Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese, John Akin Oyejola, has lambasted state governors, saying most of them are ignorant. Oyejola stated this at a press conference marking the 2018 Catholic Media Week in Osogbo, Osun state capital.
He was reacting to the statement credited to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state, who stated that the church leaders that visited Muhammadu Buhari recently were no longer getting tithes in their churches. According to him, most governors could hardly rule their families and they lacked the goodwill to rule the state.
On why Catholics opted out of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), he said the Association had been politicised and they had been using them as political machineries. “Some pastors are having mental issues and they will say it is Holy Spirit. Those that have no job will just wake up from dream and say God has spoken to them,” he said.
He commended the media, saying “the media from time immemorial has remained a major stakeholder in the affairs of human society. “
The media serves as the projector, moderator and protector of the fundamental values which all human beings who make up a society have agreed upon as the regulating principles of their common existence as a social entity.
“At the beginning of this year, specifically in the evening of January 2nd, I addressed the good will message of the Catholic Church to the government and people of Osun on OSBC radio. “On this occasion we express our concerns about many indexes of social welfare which are mostly tending towards decline, especially the issue of security of human lives, education, health, investment, social development and protection of human rights.
We appealed to both government and people to be united in the pursuance of all lawful means of redirecting the situation along a right path that would yield the desired outcome.
“The Church however would like to say that noble as this would have been, the lack of transparency in the procedure by which all of these are undertaken continue to mar their credibility. “Recently, specifically in April, the office of the Auditor-General of the state embarked a public presentation of the 2017 audit report of the state. While this on its own is fundamental to democracy, the process leading to it gives the impression that it was only staged in order to paint a colourful image of the government of the day.
“For instance, the document was made available to the invited participants to study ahead of the forum and no one outside the government has had access to the signed 2017 state budget, how then are they to evaluate the credibility of the state audit? “Most of such states eventually had to return mission schools under new partnership conditions that reflect the current situation of their communities. Tremendous improvements have been recorded in such states,” he added.
