Anglican bishops on Friday had a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari where they sought to know what his administration is doing to tackle the spate of insecurity, particularly vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta and herdsmen’s attacks in parts of the country.
The Primate, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Rev’d Nicholas Okoh, who led the bishops to the meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, disclosed this while interacting with State House correspondents.
“We told him (the President) many things but part of it is that we are all looking for solutions to issues of the herdsmen; the issue of vandalism; on security in one way or the other because the people are asking us and we want to have explanation for the people whom we lead,” Okoh said.
When asked what the response of the President was, the religious leader said it was favourable, adding that Buhari gave them a detailed explanation of what he is doing to address the situation.
“(His response was) very favourable. He gave us detailed explanations of what he is doing to ensure that these things are solved. So we have hope, we have message for our people,” he said.
The Anglican Primate, who stated that Buhari had been busy clearing the table in his first one year in office, declared that while he was trying, he could do better. He stressed that the bishops looked forward to more concrete achievements soon.
According to him, “We believe that so far it’s been okay because of the difficulties of the time and between now and the next one year, we are looking forward to something more direct now; something that will get to the people easily.
“So far for the first year, it is trying to clear the table; prepare the place; make the work move forward.
“We look forward to a better 2016-2017 budget year that you can see that with the long delay in budget, the issue of padding, we were not able to begin easily.
“So the next one, we know, will be better. That is why we are talking in that way. It is okay for now but it could be better.”
