Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Afikpo, Ebonyi State, Rev. Paul Udogu, has called on federal and state governments across the country to be sensitive to the suffering and welfare of the masses.

According to him, if nothing is done to address the rise in insecurity in the country, Nigeria will become a failed state like Somalia.

The bishop stated this during the fifth synod of the church held at the Church Cathedral in Afikpo, Afikpo North Local Government Area at the weekend.

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Udogu also frowned on the present state of the economy which is biting hard on private businesses and organisations.

Price of essential commodities changes per minute. The price of foodstuff, cement and other building materials, petrol is on the increase. This has made life difficult and unbearable; many Nigerians lost their businesses, and their investment and plans were rendered useless.

“Naira has continued to lose value in the international market as the government continues to borrow money from foreign countries and agencies.

“Civil servants monthly take-home salary cannot take them half the month in the face of rising prices of consumable commodities. Many Nigerians cannot eat three times daily let alone affording good medical treatment. The cases of people slumping and dying are now prevalent in our society”, he said.

He condemned the high rate of unemployment in the country, adding that yearly, tertiary institutions are graduating thousands of students without the government making any plan to absorb them into the labour force. 

“Many of our brilliant youths/graduates are unemployed.  This has led many of them to engage in social vices such as 419 or Yahoo Yahoo business, kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism because an idle mind is the workshop of the devil. We are yet to see the millions of jobs this present government promised Nigerians during the electioneering campaign. The EndSars protest by our youth has come and gone, yet our government has refused to learn lessons from that”, the cleric submitted.