Presiding Bishop of Rhema Christian Church and Towers, Taiwo Akinola, as part of the Church’s annual convention, addressed a press conference during which the respected cleric examined a host of issues of national importance. Here’s the full text of the conference:

1. Economy

a). Concerns about the  National Currency

Gentlemen of the Press, when you came here last year, the first national challenge we highlighted was the disheartening state of our currency. Now, to say that the value has further taken the worst form would certainly be an understatement.

Last year we lamented that the Dollar to Naira exchange rate was bad. About six years ago, a dollar exchanged for N160, but today, it is over N1000 to a dollar while pound exchange for over N1,500. This is quite saddening, especially because of its attendant effects on our national socio-economic engineering.

Definitely, Nigeria is presently facing its worst economic crisis in years. Some schools of thought believe that this is largely due to a significant devaluation of the Nigerian naira that began in June this year, coupled with some huge foreign debts that have been hanging on our national economic neck for some years now.

The Central Bank eased foreign exchange controls in mid-June, as part of the economic reforms overseen by President Bola Tinubu, prompting the official rate to plunge more than 40% over the past four months. This made the naira to suffer a massive devaluation.

Moreover, our main source of forex is challenged. Accruable revenue from crude oil is being challenged by oil theft, affecting our ability to meet our OPEC quota. This is shortening our ability to earn forex.

Some experts have also identified our propensity for import at the detriment of local production as another reason for our dwindling forex earnings. We import a lot of things in the country, including fuel and toothpicks, and this continually puts pressure on the forex. We need to top up our local production.

Meanwhile, some economists think that such a devaluation is badly needed to harmonise the naira's real value and help our attempt at improving exportation, but the social impact on the generality of the citizens is very hard to swallow.

It is equally opined that our “Bonny light” is not doing well enough in the international market and we have very little window to manoeuvre because the Naira and our productivity do not align. This is especially true as the crude oil market is on the downward trend, until a recent spike occasioned by the Israel-Hamas crisis.

At the backdrop of this dismal picture is the fact that the average Nigerian is bearing the brunt, being increasingly pauperised and thrown into unprecedented hardship. Thus, our nation presently faces high cost of living crisis as a result of high inflation, high cost of food items, transportation as well as high cost of goods and services.

As a nation-church, in Rhema, we decry the unending depreciation of the Naira, which presently is having adverse effect on our local manufacturers. We call on the government to take an urgent look at how to provide succour to Nigerians across social stratum.

For example, the 10billion dollar lifeline being proposed by the Federal government should be judiciously deployed for quick and sustainable relief outcomes.

While the Federal Government has expressed its good intentions in revamping the economy, we urge them to be more people oriented in its choice and timing of economic strategies.

For instance, the unification of the exchange rates as done by Tinubu should not have been a one step process. It should have been implemented over a period of time in phases to minimise the harsh socio—economic consequences on the people.

b. Fuel Pump Price Hike

The suffering of the people has been very profound since the removal of the subsidy in June. In our opinion, enough has not been done to mitigate the harsh impact of the fuel price hike on the poorest sections of the Nigerian population.

We had hoped that by now investment in public infrastructure, education, healthcare and jobs should have begun to materialize to materially improve the lives of millions.

Government should show some sensitivity in this regard by coming up with some solid sustainable relief measures to cushion the adverse effects on the citizens.

Also the plan to transfer N8,000 per month for over six months to 12 million households across the country, which seems to have been designed to relieve the burden of the new economic regime on the most disadvantaged was paused along the way, thus sending wrong signals to the people.

Certainly, this form of palliative is not out of place at all. After all, so many countries in the Western world are always looking for ways to support their citizens with some kind of relief, like gas support palliatives, social security and others.

Nothing should stop this government from equally devising ways of ameliorating the sufferings and hardships that millions of Nigerians are currently being forced to bear within a short period.

c. Economic Growth

From available statistics, Nigeria's Q3 2023 GDP rose by 2.5%, below the 3.5% growth in 2022, but better than the Q2 figure of 2.1%.  

This minimal  growth was driven mainly by the non-oil sectors, with the top-contributing sectors being agriculture (23%), trade (16.8%), and telecommunications (16.06%), which grew by 1.5%, 2.4% and 9.7%, respectively. It gladdens the heart to note that the non-oil sector performance was powered by the Agriculture and Trade sectors.

Though the figures are not really cosy, but it is a good starting point. More strategic policies should be put in place to reset the faulty economic structure, using technology in favour of these productive sectors. This could eventually have greater positive impacts on employment generation, wealth creation and poverty reduction.

In general, we believe that Government must make concerted and well thought-out efforts to improve its fiscal and trade policies to shore up the Naira and check its consistent downward slide.

Nigeria must also increase her foreign reserves through a proactive trade policy, reduce its appetite for foreign loans, and boosts local production to depend less on the importation of goods including refined petroleum products.

We as Nigerians too should curb our undue appetite for imported goods. Otherwise, the Naira will continue its dangerous downward slide.

d). Inflation  

Nigeria's annual inflation rate climbed to 25.8% in August 2023, from 24.08% in July and marking the highest rate since September 2005. This is indeed a sharp increase from 18.25% in 2022.

No doubt, this reflects the impacts of the removal of fuel subsidies, the devaluation of the official exchange rate and security issues in the core food-producing regions of the country.

These have made the costs of essential items such as food items, drugs, raw materials for industries, spare parts, automobiles to hit the roof. The purchasing powers of millions of Nigerians have been greatly lowered, and this was alluded to by the Organised Private Sector (OPS), which states that presently the manufacturing sector has over 200 billion unsold stocks.

The Government at this period must take the necessary steps to save the economy, and Nigerians in general, from the pangs of hunger. This may require some non-partisan interventions from patriotic egg-heads and technocrats, who abound in Nigeria and in the diaspora.

2. Insecurity

The security situation of the country is yet to significantly improve after several years of promises. Nigeria is still ranked among the top countries with the highest level of terrorism in the world.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2023 assessed terrorism impact in 163 countries and came up with the conclusion that Nigeria is still unsafe as a result of intractable cases of terrorism. Nigeria remains among the least peaceful countries as it ranks 144th in the Global Peace Index 2023 with a state of peace that is regarded as low.

As a Church, we strongly value safety of lives and properties, and are, therefore, constantly burdened and somewhat traumatised by the growing level of insecurity in the country.

We believe that the security of lives and property is a foremost constitutional responsibility of the Government. Where a Government fails in this regard, it has truly failed and this gives a great cause for concern.

It is recorded that in the past five months alone, more than three hundred people have been reportedly murdered by bandits  in different parts of the North Central states of Nigeria. Furthermore, some heartless bandits and militants are still terrorising innocent people in the northeastern part of the country.

Curiously, therefore, some privileged socio-religious elites, like one Sheik Gumi, are still making some recklessly unguarded and rather inflammatory statements that can constitute national security risks.

Meanwhile, we must appeal to the Armed Forces to continue to work harder and ensure that such culprits are brought to book without any ethno-religious considerations, in a bid to make Nigeria safer for everyone to live in and make Nigeria an attractive destination for investments.

At the state level, we equally call on the Governors, to take up the challenge to step up their activities in securing their States. All hands must be on deck to reverse the deteriorating security issues in the country so that the Governments can discharge their primary responsibilities of safeguarding the lives and properties of the citizens.

4. Youth Unemployment and Nigeria’s future

The future of Nigeria lies with the youths as they are one of society’s main agents of change and progress. But, sadly, the  ruling class in Nigeria rather toys with the future of our youths, through lack of employment opportunities and failure to explore the possibility of channeling their energy towards productive ventures by providing enabling environment for them to thrive in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Agro-business, etc.

In recent times, out of disenchantment with the system, with sadness, the best of our youths are fleeing the country in droves, via the Japa syndrome,in search of greener pastures.  

Very urgently, concrete efforts must be exerted to tackle the twin challenge of unemployment and poverty in our beloved nation, Nigeria.

We are quite aware that the present central administration has set new precedence by appointing a few youths into the Federal cabinet. It is our hope that government at all levels will do the same, and that the youths also will show that they believe in the future of Nigeria through their words and deeds.

We are also appealing to the Governments at all levels to urgently restructure our economic system, develop sincere courage to fight corruption, and address the issue of unemployment in the better interests of employable youths and a more beautiful future for the country at large.

5. Roads and Other Infrastructural Facilities

The World Bank has described the level and quality of infrastructure in Nigeria as low despite the Federal Government's claim of borrowing to finance infrastructure. In its Nigeria public finance review report, it said that Nigeria's physical infrastructure gap would likely reach $3tn in the next 30 years.

The reality on ground is that there is simply no maintenance culture as many of our roads are in very bad shape. This has led to a colossal loss of man-hour in traveling, caused problems for the transportation of agricultural products and heightened the insecurity on our roads, just to mention a few.

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) should accentuate actions aimed at continuously maintaining all the Federal roads across the country to make them more motor-able to reduce the man-hours being wasted on the highways and the perennial and avoidable loss of lives and properties.

Generally, we urge all the three tiers of Government to generate synergies and intensify efforts in the rehabilitation and construction of new roads. Moreover, partnership with well meaning private investors can also be explored to bring some relief to this present deplorable  state of our infrastructure.

We still challenge our political leaders across the board in the country must make it a habit to occasionally drive on the roads the people use every day, like Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Expressway, so that they can see the messy ground-level reality and feel the pains of the people they govern. Certainly, we believe that genuine servant-leadership will not call for less.

6. Drug Abuse amongst Nigerians.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NAFDAC) has disclosed that over 14.3 million Nigerians are involved in drug abuse.

We like to bring to the attention of the Federal Government the need for urgent and concerted efforts to curb the rampart abuse of hard drugs amongst Nigerians. This has become the major support system for all forms of criminal and cult activities.  

Sadly, this menace has infiltrated even to our primary schools, with young boys and girls hooked on gum and other forms of narcotics. As we look up to God to break the demonic hold over the future of this great nation, we implore all people of influence to fight it with all passion.

At this stage, rehabilitation of addicts should also be a strong part of our drug control machinery. We look forward to future better than this for posterity.  

7. Patriotism

It brings grief to the heart that many Nigerians have become so deadened to the noble idea of patriotism. While this trend may be attributable to the severe economic hardship and other negative experiences that we are facing, it is still not acceptable.

Many Nigerians will not wince at sharing unpalatable news about the nation, and will always be glad to accept the worst about the nation. The national  situation may be bad but it is not a song to be sung so gleefully by us Nigerians.

Specifically, the unwarranted negative attention given to Nigeria in global circles is not helpful to our general reformist clamours, or even to our collective national outlook. Unfortunately, the reputation we build by ourselves for ourselves makes us stink wherever we go!

As a Church, even though we are significantly apolitical, yet we strongly urge all Nigerians to desist from careless talks about the country. We urge all citizens to realize that the current socio-political situation of the country is bad enough, and we certainly have no need for further distractions that could eventually plunge us deeper into abysmal darkness.

At this point, we bless God that the sickening aftermath of the 2023 presidential election whereby some national leaders went overboard in rubbishing themselves and, by extension, smearing dirt on Nigeria and other Nigerians, in the market-square has finally been laid to rest, especially now that our Supreme Court has given her ruling on it.

Usually, when top political elites continue to fight dirty, it is the poor masses and downtrodden in the society that usually bear the brunt. Hence, we use this medium to appeal to all Nigerians across the various political spectrum, to please end all the diverse battles and needless controversies on the matters of 2023 Presidential election and electioneering, and sheathe our political swords now as law abiding and patriotic citizens.

We also urge every Nigerian at this time to please allow our political and emotional wounds to heal, and let us free our minds from all forms of vendetta, ill feelings, tribal animosity and egregious negativism against each other. Let’s forgive and leave behind us the ugly irritations of the past few months, and decide to be good and patriotic Nigerians again.

Because Nigerians are highly endowed, deep-rooted in thinking, highly cerebral, remarkably religious, we may not and cannot all agree with the President and his government on all their choices and policies all the time.

Albeit, we must all congratulate him now, and encourage him to focus on his sworn duty to deliver decent living and opportunities for positive human development for all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, gender, region or religion.

Moreover, no matter how we feel about certain issues, it is quite settling for me personally to have realized long ago that the best among men don’t always have the rule, but only those whom the Everlasting Arms of destiny choose (Daniel 4:17).

Indeed, only the Most High God rules and overrules in the affairs of men. Unfortunately, stress, troubles and social upheavals continue until we know that (Daniel 4:25).

No doubt, the tasks involved in building a big and promising nation like Nigeria, with sustainable economic growth and enviable security architecture, with top-notch social infrastructure and amenities, in a united, highly motivated nationalistic outlook, clearly just and realistically egalitarian are very enormous, and will certainly require the cooperation of all true patriots.

We use this medium, therefore, to call on all registered political parties to please embrace the focus of building a united, secure, peaceful and prosperous nation, which we all Nigerians, at home and abroad, will be proud to call our home country.

I also challenge all our past and present leaders to genuinely work together, and in concert with the electorate for a better future.

Yes, I totally agree that we all must speak up regularly, agitate and keep the ruling party on the right track at all times. Howbeit, we must do these rightly, peacefully, maturely and decently, with a keen patriotic sense of a greater outlook for Nigeria and all Nigerians.

Let’s all deploy our peculiar resources and use our unique positions to build unity and promote trust, positioning issues that will build national harmony and peaceful coexistence, and eschewing evil and violence all over Nigeria.

Additionally, in our individual ways, let's always think of what we can do to make our nation better. Let's look inward knowing that out of the seed of adversity comes the strongest and enduring fruit of achievements.

I strongly affirm that the great Nigeria of our dream can still evolve in our lifetime. And, by the grace of God, in togetherness we shall win, and our collective future shall be even better and greater, in Jesus name. Amen.

We hereby charge all Nigerians to continue to pray for God’s mercy upon our great nation. There is nothing so woeful that grace cannot redeem. Let us have faith in God, and have confidence that He can still help our nation, Nigeria. It is not over yet because God still hears prayers.

Conclusion

In every situation, Jesus Christ is Lord! His Church is marching on, and the forces of hell shall not prevail against her, even as she continues to play her role as a pillar of truth and a haven of hope for all Nigerians.  

Dear gentlemen of the press, we thank you very sincerely for coming. And, on a final note, we humbly urge you to please represent our views as fairly and clearly as we present them, avoiding all forms of sensationalism and skewed reporting.

We also use this as an opportunity to invite you and your communities to the Rhema World Convention 2023. We pray that the El-Shaddai God will answer your prayers as you join us in Jesus Name. Amen.

God bless the Church of Jesus Christ, worldwide.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

God bless you, in Jesus Name.

** Taiwo Akinola, Presiding Bishop & Pastor-General, RCC&T, Int’l.