Northern Christian Youth Leader Advocates Spiritual Intervention, Leadership Reform Amid Nigeria’s Challenges

The National President of the Northern Christian Youth Association of Nigeria (NYCN), Michael Musa Shekarau, highlights bad leadership as a major factor contributing to Nigeria’s current issues, emphasizing the need for competent governance and accountability.

In an exclusive interview with Naija News, Shekarau echoes Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s views on the necessity of spiritual solutions, stressing the importance of addressing societal sins and maintaining ethical leadership standards.

He advocates for proactive measures such as combating corruption, strengthening agriculture and security, and promoting youth empowerment through entrepreneurship.

Shekarau highlights the importance of patronizing locally-made products, addressing unemployment, and fostering religious tolerance.

While supporting peaceful demonstrations, he cautions against violent activities that could destabilize the nation.

Shekarau emphasizes the need for equitable distribution of government initiatives and subsidies to benefit the population and urges President Tinubu to address the consequences of fuel subsidy removal, ensuring fair access to government interventions.

Question: From your perspective, what are the primary factors contributing to Nigeria’s current issues?

“Let me first start by introducing myself.  My name is Michael Musa Shekarau, National President of the Northern Christian Youth Association of Nigeria. By the special grace of God, the question you first asked me about one of the major factors of current issues in Nigeria, I will first say it’s majorly part of bad leadership.

“Bad leadership, lack of proper installation of who should be in power and who should be at the helms of control of so many of the organizations in Nigeria.  So with these issues, you always find misappropriation of government properties, abuse of office, and inability to deliver to the issues that are affecting the common man in Nigeria. 

“Because most of these people that we are giving, that are being given the opportunity  to govern the country  don’t know the  hardship that the common man is facing  because most of them are privileged of one office or another, and they don’t understand what should be done and how it should be done at the right time.”

Question: The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has said that the problems facing Nigeria require spiritual solutions. How do you perceive the intersection between spirituality and the problems confronting Nigeria today?

“Yes, Pastor Enoch Adeboye was never wrong to say that it needs a spiritual intervention or solution because it is also written in the Bible that because of our sins, God will send us hard leaders, wicked leaders that will punish us and will bring hardship to us. But when the people called by his name will call on him and repent from their ways and ask for forgiveness of sins, he will answer them. 

“So you see, in order to rectify all these issues, we must go back to God and also checkmate the activities of our leaders. We must also know that people who should be in power have the fear of God. Today, you also understand that most of our political ideologies are based on religious ideology, Um, not because one is competent enough to handle his office.

“You will find that because he is not from the same fight with us, but he can be, he can deliver.  And that will also always say we want a brother that is in line with our ideology of religion. It is not supposed to be like that.  God can use a man who is not in the same faith as you to bring peace and progress to the country.

“If today God wants us all to be Christians, he will create all of us in Christianity.  But today, you see, ideologies, not only Christians, the majority of this issue come from the other faiths. And these are things that we must sit, think and iron so that we move our great country to the next level.”

Question: In your opinion, what specific actions could be considered radical measures to address the current insecurity crisis in Nigeria?

“In my own ideology for now, I believe the government should be able to tackle our own ideology on importation, using of foreign currency to do our business. Because we’re an ‘importing country, ‘ there is surely going to be hardship in Nigeria. So one of the major things is to address the issue of corruption and stolen funds and know how to iron these issues.

“Then improve our own agricultural and mining sector in the country, iron out security issues, because this, security is also part of what is killing the country. Insecurity is what is killing the country and is making us contribute less to this country.  Now, most of the foreign investors are running away and leaving the country for us. 

“60 percent of the northern companies have died because of insecurity and moved to Ogun and Lagos so that, they will see how to make profit. These are issues that should be ironed out. The government should also look into agriculture.  Up to today, you see that it’s usually very difficult for an ordinary man farming in the village to go and farm.

“After battling with insecurity, the cost of fertilizer and farming is also on the high side; that is why you see people also putting their grains and crops at a high cost. These are issues that must be ironed out and must be understood how to do and what should be done to iron out the present problem of the country.

“We, at our own side, are trying to see how we will keep our youth in line of agriculture and entrepreneurship because presently most of our youths are unemployed and don’t know the way to go forward, most especially the less privileged, but by the special grace of God today,  we are trying to see how we do youth empowerment,  hold seminars. Get most of our church involved and see how we can empower our youths.”

Question: What are your thoughts on the recent hardships faced by Nigerians due to harsh economic policies?

“Majorly, the issue of the hardship in Nigeria and economic policies also has to do with promoting our own indigenous products.  We must consume what we produce. We must know the government should be involved in youth empowerment schemes, not only by giving grants.

“Because when you give grants, the person, at times, a Nigerian attitude will also always It’s not allowed to look at it as if it’s government property, but give our youth soft loans that will enable them to start their own business and they know that they are obligated to pay those loans back to the government or to the private banks.

“Also the hardship is also caused by us not patronizing our own products.  Today Africans usually find it very difficult for an African man to patronize his own local attires to use most of their products and to see how he would promote his own indigenous culture. By that, when you don’t patronize your own country’s product, there will not be a multiplier effect on investment and income.

“So this will also bring hardship to the country and also hardship to the people in the country. And when we don’t address the issue of insecurity, as I said earlier, In terms of agriculture, in terms of the rural areas, people are also running to leave their own villages and come into the city without anything done in the city.

“And also there are graduates that graduated from schools without work and what to do, that also will lead to the hardship in the country, that will also promote crimes in the country. So these are critical issues to also address, and they are part of the reasons that bring hardship.

Question: Do you think the common man has the right to express their concerns through protests, and do you think protest is a way forward?

“The common man in Nigeria has every right to protest and to advocate for what is duly theirs.  But one thing we should also ask ourselves is, what is the purpose of the protest?  If we say hardship in Nigeria, we faced the same hardship as General Muhammadu Buhari but because of the lack of his decision or lack of proper follow-up on what was happening led us to this present situation which the country is in.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had no other option than to remove the subsidy on fuel in Nigeria. And to be candid, if Nigeria now cannot even service their loan, then what is the purpose of us paying subsidy? The country will also go into the same issues with Zimbabwe and Uganda.

“I mean, we don’t want our country to go in line with those activities. Today, let me tell you, most people are going into protests. You see the hardship that is going on, whether you like it or not, if somebody has something to do, he will not get himself involved in that protest. And to be candid, I will not say that people should not protest.

“I, as a person, don’t know what someone’s problem is and what should be done for his own personal interest. But for me, I believe Nigerians should be patient enough, and these decisions are critical for the president to take. Us going into protest is good to advocate and tell the people, the leaders in Nigeria, that things are no longer easy on us, the source of livelihoods is hard, and other things. 

“But going into protest and we are just sponsoring the ideology of some other people,  I believe when they came out, and they said, Muslim-Muslim ticket, we advocated for it as Northern Christian Youth Association of Nigeria.

“And what we felt was for us to do is in the country, everybody must have a fair say and a time to rule,  if today, the Northerners or whosoever that is coming to say they should go to protest and whatsoever,  and we should first start the protest from the north. We know that during President Goodluck Jonathan’s term, we did occupy Nigeria.

“What is Occupy Nigeria is against the subsidy. It happened then. Today, some people will sit down somewhere and advocate and kick against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because of religious ideology and their own personal interests.  You understand these are things that must be done, and the decision must be made.

“There was a rumour that President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida spoke about President Tinubu handling the hardship or that the military should come into power. I believe Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was in Nigeria when General Muhammad Buhari was collecting all the loans that brought us into this dilemma.

Today, we are suffering because of the past, the bad governance of the past administration. They are all APC, and when the truth needs to be told irrespective of religion and personal interests. And these are things that we must handle and look into.

“Because these are things that must be done to build Nigeria and make a better country for us. Religion must be kept aside. Everybody should please manage with the present condition; there will be a way out, and most especially, we must adhere and pray to God in our various faiths for a better Nigeria.”

Question: How will opening the National Food Reserve help address the current challenges facing Nigerians?

“It will help presently to crush the use of services and for the common man in Nigeria to have food at his own dispensation, to his own availability at the low cost.

“And also, in doing this, we should also checkmate most of the farmers in our rural areas. They bought those fertilizers to farm at a very expensive rate.  They also paid the high cost of labour in farming and the high cost of transportation to their houses and also to the market. 

“Opening the National Food Reserve will crash the cost of food to the country, and it will also cause the farmers not to have funds at hand to farm for this year. In doing this, the government must also understand if they are opening a Food Reserve for the nation. They must also subsidise the cost of fertilisers, cost of labour and other things Inputs in agriculture.

“These are things that we will also look into.  If today the farmer, because this is affecting him directly, crushes the cost of rise maize and other things, and today he has nothing to go to the farm, coupled with the fact that most of them have been affected by the cause of insecurity, one way or the other you see them not being able to go to the farm because the farm is far from where people are and they meet Insecurity there,  but the ones that are closer to them they farm a little bit of it, and they come to the public to sell, and today the government is crashing the price by opening food reserve.

“You know that next year, there will not be any agricultural input by those small or small farmers, and those small farmers keep the nation going. And their inputs brings a lot of growth to the agricultural sector.  And that will also be a big problem for us because if those people in the rural areas don’t have anything to do, it’ll affect our agricultural output.

“And it’ll also affect most of them, they’ll get into crime. So these are critical issues that the government must look into.”

Question: In your opinion, what steps should President Tinubu take to address the consequences of removing fuel subsidy?

“Honestly, the country is in a present state where there are critical decisions that must be taken. I am not against the removal of subsidy. And I’m not also against, uh, things that should be considered to be done with, um, before the removing of the subsidy.

“In line with that, the removal of subsidy was a good idea to handle the present issue of corruption in the country, in the oil sector and also to address the, uh, the present issue of Nigeria going into loan and not being able to service their loan. These are issues that must be considered, and we must take critical actions to iron these issues.

“Today, President Bola, unfortunately for him, is in this scenario to make these critical decisions, and I would also like to call Nigerians to please the patients.  Do not go into violence or any other activities that will affect the nation.  We should try to be peaceful because we know that the present condition is not suitable for anybody in the country.

“And President Bola, should please try to look into whatever programs are bringing in for this subsidy to also reach the people in the rural areas. Because if you look into it very well, you usually find that the common man is not being affected by the programs that the government is bringing.

“And these are things that must be looked into. The last palliative the president gave was to be shared with the common man on the streets. If one looks, it mostly has been shared between the political class, and these are things that we must look into.  Most people in Nigeria are not politicians.  Most people in Nigeria are not political officeholders.

“They are, they live in their own personal hustle on how to survive. Today, the government has given palliative care to the general public, but only the politicians benefit. These are things that the government must look into and address.  Also, grants and loans should be given to local investors, and small and small-scale businessmen should also be considered in all those loans with a soft and small interest rate.  Thank you very much.”