Former Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has advised the church to be more critical in the fight against corruption.
Speaking on Wednesday at the All Souls Church, Lekki, as the guest lecturer at the centenary anniversary of the Diocese of Lagos Anglican Communion, Mr Obi traced the problem of Nigeria to cumulative years of bad leadership.
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The former Anambra State governor spoke on the theme “The Church and Good Governance”.
Obi also said all institutions in the country, including the church, contributed to the systemic failure in the country either through commission or omission.
“By blessing poor people who suddenly make money in government and come to church for thanksgiving rather than calling police for them, the church is not showing right example,” he said.
Obi emphasised the need for the church to be conscious of being the conscience of the world.
To reduce corruption, Obi said that government must make deliberate efforts to reduce so many toll gates by changing her procurement processes to ensure that money moved directly to institutions they were meant for.
Using his time as the governor of Anambra State, for example, Obi said that money meant for schools were given to them directly and that it was one of the reasons Anambra achieved so much in education, moving from 27th to first in the nation.
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“As the governor of Anambra, I reduced the cost of governance through eliminating many unnecessary things our people make part of government such as long convoys, maintaining multiple guest houses, travelling with a retinue of aides, among others. By the time you know it, I had excess money to meet our obligations including clearing arrears of pension to the tune of about N35 billion and saving over N75 billion for the state as at the day I left office,” Obi added.
Others who spoke at the event were Prof. Itse Sagay and Justice Osat Obaseki-Osaghae.
