The Oyo State Christian Association of Nigeria has urged the government to put in stricter measures against corruption in all areas.

The chairman, Apostle Joshua Akinyemiju, gave the advice in an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Ibadan.

Mr Akinyemiju urged the government to look at diversifying the economy by boosting agriculture, ensuring a stable market system, improving electricity supply and maintaining political will to block waste.

He emphasised that laws must be enforced to punish defaulters severely, irrespective of position or status.

“There should be no sacred cow. These leaders go to Dubai, Singapore, China and more, but they fail to copy what those countries do and replicate it here. That attitude should change; they need to do away with selfishness, insensitivity and insincerity. Having done all of these and more, leadership must have the fear of God.

“They must know that the day of judgement will come when everyone will give an account before his or her creator,” he said.

He cited 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

“We must continue to hammer on the need for leaders and followers to turn from their wicked ways if we want peace in the land. God bless Nigeria,” Mr Akinyemiju said.

Also, the pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Jesus Place, Ibadan, Pastor Francis Oghuma, urged citizens to endure the hardship of this time as it was momentarily in the place of weeding the economy.

“As Christians, we must be ready to make sacrifices, living for a while in self-denial, enduring a worthwhile harvest while making selflessness a watchword. We must discourage wasteful spending; overloaded weddings, burials, and the like must be seen as economic saboteurs and a draining pipe to economic redundancy,” he said.

Mr Oghuma enjoined the government to create an enabling environment for citizens and strategically take headlong action to deal with “our green economic drainage monsters-electricity.’’

He called for a government emergency declaration on the alternative “solar power system” by subsidising solar sources to make it more affordable for the citizens.

“The epileptic electricity has sent many striving businesses to their early graves, leaving no carcasses for revamping. Solar energy will also help to salvage the manufacturing sector.

“There was a generator called “I pass my neighbour”; that little generator brought good life to many homes, with food to the tables of many. Today it is solar,” he said.

The RCCG cleric further urged Nigerians to continue to pray and engage the author of life, who knows the end from the beginning, without whom we can do nothing.

“Finally, we must return to our basic and cultural values, where persons with questionable wealth are neither celebrated nor recognised. With the aforementioned, I see a formidable and robust economy ranging for 2024,” Mr Oghuma added. 

(NAN)