The Nigeria Baptist Convention (NBC) yesterday charged the President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to work towards mitigating the ethno-religious imbalances in the country, which are over the years responsible for drawing the country backward.

With particular mentioning of poverty alleviation, employment generation and insecurity, the NBC demanded that Tinubu must take into cognisance the geographical, religious, and ethnic balances to form an all-inclusive government when he finally takes over power come May 29, 2023.

The NBC President, Rev. Israel Adelani Akanji, made the call while addressing journalists as part of activities heralding the 110th Nigeria Baptist Convention in session, at Baptist International Convention Centre, Lufuwape town, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogun State.

Rev. Akanji said: “I will request of him to make his government admirable by deploying his wealth of experience to handling the perennial issues of our great country.

 “When in office fully, the new President must ensure an all-inclusive government, taking cognisance of geographical, religious, and ethnic balance; alleviation of poverty, development of infrastructure, especially roads, power, hospitals and education; provision of employment and assurance of security in our Nigeria.

 “I believe the president-elect is fully aware of how some of our best brains are dumping their jobs in Nigeria in search of greener pastures in the Western world.

“We believe that with some intentionality to curb this trend, the federal government can devise means of ensuring that these our God-given brilliant Nigerians are retained to serve their fatherland, which they love dearly.

“Nigerians are good people if the leaders show the right example. The new President must take advantage of the goodwill of Nigerians to ensure that mistakes of various past leaders become raw materials to provide our country the best leadership possible.

“Policies to be adopted must be with human face. Leadership must be conscious of the hardships which accompany policies that are hurriedly and unpreparedly made for a big country such as Nigeria

“For instance, in the recent case of the Naira redesign, while the idea might have been good, there were visible signs of unpreparedness for the steps that were taken, which brought a lot of hardship to Nigerians. Such approaches must be carefully avoided in the future and leadership must be constantly responsive to the cries of the masses.

Fighting the challenge of insecurity facing the country, Rev. Akanji said it demanded holistic approach that must come from the very top of the leadership of the nation.

“In tackling insecurity, I’ll want to counsel our new president to look at areas where the current administration did not engage concerning the insecurity situation and ensure that those areas are blocked. The inadequacies of the previous administrations should become like raw materials for the new president to use in engaging the situation. Where there are inadequate ammunitions for our security men, the federal government should ensure that modern and sophisticated weapons are provided,” he added.

He equally challenged Nigerians to support the security agencies by identifying criminal elements in their various communities.

Speaking against the backdrop of politicians calling for an interim government, Rev. Akanji lamented that those calling for the interim government were trying to take the nation back

“I counsel that Nigeria should not go for an interim government. It will be too wasteful. All of the elections we did, we will start all over again. I believe that the person elected, has a lot of experience and he can do well. The only thing to do, is to encourage him, to be inclusive and not to be segregational. He should ensure that he brings everybody to the table, from the North, East, South and West of Nigeria, Christians and Muslims, all of them should be brought to the table,” he stated.

The annual Nigeria Baptist Convention, with the theme for this year, “Entering into Newness through Love and Unity”, will feature Global Mission Board Hour, Showers of Blessings, Christian Education Hour, Retired Ministers Fellowship, Pastors’ Wives Fellowship, Youth Fellowship, among other spiritual programmes.