Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka on Saturday responded to reports that he “attacked” President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to PREMIUM TIMES, Mbaka, in a statement by his media aide, Maximus Ugwuoke, said that he only stated the obvious, adding that the blame should go to the “Jonathan PDP administration” for the level of poverty and hunger bedevilling the country. He called on President Buhari to “abate the long procrastination, bureaucracy and slow methods in tackling it”.
He also urged President Buhari to be “careful about how he appoints people to prominent positions, so that no region will appear marginalized- as happened in NNPC board”.
Recall that Mbaka, on Tuesday said that President Buhari should sit up and address the hunger, poverty, and economic challenges the country is facing or risk losing the 2019 election. Click here to read it.
His statement read in parts:
How can we be fighting somebody who is fighting for us? Apart from this Buhari, how can somebody talk to these political juggernauts and tell them to bring back what they have stolen? It is only a Beniah personality like Buhari that can enter into the cave and catch a lion and kill a lion in a snow season and come out. The president needs support. He doesn’t know where to begin because there are many holes dug for him by the past administration, and they carried the sand away expecting him to cover the holes with what?
Fr. Mbaka merely reiterated the obvious sufferings that Nigerian are facing (which even the president himself had at points acknowledged and sued for patience and perseverance) and advised the president on the ways to tackle it i.e. by engaging economic gurus and listening to good advisers.
We wonder which portion of the message could be viewed as “an attack” or” bombing” of Mr President as twisted in the media. The acclaimed message of the cleric to Mr President to us is rather a further demonstration the cleric’s love to see that the president succeeds in his messianic rescue operation mission in Nigeria and that is why it is devoid of hypocrisy.
It is obvious that those who are arm-twisting the said message of the cleric to Mr President as an attack on Mr President are those who want the president to fail or be blindfolded so as to use the obvious hardship Nigerians are facing as a weak point of his administration to ride onto power mindless of the fact that Mr President has done so well in fighting corruption and insurgency in the country, which are mega achievements that scores him above average in just few months of his administration.
In the background of the message, Fr Mbaka encouraged the gallant warrior, President Buhari, to continue his battle against corruption and insurgency asserting that if not a man like President Buhari, by now people may have stopped going to church and mosques. Boko Haram might have wrecked this country. People might have equally stopped going to schools, markets etc. Kudos to Buhari .Fr Mbaka revealed that corruption, insurgency and poor governance by past governments gave birth to three horrible children (1) Hunger (2) Anger (3) Danger.
He asserted that Buhari is not the cause of corruption and insurgency yet he is fighting them frontally and enjoined the president to extend same to hunger even though he is not the cause. He pleaded the President to begin a War against Hunger, as many are dying hopelessly. He stressed that if the hunger, anger and danger continue, Nigerians may not vote for him again, as they would mistake him for the cause of these maladies while in fact he is a solution.
Fr Mbaka equally advised the President on being careful about how he appoints people to prominent positions, so that no region will appear marginalized- as happened in NNPC board and charged the President to make sure that those around him are not misguiding him. He advised the President on human empowerment and making sure that those who worked for him (Buhari) during the election ought to be empowered –as one good turn deserves another.
For the purpose of clarity, granted that Fr Mbaka stated the obvious, that there is hunger in the land, he never attributed the cause of the hunger and economic hardship bedeviling the nation to Buhari rather he attributed it to the offshoot of the actions and inactions of the past administrations of this country.
We recall that earlier this year, Fr Mbaka had during his New Year message predicted that hunger and hardship will come upon he country this year and so we wonder why this message should make a headline at this point of the year.
