Love Of Money Breeds Crisis In Nigeria – Bishop Afareha

By Odeya Ogbetuo

The Catholic Bishop of Warri Diocese, His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. John Okeoghene Afareha (JP), has said that apart from marginalization and oppression of the Nigerian masses, the love of money and greed for wealth has been responsible for the various crisis and crime that pervaded the country.

Bishop Afareha in a homily in Warri said that greed and negative actions of men have been responsible for the present crisis in Nigeria, adding that this has created hardship, agony, suffering, increased poverty and deaths in some places but that God would continue to sustain Nigeria as a country.

Bishop Afareha further said that the greed of I want to own everything has brought increase in crime rate in Nigeria, pointing out that a case of a man who was lucky to have a house and two cars but he wasn’t satisfied as he wants to own the third, the fourth or a fleet of cars and several houses in most cases at the expense of others, adding that if the source of wealth is genuine no problem but in a situation where you oppress people, embezzle public money, engage in fraud or ritual for money is bad as God will not forgive you.

He noted that a lot of things are happening today that are not the will of God as many sources of wealth now are questionable.

The man of God portrayed the actions of men as evil as there were instances of man’s inhumanity abounds everywhere with law enforcement agents who suppose to be friends of the people have become the peoples’ enemy, stressing that evil has become a common thing in Nigeria with high degree of violence claiming lives, coupled with armed robbery, advance fee fraud (419), assassins, kidnapping of people for ransom, illegal oil bunkering, herdsmen attacks, Boko Haram insurgency, ritual killing and cultism while the government appear to be helpless.

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According to him “If people in authority stop embezzling our money and implement a viable economic plan for our people, life will be better. The welfare programme for Nigerians is almost zero. It is sad that the money the Federal Government is trying to borrow outside this country could be found in one man’s account in this country.”

Dr. Afareha who quoted several bible passages attributed the problems of this country to greed, selfishness, impatience, corruption, oppression, lack of good leadership, partial Christianity and great love for the things of this world and failure to fully surrender to Christ.

He noted that some politicians want to serve third and fourth tenure if it is available as if they are the only person qualified to be there or to serve, adding that we should love others by assisting them to survive and give others the opportunity to serve the people to have the desired peace in Nigeria.