TheCable

Ejike Mbaka, a reverend father and spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry, has lamented the effects of the country’s economic recession on the masses, saying Nigerians may vote out President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

Mbaka, who supported Buhari’s election, said it is high time the president understood that “things are going wrong”.

The Catholic priest in a recent message published by Punch, said Nigerians are suffering and hunger is fast becoming a “normal thing”.

Mbaka said if things don’t change and Buhari doesn’t heed the right counsel, Nigerians will vote him out in the 2019 presidential election.

He noted that the widespread hardship in the land has resulted in the increase of criminality – a situation which he says will ultimately deteriorate if there’s no solution in sight.

The outspoken cleric also called on Buhari to seek the help of “economic experts, gurus and sages” to revamp Nigeria’s ailing economy.

“The issue is that Mbaka is speaking as the Spirit leads him – there is hunger everywhere. My job is to tell leaders the truth, the landlords are crying, the tenants are lamenting, sellers are crying, buyers are lamenting – there is hunger on the streets.

“I can’t keep quiet when things are going wrong. I am telling the president to look around him and know those who are advising him rightly and those who are telling him that there is no trouble.

“The president should know that there is trouble – if things continue like this, in the next election, nobody will vote for him. Whether they like it or not, I am speaking the raw truth.

“If the president should have somebody like me and he cannot be talking with me, then there is a problem. There is a problem somewhere; somebody who can advise you without asking for anything and he is representing the poor masses in the country and he won’t tell you lies.

“He will praise you when you are doing well and when you are not doing well, he will look at you in the face and tell you. I don’t need the president; I need God, I need the Holy Spirit, I need Jesus; there is suffering everywhere, people are suffering.

“To feed is now a problem, and an hungry man is an angry man. Hunger and anger will lead to danger. So, let him know whether he can do away with some advisers around him and bring in the people who are experts in economic revamp.

“There are people who are experts in that; let them begin to empower people, people are not empowered, they are still walking around in vicious circles, planning and planning and planning. Hunger is everywhere, many neighbours don’t eat again, many are being attacked by hunger, hunger is becoming a normal thing and there are people responsible for this.

“Mortuary and ambulance business is now thriving because many cannot afford drugs. In today’s Nigeria, many are becoming hawkers, who will buy from you, with what? Everyday, more pipelines are being blown, the Avengers are at work and up till now, there is no solution.

“You know when certain things begin to happen, you begin to ask some questions, somebody like me will begin to ask – when will this end?

“If it continues in the next three months, there will be no money to pay salaries – the vicious effect is disastrous and when salaries cannot be paid, teachers will come home, students will stop going to school, there will be more kidnappings, more hooliganism, more armed robbery, more prostitution, immorality will be on the increase.

“So, the president should sit up – there is a red light blinking on the country. The issue of Saraki and Ekweremadu, nobody wants to listen to such stories any more, whether Saraki is the president of the senate or Ekweremadu is not this or that, the countrymen are tired of such stories.

“We need economic experts, gurus, sages that are sincere, who can come in and think about our economic revamp and judicial reformation.”