The Founder and General Overseer, Holy Trinity Authority Prophetic Church International, Ado Ekiti, Prophet James Omitade, has lamented that the poor governance, poverty and suffering being experienced by Nigerians were products of endemic corruption and greediness that have permeated the system.
The cleric said patriotism that was the hallmark of leadership, and which the founding fathers promoted at independence on October 1, 1960, had since fizzled out, leaving many Nigerians exhibiting bad behaviours like banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and unbridled corruption.
The man of God said this in his special message tagged: “Nigeria’s Stunted Growth, Gains of Greediness”, commemorating the 66th independence anniversary of the Nigeria nation .
In his message to Nigerians, Prophet Omitade averred that God blessed Nigeria with abundant human and material resources, but hinted that these had failed to manifest any positivity and remarkable gains due to people placing high premium value on self development, rather than community progress.
He said he doesn’t dispute the fact that Nigeria has made some progresses since independence, expressing doubt over the possibility of the country attaining the height expected of it, taking cognisance of the enormous natural endowments available to run the government.
“It is a fact that Nigeria is blessed with abundant human and material resources for us to be great. But we mismanaged opportunities and truncated our journey to greatness. We are so immediate in thinking. Our leaders don’t care about the past and the future has no meaning to us. We don’t plan for it
“If they say we have made progress, yes we do. But are we where we are supposed to be? No. Is this the kind of progress we are supposed to make? If they say are we patriotic, tell them patriotism is far from us.
“To some Nigerians, being patriotic means you are weak, unsmart, and not having a bright future. Because we are too immediate. foresight is not in sight. These are our problems”.
For Nigeria to regain its respect, honour and economic strength globally , Prophet Omitade called for value reorientation among Nigerians to a situation where every Nigerian won’t be selfish, nor place personal aggrandisement over and above collective development.
“We are what we are financially, economically, politically and infrastructurally because all of us believe in ourselves than the system. We believe in being a blessing to ourselves than being a blessing to our communities.
“Until we place collective development higher than personal development, this same poor scenario will continue to replicate itself.
“At independence, our founding fathers invented community development. They nurtured it. This is what we were known for and it should be brought back to save us from this current bad situation”.
