Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President, wants churches to start ostracising “those who steal”, whether from the public purse or from private establishments

According to Osinbajo, who was speaking on Sunday at the Aso Villa Chapel, if the church does this, then Nigeria will not have the type of problems confronting it.

“Every time that we come to church, we are told about giving. But we need to talk more about honesty,” Punch quoted him as saying during a special service to commemorate this year’s Fathers’ Day.

“We need to talk far more about honesty. In the same way we talk about giving, we need to talk more about honesty.

“If the church says you are not allowed to steal and we will ostracise you in our midst if you did… If what a man has does not measure up to what he earns, if we found that a man has more money than he should have, if a man is earning a salary of a civil servant or a public servant and he has houses everywhere, we have to hold him to account.

“He must be held to account in the church. He must be told first in the church that ‘we will not allow you here’.

“If the church says ‘we will not accept you here’ or that ‘we will expose you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing the resources of a private company or other establishment where you work’, then we would not have the type of problem that we have in this country. If only the church does so. Just the church.”