Anglican bishops visit Buhari over herdsmen attacks

Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Com­munion), Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, yesterday led some senior Anglican clerics to a meeting with President Muham­madu Buhari over the menace of Fulani herdsmen and pipeline vandalism in the country.

Emerging from the meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abu­ja, Okoh said the church lead­ers were concerned over these issues because they need an­swers for their anxious flock and brethren.

According to him, “We told him (Buhari) many things but part of it is that we are all look­ing for solution to issues of the herdsmen, vandalism, security, in one way or the other.

“This is because the people are asking us and we want to have explanation for the people whom we lead.”

The Archbishop said the re­sponse of the President to their concerns were satisfactory and “very favourable”, and offered hope to the people.

“He gave us detailed explana­tions of what he is doing to en­sure that these things are solved. So, we have hope, we have mes­sage for our people”, Okoh said.

Asked to rate the President’s performance in the last one year, the senior cleric said “we believe that so far it’s been okay because of the difficulties of the time.

“Between now and the next one year, we are looking forward to something more direct now; something that will get to the people easily.

“So far, for the first year he is trying to clear the table, prepare the place, make the work move forward and we look forward to a better 2016-2017 budget year.

“You can see that with the long delay in budget (passage) and the issue of padding, we were not able to begin easily.

“So, the next one we know will be better that is why we are talking in that way; it’s okay for now but it could be better.”

Also at the Villa to see Buha­ri was former President Oluseg­un Obasanjo, who came with his long-time friend, Otunba Oye­wole Fasawe.

The ex-president however, declined to speak with journal­ists who sought to know his mis­sion to the Villa. He was there to see Buhari just about a month ago.