Most. Rev. Mathew Ndago-Manoso

The Archbishop of Kaduna Catholic Diocese, Most. Rev. Mathew Ndago-Manoso on Tuesday  said the  administration of President Muhammadu Buhari must begin to live up to expectation as life has never been this difficult in Nigeria.

Speaking with journalists at the ongoing Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian Catholic Diocese Priests’ Association taking place at the Catholic Social Centre in Kaduna, Ndago-Manoso said leaders without the required competence to govern should quit.

According to the Catholic cleric, more and more Nigerians have been plunged into abject poverty as he has witnessed more people coming to beg for food in his office unlike in the past.

His words: “You see in governance or democratic government, if you know you don’t have the capacity to even rule a local government, don’t put yourself forward.

“The very fact that you put yourself forward you are telling the people that you have the capacity and the know-how. Even if you don’t have the know-how I think in leadership, you don’t need to have the know-how.

“I think you should have the intelligence to get people who know to be able to do the job. Nobody, no matter how intelligent you are, you cannot do it alone.

“Now talking about the present government, I think the simple question that every Nigerian should ask is, my life today and my life before this government came in, what is the difference?

“Go on the streets and ask Nigerians, four years on, how is your life compared to before. I can tell you I am 33 years in priesthood, I have never seen Nigerians come to my office in tears looking for ordinary food.

“You see them dressed up in Agbada but if they tell you what they are going through, they are not able to feed their families. It has never been this bad in our country.

“We have the resources. I think our leaders should get off their back and do what they need to do, using our resources. We are not poor, we have no business over taking India as the poorest country in the world.

“Officially our population has hit 200 million, and India has over 1.2 billion people, but the resources we have India does not have yet we have over taken them in terms of poverty. I think it is shameful.”