Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said people who loot the
public treasury or their organisations are doing so out of greed, and not
because of any political objective of keeping a war chest for the future.
Osinbajo made this remark on Sunday at the celebration of
Father’s Day at Aso Villa Chapel, during which he also challenged the church to
teach the lessons of honesty and integrity.
”Many would say the reason why they steal is that they want
to have an arsenal for future political exploits. It is a lie. It is greed. In
any case, even if you want to do that, you have no right to do it,” he said.
His message from the pulpit certainly strikes a chord
against the backdrop of the avalanche of corruption cases the Buhari
administration has been pursuing.
The campaign had suffered some setbacks of late, with
controversial verdicts by the court that tend to let go the accused.
Osinbajo, a professor of law and also a pastor of the
Redeemed Church felt the church has a role to play.
“If the church says we will not accept you here or that we
will expose you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing
the resources of a private company or other establishments where you work, we
would not have the type of problem that we have in this country.”
“In Genesis 18:19. God was speaking to Abraham. And God said
he had known him or called him in order that he may command his children and
his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord with righteousness
and justice that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He had spoken to him.
“In other words, God was saying that He called Abraham, in
particular, because he realises that Abraham will command his household, will
command his children to do righteousness and justice and to fear God. And if
you back this up with Genesis 12:2, God has spoken concerning Abraham, that He
will make Abraham a great nation. Genesis 12:3 says, God said, I will make you
a great nation.
“In other words, the role of the father is supposed to be
that of building nations, building generations. And Abraham is the example God
set for us; of a man who God wanted to be the exemplary of the type of conduct
that God expects of fatherhood; a man who will teach his children and children
thereafter the way of righteousness and justice and the way of fear of God.
“When I listened to His Eminence, the Prelate of the
Methodist Church a few minutes ago, talking about the importance of the type of
training that he received as a child in his family. I’m sure many of us here
are reminded of that type of training. A type of training where you are taught
and reminded about integrity, primarily as the first order of business; that
you must be a person of integrity. You must be truthful, you must be
trustworthy, you must be honest, you must be forthright. That is the
foundation. And in the days he referred to, Catechism was an important part of
our lives. Even just knowing the 10 Commandments was enough to teach you about
righteousness, teach you about the way of truth and I think that is very
important, especially for us today as Christians.
“Christian fatherhood, in particular, is a position that God
has placed us as an exemplar to our nation. The Christian father is the one
referred to in Genesis 18:19; the one who will teach the way of righteousness
and justice to his children and would teach the fear of the Lord. And I just
want to say to all of our leaders (and I was speaking with few of our Christian
leaders just last week, both of the PFN and CAN just last week on various
occasions) that it is the role of the church to build this nation. And the
church has that role because God has said concerning us that we are the light
of the world and we are the salt of the earth. That role is a very, very
difficult role.
“We are not to teach the world how to be like the world but
to teach the world how to be like the one who saved the world, how to be like
Jesus. It is not easy.
“Every time that we come to church, we are told about
giving. But we need to talk more about honesty. We need to talk far more about
honesty. In the same way, we talk about giving, we need to talk more about
honesty because just like His Eminence said, Nigeria’s great problem is not the
absence of prosperity. It is as he so eloquently put it, that we have enough
for our needs but we don’t have enough for our greed. The greed of many is what
has landed this country where it is today. It is the greed of so many; many who
have been placed in a position of authority. It is their greed that has landed
us where we are, where it is difficult to do the sorts of things His Eminence
saw in Washington and so many other places. You cannot steal half of the
resources of the country and expect to build the sort of things you see in
other places.
“And if the church says you are not allowed to steal and we
will ostracise you in our midst if you did. If what a man has does not measure
up to what he has if we found that a man has more money than he should have, if
a man is earning a salary of a civil servant or a public servant and he has
houses everywhere, we have to hold him to account. But he must be held to
account in the church. He must be told first in the church we will not allow
you here. If the church says we will not accept you here or that we will expose
you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing the resources
of a private company or other establishments where you work, then we would not
have the type of problem that we have in this country. If only the church does
so. Just the church.
“Just as Christian fathers today, it is our duty as God
spoke concerning Abraham in Genesis 18:19, it is our duty to build up a
generation of righteous men and women, a nation of just men and women who fear
God and puts God above everything else. And I believe that the Almighty God
will help us. I just pray that the Father of fathers, the One who has called
us, one who has saved us will bless each and every father here today in the
mighty name of Jesus. The Almighty God who is the great Father of all fathers
will ensure that we get everything we need to make our families, to make
communities truly great and to make our nation great.”
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