Corruption: Religious leaders have failed Nigerians - House of Reps member

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonanyima, has stated that religious leaders have failed the country, especially in its fight against corruption.

He said this over the weekend in Benin, Edo State capital, noting that, for corruption to be tackled headlong, there must be a true change in the country which will require every Nigerian to evaluate himself and those around him if this country was to move forward.

“We must guard and protect the country jealously and the war against corruption must be fought with unity from all fronts. Both Christians and Muslims must join hands together to fight corruption because there is corruption in the Church and the Mosque. If corruption is about 99.9 per cent in our country, the question is where are the Christians and Muslims? It means our religious leaders have failed the country,” he said.

While giving tips on how the anti-corruption crusade embarked upon by President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed, Agbonanyima who represents Ikpoba-Okha/Egor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, asked the President to distance himself from sycophants around him if he is to succeed.

“My advice to President Muhammadu Buhari is that he should look outside the box, he must disengage himself from the sycophants around him if he is to succeed. He is a nice man and Nigeria needs an iron hand to succeed. He should be steadfast and I believe that he will do his best to bring Nigeria to where it ought to be,” he said.

Agbonanyima also distanced himself from rumours making the rounds in Benin that some notable members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State would be defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that he had no such plan to leave his party for another.

According to him, “the problem of this country is leadership. It is not the PDP, APC, APGA or Labour parties, it is leadership that is the main problem facing our country. Those having doubts in their minds that I, Hon. Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonanyima is planning to defect from the PDP to any other party, to me are jokers.‬ They just want to smear my name. I am a PDP member; it was the PDP that gave the platform to contest the House of Representatives election, it was not the APC that gave me that platform. The PDP has not done anything to even warrant my thinking of defecting from it.

“Sometimes, some people think that because of my closeness to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and our recent visit to the United States of America where we addressed the American Congress men, that I am leaving the PDP. No. Some people have been calling me, telling me that I want to defect to the APC; that is not true and it is not correct.

“I don’t like people talking about defection all the time, we should be talking of how to bring democratic dividends to the door steps of our people, this is a distraction and we must be focused,” he said.