Bishops urge Nigerians to embrace social cohesion and good governance.
Paul Samasumo – Vatican City.
While urging national unity, the Bishops also want the Government to create an enabling environment that will favour the growth of family farms and the growth of small-scale industries.
At the end of the first Plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) 2024, the prelates issued a communique that reminds the government to govern for the common good. They criticize Spoilers who propagate schemes along political, ethnic, and religious lines.
Promoting social cohesion and good governance
The Bishops’ message is a passionate appeal to all Nigerians to focus on what is essential and not amplify the things that divide them. Some of the challenges causing havoc in the lives of citizens are rising poverty, widespread insecurity and unemployment.
“Our worsening economy has continued to make living hard and difficult for our people who have been subjected to a life of grinding poverty, continuing hunger and untold hardship. The situation is worsened by the high unemployment rate in the country, which has further impoverished and degraded our citizens,” said the Bishops.
They continue, “Insecurity has attained yet a higher scale than we had ever seen before in the land. Insurgents, armed herdsmen, bandits, and the so-called unknown gunmen have continued to unleash terror in different parts of the country. Kidnapping for ransom has reached homes and areas where in the past it was thought impossible. The result is that many have fled their homes, abandoned their farms, shops, businesses and other sources of livelihood. The number of internally-displaced persons in our country is ever growing. We are making yet another passionate appeal to Government to act immediately to stem the tide. The legitimacy of government depends on its capacity to protect life and property.”
Farming and small-scale industries
The Bishops further urge the Government to make it possible for citizens to embark on small family farms and, in some cases, to return to abandoned farms. The Government would also do well to create small-scale industries especially in rural areas, said the Bishops.
“Given the diminishing purchasing power of the Nigerian currency, and the capacity of agriculture to be the bedrock of our survival, we urge government to create the necessary and conducive environment that would enable our people to return to their farms.” The Bishops added,
“We enjoin government at all levels to establish small scale industries in the rural areas to increase productivity and reduce unemployment. It would be helpful if such industries are agro based.”
Bishops: All is not lost, we can rescue our nation
In the communique, the Bishop also speak about Nigerias’s journey regarding the Synod on Synodality, the Vatican document -Fiducia Supplicans and the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of the media.
“We cannot give up hope. All is not lost. We have all it takes to rescue our nation. Our confidence is based on our trust in God and in our capability as a nation, with the grace of God in whom almost all Nigerians believe,” said the prelates of Africa’s most populous nation.
Journeying together for the common good
The communique titled, Journeying together for the common good in the Church and our nation, is signed by the CBCN President, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji and the Secretary of the Conference, Bishop Donatus Ogun, O.S.A., of the Diocese of Uromi.
The Bishops who met for a week-long meeting at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Durumi, Abuja, concluded their plenary on Thursday.
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