The founder and leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, is presently feeling very displeased with the response of many state governors to the food crisis situation in the country. He is particularly disappointed with Governor Sanwo-Olu over the palliative market organised by Lagos State called Ounje Eko.>>>READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
The enigmatic man of God who himself has held very successful palliative markets in the last couple of months, insists the Lagos State government can do much better than it has done. The highly revered prophet also warns that many banks will collapse and that the battle of the naira against the dollar is far from over. Until we come up with policies that will totally crush the dollar, we will only be going round in circles in our fight to strengthen the naira, he says.
City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) engaged the highly sought after prophet in a light conversation and spoke about issues ranging from the sudden rise of the Naira to the food crisis situation in the country and the possible demerits or otherwise of the emergence of a young Senegalese president. Enjoy excerpts of the interview.
The government has been making concerted efforts to strengthen the naira and their efforts are yielding results and Nigerians are expecting that soon, it will soon begin to reflect on the economy, now, I would like you tell us, sir, number one, this relief we are experiencing at the moment, is it going to be a permanent one or we should still be expecting some difficult times ahead? Secondly, the cabals in the banking sector, the oil sector, who are fighting hard to stop things from working, are they going to be overpowered?
The truth is that the government has done tremendously well. But no matter how hard they try, so long as we remain a country that still believes in doing its entire financial transactions in dollars, we will never be able to get the naira to the point that we desire. There should be a policy to crash the dollar completely so that the naira can become stronger. We must revert to a situation where everything we do must be in naira, otherwise, this relief people are experiencing will remain temporary.
That is on one side. Going forward, a lot of banks are going to sink soon. Banks like Keystone Bank, Wema Bank, Union Bank, will have serious problems. There are serious troubles ahead and several banks will face challenges. But I will advise the CBN governor, Cardoso, not to rest at all because he has not even done anything yet. There are greater challenges ahead of him. The work has only just started, its too early to start commending him. When some banks begin to fail to meet up to their financial obligations, what do we do then? So, there’s still plenty of work to be done. As for the naira, it cannot come down to three hundred, four hundred that people are waiting for, it cannot. The only way things can come down is when we resort to only naira transaction and stop paying millions of money in dollar transactions. So, the situation will soon get worse unless government gets it right.
So, the relief is only temporary?
Its only temporary, the only solution is we crash the dollar completely and resort to strictly only naira transactions in the country. To pay school fees in those big international schools for the children of the rich, we must only pay in naira. Made in Nigeria goods must be encouraged. We must start producing our own automobiles, Nigerian tiles, Nigerian tires, television, etc, only then will we have a permanent relief from the menace of the dollar.
Are you impressed, sir, with the efforts the government has made so far in terms of food palliatives to cushion the effect of the harsh economy on the people?
No, I am definitely not impressed. I mean, if an individual can achieve what I achieved with my palliative market, then I expect Lagos State and several other states to do more. I am not impressed with Governor Sanwo-Olu at all. He can do better than what he is doing with their palliative market. That 25% reduction in price of food items being sold to Lagosians is too small. I want Lagos State to bring down the price of a bag of rice to N10,000. They can do it because they have the resources. If they do that, I will be highly impressed. I did it, I sold bags of rice at 10k per bag, so why can’t they do it? I have started my palliative market that holds about four times in a year. I am heading to Ekiti now and some other states in the federation to hold my palliative market. My bakery will start in June, and the idea is to bring down the price of bread and support the economic growth of the country. The bakery has been set up strictly to alleviate the effects of the harsh economy on the less privileged. The bread that’s being sold for N1,800 will be sold for N800. But government can do better than that. What the government can do right now to battle this issue of food crisis is to crash the prices of food commodities by flooding the market with food items sold at very, very reduced prices. Taraba state is a good example of a state running a very effective palliative market. The prices of food items in Taraba have been crashed. Let every other state copy what Taraba state is doing. Why can’t Lagos State do far better than this? They say they are slashing the prices of food items by 25%, that’s way too small for a rich state like Lagos, I’m not impressed, they can do far better than that.
Let us talk about the new Senegalese president, sir. Some are already saying he is young and inexperienced and might not do well in office, what are your thoughts about this, sir?
Okay, you will recall that I warned the former ruling party in Senegal about an impending defeat and even told them the steps to take, but my warnings were ignored. Just like I warned George Weah and he ignored my warnings too. I warned him that if the elections go into run offs that he would fail but he ignored me. You will also recall that I gave warnings to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and he followed my warnings to the letter and won.
Now, I want to say this, and I will use one answer to address about six questions. I have warned President John Mahama of Ghana of the mysterious failure and defeat that is ahead of him and he has not heeded my warnings. And it will be a mysterious failure if Mahama is defeated in the coming elections. It will be highly disappointing and it will be a big shame to him. It will be very disgraceful. What I am saying in a nutshell is this, for example, the Guinean president is a young chap and the gentleman will soon lead the country to democracy and the people will vote for him. He has gotten the experience, he can turn Guinea around. So, the Guinean military president can become a civilian president in the not too distant future. That’s one. The Chadian president is also a young man. Before now, I had foretold that this chap will tranform into a civilian President and from all indications, that’s what will happen because I can’t see anybody from the opposition defeating him at the polls. Third, the current Liberian President, Joseph Boakai is an old man. I must warn this man to take his health very seriously. He will have health issues. His government has been unstable and might not be able to do much for his people except he seeks the face of the Lord. The man is old and he is experienced, but he has health challenges because as we speak, he is battling with his health. So, what do you have to say to that? He is not young, he is experienced but he is battling with health issues.
I also want to sasy this, the president of Equitorial Guinea is also an old man and he is experienced but he will be incapacitated because of his health. Are you also aware that the Camerounian president wants to bring in his son to take over from him because he is also getting very old? The Liberian president, like I said earlier, will also have health challenges. This will make him unable to live up to his electoral promises and his continued stay in office is uncertain unless he seeks the face of the Lord. Rememnber, its just one question o, but I am using these instances to put everything in perspective. For Uganda, the plan is that they will also bring the president’s son in to take over from him. He is struggling right now, he needs to brace up.
South Africa’s President needs to be careful, otherwise, Julius Malema will take over from him. So, this young man from Senegal, he is not that old, he will be trained and he will be guided to do well because he has a good Prime Minister that is very active and very strong and one that will do the needful for the country and the ceremony will be buoyant. They will give the people of Senegal what they want.>>>READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
