National publicity secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Emmah Gospel Isong, has urged Nigerian leaders to put machinery in place to discuss the oneness of the country, saying it was not cast in gold.
Bishop Isong said this in Calabar while speaking to newsmen shortly after this year’s Emmah Isong annual public lecture with the theme: Nigeria’s Indivisibility, A Case of Sacrosanctity or Sycophancy.
He maintained that it was erroneous to believe that the oneness of the country was not negotiable, saying with the present socio-economic upheavals in the country; it was glaring the future looked bleak.
“From what we heard from today’s lecture, Nigeria is discussable, our oneness is not sacrosanct. Like the guest speaker’s lecture recommended; convoke a sovereign national conference of ethnic nationalities and let us discuss if we must stay together and on what condition. This is so that you don’t kill me and I don’t kill you. The national and state assemblies should begin to discuss the essence of our co-existence.
“Is it not better to discuss Nigeria objectively than being in a situation in which one is sleeping at night and the other person cordons his house, pours petrol on it and sets it ablaze, killing everyone and destroying everything inside. People are aggrieved and worried over the future of Nigeria. People love Nigeria but Nigeria does not love them,” he said.
The cleric, who also used the occasion to celebrate his 55th birthday, said he was sad not because he was not fulfilled in life but because of where the country was heading to, and called for bloodless solution to Nigerian’s multifaceted challenges.
“At 55, my only sadness in life is seeing Nigeria the way it is. The future of our children is not guaranteed. People are becoming poorer. I received hundreds of sms every day for financial help. I am sad that students are out of school because of the unbearable economic situation of the country.
“Few people are sharing Nigeria’s commonwealth while majority are going hungry. I’m really sad. I am sad because our country is not living up to expectation. There must be a bloodless solution; that is solution without blood, I repeat there must be solution as we cannot continue like this,” he stated.
Isong, who is also the Presiding Bishop of the Calabar-based Christian Central Chapel International said the fallout of the country’s faltering steps were the Biafra/Niger Delta agitations, Fulani herdsmen/farmers crisis and spreading poverty.
