The newly elected Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Lagos Chapter, Yemi Davids, has said that the suffering faced by Nigerians due to President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies ‘looks like wickedness.’
Davids said during an interview monitored by NewsNGR that the country’s hardship has stretched the welfare system of churches.
The PFN boss said that the country faces huge economic setbacks due to policies which include the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023 and the floating of the naira in June the same year.
His comments follow the scourging hardship faced in Nigeria after prices of energy rose by more than 400 per cent driving inflation to 33.4 per cent in July.
Cost of Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) has risen to N897 per litre, which is already complicating hardship.
Davids said, “It’s a lot, the conference of policies from the government in terms of beyond even the fuel. We’ve been trying to sort out the electric tariff where food prices are up and the pressure on us as a church, our churches are a lot.
“Our welfare system is stretched. Unfortunately, we don’t talk about that every time. I mean, we spend a lot virtually every week feeding people, and we would love the government to have some empathy.
“It looks like wickedness. Everything coming together at the same time. It looks like somebody is being wicked on the people. It looks like that. We all feel the pain. Both the leadership of the church and members of the church also.”
The chairman said there should be a human face when the government makes its economic policies.
He said churches have made efforts to solve the problems of some Nigerians.
“We grapple with school fees, house rents, feeding especially, and we encourage people, churches, to do that. The challenge with churches is that we don’t communicate actually to the public. So it looks like churches are not doing enough,” he added.
Reacting to the protest which lasted from August 1-10, 2024, he said that it was wrong for the government to clamp down on protesters.
Davids said hardship led to the protest, adding that the government should focus more on the solutions rather than hunting protesters.