Bishops of Ibadan Province reflect on the Jubilee of Hope in the context of Nigeria

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City.

The Bishops of the Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province have said that the Jubilee message of Hope is welcome and necessary. The Bishops assert that Nigerians need hope the most amid the current trials facing the nation. The Bishops urge Nigerians never to lose hope, hardships notwithstanding.

“The Holy Father, Pope Francis, restated the imperative of Hope by declaring 2025 as a Jubilee Year of Hope. Such jubilees occur every 25 years and help to focus on themes that are central to the health of the human family. With the theme: ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ this Jubilee Year of Hope calls all of God’s children to become pilgrims of Hope, sowing Hope in a world suffering from the impacts of war, insurgency, the climate crisis, poverty, and other vices. We urge all our faithful, therefore, to hold on to that Hope which never disappoints,” the Bishops exhort in a communique.

Without Food Security, Hope is difficult

The Bishops state that many households in Nigeria are struggling to make ends meet today. Given the nation’s current economic realities, the message of hope might seem improbable. The prelates have called for price and monetary stability.

“A country that cannot feed its citizens is not worth its sovereignty. This is especially true for Nigeria, which is rich in all the necessary resources for food sufficiency. Without food for the population, it is difficult to instil hope, and productivity diminishes because a hungry people are a restive people. We encourage the government to engage with experts and creative social engineers to reduce the rate of hunger in society as an additional means of strengthening the Hope of our citizens. It is challenging to sustain Hope on empty stomachs,” the Bishops say.

Bishops with the faithful

Another stumbling block in the path of Hope among citizens in Nigeria, as identified by the Bishops, relates to the urgent need for quality leadership at various levels of society—not just any leadership, but transformative leadership.

“In order to restore Hope to such a depressed populace, Nigeria urgently needs transformative leadership. It requires training in intentional leadership that instils values of integrity, service, and moral courage—leadership that does not waste valuable time lamenting societal woes but instead takes decisive action backed by personal sacrifice to address them. As a Church, we are committed to providing and supporting transformative education and programs that will equip and inspire our youth with the tools to lead with integrity, reorient their values, and prioritize hard work, honesty, solidarity, and compassion over crass materialism,” the prelates said.

The media as purveyors of Hope

Other matters addressed in the Ibadan Bishops’ communique include concerns about public security. They offer rare praise for the region’s political leaders who have managed “the security situation in this land reasonably well for the last few years.”

The Bishops describe the media as a purveyor of Hope: “The media must resist its obsession with bad news at the expense of balanced reporting which highlights both good and bad things happening in the society with equal passion.”