Buhari can’t fix Nigeria in four years

The Primate of Anglican Church, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh‎, has called on Nigerians to be patient with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, saying it is “very difficult” to fix the country within four years.

Okoh said this while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Thursday.

While advising Nigerians to be patient with the incoming administration, the cleric said Buhari should be given a year to study the situation and set the agenda properly.

He said, “Nigerians should be patient with Buhari, otherwise, he will worsen things if Nigerians push him to the wall and rush him into action. Let us give him a year to study the situation and set the agenda properly. It is difficult to fix Nigeria within six months.

“You can’t even fix a country within four years. Buhari has to take pain in making approvals, otherwise Nigerians will cause trouble for him. So Nigerians should pray for him and be patient with him.”

The cleric denied the allegation by the Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement, Mr. Musa Dikwa, that Christian leaders were offered N7bn by the Presidency to campaign for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last general elections.

According to him, since the allegation came at a time when the two major political parties were working to win the election at all cost, the allegation “should be taken with a pinch of salt.”

He also endorsed the suggestion that churches should be made to pay taxes provided they have an agency that generates income.

Okoh stated that the Federal Government had mandated the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigerian and Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria to map out measures for the regulation and ownership of churches and mosques in the country.

The Anglican cleric also gave conditions under which churches and religious organization should pay tax to government.