Anambra monarch criticizes building of worship centres over industries, others
Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The traditional ruler of Ancient Oraifite Kingdom, HRH Igwe Daniel Udoji has tasked critical stakeholers in communities, state and federal government to consider building more factories and industries than worship centres.
The traditional ruler said Nigeria is becoming too dominated by church instead of industries that boost the economy of the nation and improve the well-being of the citizenry.
During an interactive session at his Oraifite royal palace in Ekwusigo Local Government Area, Anambra State, the monarch said there should be more establishment of industries to provide sources of employment to youths and the unemployed in the land, noting that prayers alone cannot provide food on people’s table.
“We now have too many churches. The money used in building churches can be used to build factories and industries or even to train children to be self-reliant.
“Here in Nigeria, we waste so much fund in building churches. Countries like Japan, Korea, India and China do not have the kind of churches we have, yet they are doing very well. You can pray for as long as you want but if you don’t work or use your brain, you are not getting anything.
“We need to change our thinking pattern to help ourselves. When a factory is created in a community, it creates job for the teeming youths thereby reducing the crime rate in the society.
“There is unemployment in the land. Sometimes, my heart bleeds when I see young people with no job. Soe of them have acquired education yet there is no job. Meanwhile politician flush away wealth on flashy cars and on their children outside the country while people suffer here in Nigeria.
“It is high time people start investing and creating jobs for themselves to be self-reliant. Investment can come in the way of small scale industries.”
Speaking further, Igwe Udoji tasked the Federal Government to deploy every physical and economic approach to curb insecurity in the country to enable local investors build industries in communities.
He noted that many industries particularly those in the South-East are failing due to insecurity and economic policies, he beckoned on the federal government to come to their aid with good policies to save the people from starvation.
