to us. Their end is sure at hand if they don’t turn from their heretic ways. We can only pray for them. We can’t discipline them because they are not under us. But, if there is anyone of them that is under us, the leaders will quickly correct such.”
