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Tag: Catholic bishops

  • How to end agitations – Catholic bishops

    How to end agitations – Catholic bishops

    The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has appealed to the Federal Government to employ democratic measures to end the wave of agitations in some parts of the country.

    The bishops made the call in a communique issued at the end of the second plenary meeting of the conference in Jalingo on Friday.

    The communiqué was signed by the conference’s President, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos Archdiocese and its Secretary, Bishop William Avenya of Boko Diocese.

    The bishops also advised all aggrieved persons and groups across the country to employ peaceful means within the framework of the existing laws of the land to express their grievances.

    The communique said care must be taken by all to avoid actions and utterances capable of causing yet another armed conflict in any of its parts of the country.

    It reads: “Our country is currently passing through a phase that is marked by tension, agitation and a general sense of hopelessness and dissatisfaction. This, we believe, is as a result of years of injustice, inequity, corruption and impunity.

    “There are agitations in many sectors of the country against the lopsidedness in appointments into key institutions and sensitive national offices as well as marginalisation and unfair distribution of resources and amenities.

    “We, therefore, urge government at all levels to engage the aggrieved sections of the citizenry in a conversation worthy of a democracy.”

    The communique recalled President Muhammadu Buhari’s inaugural speech of May 29, 2015 were he pledged national integration and cohesion with his widely hailed statement, “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”

    It, however, noted that two years after, the reality on ground and the verdict of most people across the country, irrespective of religious affiliations, ethnic or social groupings, point to the contrary.

    According to the communique, the inability of government to address the imbalances in the country has provided a breeding ground for violent reactions, protests and agitations across the country.

    It, therefore, called on the government to urgently address the anomalies, by giving all a sense of belonging.

    The bishops also decried the continuous killings, maiming, kidnapping and other atrocities committed against innocent people by armed herdsmen and urged government to take prompt action to stop the onslaught.

    The communique urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the country despite the challenges confronting them on a daily basis.

    NAN

  • Catholic bishops condemn Ozubulu massacre

    Catholic bishops in the Southwest have condemned Sunday’s massacre at St. Philip’s Church, Ozubulu in Anambra State, urging governments at all levels to do more on security of life and property.

    Describing the Ozubulu mass murder as “callous and horrendous”, the bishops who expressed sadness on the security situation in Nigeria, also regretted what they called the resurgence of terrorism in the Northeast with the recent attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.

    Acting under the aegis of Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Province, the clerics who canvassed genuine restructuring of the country said “it is regrettable that an issue of such importance that should be an issue of justice can be subjected to so much intellectual gymnastics, political sentiments and personal interest.”

    The communique signed by the President, Most Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin and Secretary, Most Rev. John Oyejola, was made available to reporters in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday by the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Rev. Felix Ajakaye. It was titled: “The Church and the Travails of a Growing Nation.”

    The bishops said, “We commiserate with the Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, Most Rev. Hillary Okeke, and the faithful of the Diocese, the government and people of Anambra State and several families directly affected by the mass murder which occurred on Sunday 6th August, 2017, at St Philip Catholic Church, Ozubulu, Anambra State.

    “We uphold still the sanctity of every human life given by God and notto be taken away by anyone and therefore can never denounce enough the evil of such a horrendous and callous killing of innocent worshippers right in the Church during the Holy Mass.

    “Different accounts have been given to analyse the mayhem. The bottom line is that the security situation in Nigeria remains at best, tenuous. We strongly condemn whatever may be at the root of this and similar occurrences. Those who are charged with securing human life and property in the nation must simply do more to protect the citizens.

    “One must ask how murderers like the perpetrators of the Ozubulu mayhem came about such deadly weapons. The proliferation of arms in Nigeria deserves urgent and decisive action. We call on all our faithful to pray that the souls of the departed may rest in perfect peace and that God may bring enduring peace to Nigeria.”

    On renewed attacks by insurgents, the bishop said: “We regret the recent resurgence of Boko Haram activities in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. The criminal group seems to have returned with double strength. We commend the Presidential order that has returned the Nigerian Military Service Chiefs in full force to the centre of the battle.

    “Sadly the wanton destruction of lives and property in Southern Kaduna is also yet to abate. While commending the military and other security agencies in Nigeria for their commitment to the integrity of the nation, we urge them to eschew all forms of corruption, nepotism and betrayal and fight for the unity and integrity of Nigeria.

    “History and humanity will honour their sacrifice and commitment. All Nigerians have the responsibility to collaborate with the security agencies by giving information where necessary and obeying the rules of vigilance and personal security at all times.”

    On restructuring, they said: “The ongoing discourse about restructuring in Nigeria has gathered considerable momentum. In the process, different definitions have emerged on what restructuring could mean and what form such a process should take.

    “It is regrettable that an issue of such importance that should be an issue of justice can be subjected to so much intellectual gymnastics, political sentiments and personal interest. Most people in Nigeria agree that, as it is currently constituted, our country is simply not serving the development and self-realization of most of its citizens and therefore needs to be revisited.

    “In other words, let all of us, leaders and people agree to jettison political machinations and self-serving interests and restructure Nigeria according to the laws of equity and justice. We will thus be saving our own lives and the future.”

  • Catholic bishops warn politicians against violence

    Catholic bishops warn politicians against violence

    Catholic bishops have called on political parties in Ondo State and their members to refrain from violence before, during and after the November governorship election.

    The clerics urged the contestants to commit themselves to non-violence and fairplay to make the election peaceful and successful.

    They advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is constitutionally charged to conduct the poll, to be independent and fair to all parties.

    The appeal was one of the resolutions reached at the Second Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province at the Ondo Diocesan Pastoral Centre, Igoba, Akure.

    They backed the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to put in place systemic and institutional anti-corruption policies and strategies to ensure the campaign outlasts his administration.

    According to a communique issued yesterday at the end of the meeting in Ado Ekiti by Secretary of the Conference, who is also the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Rev. Felix Ajakaye, Ondo voters were also advised to vote according to their conscience.

    The bishops said: “As the election in Ondo State draws near, we urge all who will contest to commit themselves to non-violence and fairplay.

    “Our country by now has some years of democratic experience and so must be seen to be gaining positively from that experience. We urge the electoral umpire to be truly independent and fair.

    “Since democracy is fundamentally about people, we call on our people to stand up for what is good and beneficial to the common good.”

    “Let everyone vote according to their conscience and shun all forms of corrupt practices for the sake of our future and our dear country.”

  • Catholic bishops back Buhari’s anti-graft war

    Catholic bishops back Buhari’s anti-graft war

    Catholic bishops on Monday night threw their weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s battle against graft.

    The group pledged its support when the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Ignatius Kaigama, led 15 bishops on a visit to the President in Abuja.

    According to Kaigama, the group had been preaching against corruption in Nigeria since 1960.

    Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, he said: “The Catholic bishops in Nigeria have come to the Villa to greet the President. We had a warm and cordial meeting. We heard the President talk with passion about how to make this county better and to mobilise Nigerians to selflessly put in their best.

    “Since 1960, the Catholic bishops have been talking against corruption, telling people to avoid it. It is a cancer, it is dangerous, it is a sickness and it is a social disease.

    “We have assured the President that we are 100 per cent with him in his fight against corruption. With corruption, we can’t progress. With corruption, many things go wrong, immorality takes over, retrogression takes place. So, corruption is a huge obstacle that has to be dismantled.”

    Assuring the President of their prayers, moral support and desire to cooperate, he noted that the Catholic Church had done much in education, health care or social services and other areas.

    He said: “With the willing disposition of the President and his attitude of embracing everyone, we felt we should spell out some areas of closer collaboration.

    “We found him a sincere man with great sense of dedication. He wants the best for this nation. We also want the best for this nation. He agrees that not everyone is working as he expects. There are some who are cogs in the wheel of progress.

    “We are praying and hoping that such people will see that Nigeria is greater than all of us, that we should develop patriotic disposition and our aspiration should be to put this country first.

    “With that, criminalities and other things anti-social will give way. We have hope. We only need to be patient,” he said

    According to him, the President has explained to them the difficulties, challenges, bottlenecks facing the country, which he said they now fully understand.

    The group called on Nigerians to give Buhari and his government a chance to bring about the change.

    He said: “He is sincere, he is dedicated, he is committed and together, we shall make wonderful progress.

    According to him, the attack on the Archbishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan did not come up during the meeting.

    He said: “It is one of the acts of criminality that we witness in Nigeria. You cannot say who did what. It is criminal.”

    On education, he said: “It is our strong point in Catholic Church. We build character and if that is defective, you can never have a well functioning nation.

    “We feel that when the citizens are well educated, then there is hope for Nigeria. Our schools need to be supported. We work as faith-based organizations; we run schools and hospitals to help the people.

    “Sometimes, government treats us as if we are dealing with Nigerians who are from other countries. Sometimes, we are slammed with levies in schools and hospitals instead of government helping and supporting us to do more for the people, they demand so much from our institutions and even impose levies on students’’

     

  • Buhari, catholic bishops meet in Aso Rock

    Buhari, catholic bishops meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday night met behind closed doors with some Roman Catholic bishops at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting, which started at about 9:00pm was held at the First Lady Conference Room.

    Although agenda of the meeting was not disclosed, it may not be unconnected with the escalating herdsmen’ attacks and other challenges facing the country.

    About 16 bishops were in attendance when the meeting started.

    Among the bishops at the meeting are – Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama; Archbishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan and the Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, Hassan Mathew Kukah.

    The meeting was also attended by other top government officials.

    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

  • Catholic bishops to review Ogoni cleanup at confab

    THE Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has hinted of plans to consider the cleanup of the Ogoni oil spill as part of their agenda.

    The forthcoming CBCN meeting is scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt from September 10, 2015 to September 18, 2015.

    The Catholic Bishop of Port Harcourt Diocese, Most Rev (Dr) Camillus Etokudoh, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt yesterday, said: “if after the assessment and nothing has been done, we have the moral authority to comment on it.”

    According to him, “Catholic Bishops are involved in the Ogoni cleanup but not to the extent of collecting contracts but to know that the job is being done.”

  • Boko Haram should have been crushed in 2003, says Catholic Bishops

    The Conference of Catholic Bishops in the the Northern parts of the country has described the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the country as a failure of government.

    The clerics said the insurgent group ought to have been crushed since 2003 when it started its agitation.

    The Bishops under the auspices of Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province, which covers Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Kafanchan and Kotongora also called on Catholics in the country, particularly in the North, to vote only political office seekers who are ready to give back the mission schools to them.

    In the resolution at the end of their meeting held in Kaduna on Saturday, The Bishops said bloodletting must stop because it is the blood of Nigerians of Northern extraction and their future that are being sacrificed.

    Reading the communique issued at the end of the meeting to newsmen, Archbishop of Kaduna and Metropolitan Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province, Most Rev. Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso said, Boko Haram should have been detected and nip in the bud since 2003 when they were building up.

    According to him, “the growth of the Boko Haram group is as a result of failure of government, because we have allowed them to build up to become a monster group that is now difficult to contain.”

    The Archbishop lamented that, “Today, the destructive violence of Boko Haram and the state of uncertainty surrounding our democracy is the cumulative impact of these years of blind ambition, mismanagement and squander that have brought our nation almost to its knees.

    “Ordinarily after four controversial but successfully concluded elections since our return to democracy, we would expect our country to be showing signs of growth and consolidation. Rather, we find ourselves tightly in the clutches of fear, anxiety and near despondency,” he said.

    The clergy however called on Nigerians, particularly northerners to irrespective of their religious and ethnic differences close ranks and work towards genuine healing and avoid opening themselves to another round of violence in the coming elections.

    On the February General Elections, the Archbishop called on all the Catholics in the country to elect only leaders who will return faith based schools and healthcare centers to them, adding that, the government had since realized it was a mistake to have taken the schools from the owners, yet they have refused to return them, instead the schools have been vandalized.

  • I’ve reconciled with Obasanjo, Atiku tells Catholic Bishops

    I’ve reconciled with Obasanjo, Atiku tells Catholic Bishops

    A presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar has declared that he has fully reconciled with his former boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Speaking in a statement from his media office, the former Vice President also identified waste, poor management and failure to diversify the economy by the current administration as the reason for the adverse economic impact of the fall in oil price.

    Atiku affirmed at an interactive session with the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria Conference (CBNC) that there is no animosity left in the relationship with his former boss and that bygones are bygones.

    Atiku made this revelation at a parley he held with representatives of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in Abuja.

    He made the declaration in reaction to the anxiety expressed by the Most Reverend Anthony Obinna, Archbishop of Owerri and his counterpart from Calabar, the Most Reverend Joseph Ekuwem. Both Clergymen expressed disappointment at the celebrated face-off between these two men when they were in power as President and Vice President between 1999 -2003.

    Obinna said that in 1999, both Obasanjo and Atiku started well to the admiration and high expectation of Nigerians, only for the people to be disappointed when rift and ill-will developed between them thereby derailing the progress of the nation.

    Obinna lamented that the political elite has failed the nation tracing today’s problem of insecurity and corruption to the failure of the political elite. He asked the former Vice President to assure the nation’s Catholics that the rift is over and that such would not occur again.

    Describing the Turaki Adamawa as an open-minded individual, the Archbishop of Owerri said he is impressed by Atiku’s interest and commitment to national unity and fairness.

    Responding to the concerns of the Clergy men on the insurgency ravaging the country, and the accompanying insecurity, the APC presidential front-runner told the CNBC led by the Most Reverend (Dr.) Ignatius Kaigama that it is the duty of the political and military leadership to crush insurgency whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.

    Atiku reminded the Bishops that when he was in government with Obasanjo as President, an insurgent group, known then as Nigerian Taliban started problem in the North east but was crushed within three weeks.

    The APC presidential aspirant revealed that the Obasanjo administration in which he was the deputy moved so fast to uproot the insurgents that many Nigerians till today do not even remember there was an insurgency.

    He also said that aside crushing insurgency through leadership, the leader should also mobilize resources to provide socio-economic opportunities and an enabling environment to keep youths and the able-bodied productively engaged while the military need training and re-training to make them efficient.

    Speaking on the state of the economy, the APC presidential aspirant said that had we been able to diversify and manage our economy in such a way that we conserve rather than waste our resources in surplus years, the present austerity measure would not be necessary.

    According to the former Vice President, period of boom and austerity occur in circles in capitalist economies but to minimize the impact and ensure that the citizens do not suffer during the drought years depends on what the leadership did with the years of plenty.

    The APC presidential hopeful recalled the years of his Vice Presidency when the administration he served in was moved to create the Sovereign Wealth Fund by the desire to have a fallback position for the nation’s economy. He said the idea behind the Fund is to have a pool where excess resources can be pooled to take care of the years of drought.

    Atiku revealed that it was also this problem and the need to streamline the country’s alarming debt profile when he was in power with former President Obasanjo that compelled him to get the World Bank to assign then Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to join his economic team in the Presidency to locate and collate the country’s actual debt for liquidation.

    He said the current Minister of Finance worked in his office for nine months and that the effort culminated in the establishment of the Debt Management Office (DMO).

    He stated that careful management of resources and diversification of the economy is the responsibility of a committed and focused leadership and urged Nigerians to use the opportunity of the 2015 polls to choose the right person and political party to lead the country.

    He identified the issue of indigeneship as a serious impediment to unity among Nigerians.

    Atiku said the prevailing situation where young and innocent Nigerians who are born in places other than where their parents come from and who have spent their entire lives in those parts of the country are discriminated against as non- indigenes is not good for the country.

    He said everything must be done by political, community and religious leaders to combat the issue of indigeneship and allow Nigerian citizens no matter their ethnic origin to be free in any part of the country they were born or reside.

    The Turaki Adamawa told the Bishops that it is unfortunate that a Nigerian would go to the US or some European country to give birth to a child and the later would instantly acquire American citizenship while in Nigeria, indigeneship question dominate our discourse.

    He called on religious leaders to preach against this issue and encourage their congregation to love one another and promote national unity

  • Catholic bishops urge sincerity in fight against corruption

    Catholic bishops urge sincerity in fight against corruption

    The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria [CBCN] has called for sincerity by the Federal Government in the fight against corruption if it wants the citizenry to join in the crusade.
    The CBCN believes that serious allegations of corruption against former and serving top government functionaries have been left largely unprosecuted.
    The bishops  in a communiqué at the end of their week-long Second Plenary Meeting  in Umuahia regretted that those who have been identified as corrupt have either escaped from prison custody, granted indefinite bail or set free, therefore making mockery of the entire exercise.
    They cited the oil subsidy scam and called for thorough investigation and prosecution of suspects.
     The communiqué signed by the CBCN president, Bishop Ignatius Kaigama, and the secretary, Bishop Alfred Martins, said: “The Nigerian citizenry has the right to receive comprehensive reports on the management of the fuel subsidy along with the appropriate application of justice on the criminals. Fighting corruption requires sincerity and the fight has to start from the top to the lowest cadre.
     “Politics in Nigeria is still perceived by many in authority more as a self-serving opportunity for easy money and prestige than genuine service for the good of all. Recent probes on fuel subsidy have exposed the depth of corruption in the highest echelon of our government.”
     The Bishops also decried the current level of insecurity in the country, saying: “Nigerians continue to live in fear and tension despite the acclaimed efforts to beef up security in the nation. Bombings and killings of innocent Nigerians continue in the northern part of the country while periodic murders and armed robberies continue in the southern part.
     “In the face of the sustained attacks on Christians and churches in Northern Nigerian, we insist that our patient response is not borne out of cowardice, but is of universal Christ-like love, religious maturity and genuine patriotism. We fear that in the face of continued onslaught, Christians might resort to legitimate self defence.”
     They, therefore, called on government to wake up to their duty to protect the life and dignity of everybody in the country even as they advised the government to be more vigilant in checkmating foreign-sponsored terrorist activities in Nigeria.
     They nevertheless commended Muslim and Christian leaders who are raising their voices to condemn the on-going barbarism. ”We also commend all Nigerians who are earnestly working for a better, safer and more united Nigeria and ask them not to relent,” the communiqué said.