Credit where credit's due

No fan of Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter J. Akinola am I, but I have to give him credit for a speech he gave at a service in honour of retiring Supreme Court Justice, Justice A. O. Ejiwunmi at All Saints' Church, Yaba, Lagos. From the Daily Champion (Lagos):

President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Most Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, yesterday berated government's anti-graft agencies, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and State Security Service (SSS), describing them as failure.

... The cleric carpeted the State Security Services, which he said has disappointed Nigerians by failing to release alleged dossier it kept on most personalities.

In a statement personally signed by Archbishop Akinola, who is also the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, said the failure of the agencies contributed to the nation's slow march to progress.

According to him, "government anti-corruption agencies, security organizations as well as the nation's religious and traditional institutions have failed in the fight against the cankerworm of corruption that is destroying the country and are therefore all contributing to the slow progress Nigeria is making towards development."

... The Archbishop also accused the operators of Poverty Alleviation Programme nationwide of helping themselves with public funds, thereby "worsening the impoverished downtrodden, widening and increasing the poverty gap and elevating the suffering of the less privileged."

The Archbishop makes no friends with these statements. Good for him, and good for Nigerians that they have a religious leader interested in the government being an instrument for the common good.