By Kayode Oyedare

The Bishop of Uyo Diocese, Rt. Revd. Isaac Orama says if the government can consistently follow the on-going dialogue with the militants, hostage taking and violence in the Niger Delta region will gradually go down.

He was speaking in Osogbo at the September 2007 Bi-annual Church of Nigeria Standing Committee. The Bishop who lamented over the situation and its effect on the Church said the government should involve the religious institutions in re-orientating the youths in the region.

The cleric said most of the youths are without formal education and have a wrong orientation to life. He stressed that military intervention and paying of ransom to the militants without skill acquisition for the them will not solve the problem rather it will aggravate the situation in the area.

Bishop Orama maintained that the skill acquisition and the Small & Medium Scale Enterprises programmes of the federal government can be properly executed if the government partners with the Church.

On the political situation in the country, the Anglican bishop commended the present democratic dispensation for constituting the Electoral Reform Panel which he hopes, will help to guarantee credible elections in the future.

Also, speaking on the recent publication on the internet about an homophobic statement attributed to him in his recent synod address, Rt. Revd. Isaac Orama lamented over what he called a false statement published on the internet and called on the media to desist from publishing wrong statements for public consumption.

According to him, what he said was that CANA is the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria’s response to the unbiblical agenda of the Episcopal Church of United States of America in supporting same sex marriage and consecrating in the year 2003 the publicly acknowledged gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop.