RECOWA asks leaders to work hard to provide good governance to the people.
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Global issues necessitate international attention and action, according to Catholic bishops.
SAN explains why West Africa is underdeveloped.
On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) urged Nigerian Catholic Bishops to continue speaking truth to power and to reach out to violent non-state actors with their message of change.
Some of them, he claims, were promoting legitimate causes but with senseless cruelty.
The President, who was represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), made the remarks at the opening session of the 4th Plenary Assembly of the Reunion of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa, which took place in Abuja under the theme “Fratelli Tutti: Path to Build Brotherhood and Sustainable Peace in West Africa.”
He acknowledged that the West African region was experiencing significant political, economic, and social turbulence, but exhorted the Bishops to adopt active roles in fostering brotherhood and long-term peace.
“Indeed, the Catholic Church and the Bishops Conference have earned a reputation for speaking truth to power in accordance with the best prophetic traditions and for encouraging social action by the lay faithful,” he stated. The Church has demonstrated remarkable approaches to addressing the impunity of some governmental actors and errant power over the years.
“However, my Lords, I believe the times demand that we talk to the growing number of violent non-state actors, some of whom are promoting genuine causes but who employ mindless violence to destroy lives and property.
“I implore you to look for methods to not only deepen the bonds of faith within your communities, but also to build bridges across every barrier that threatens to split our countries.”
Peace could not reign in the area, according to the President, until it first reigned in individual communities and countries.
He stated that the Federal Government was committed to working with the Church and all well-intentioned parties to promote peace and security.
“Our ambitions of unification and integration have always been impeded,” he claims, “not only by worries for individual sovereignty of our nations, but also by internal crises and social disputes within our countries and beyond borders.”
“There have been 12 military coups in Africa since 2017, with half of them occurring since 2020. People retreat into ethnic, religious, and other nativist groupings in times like these, which has historically heightened parochial prejudices and shredded the thread of cohesion. In all of these cases, the dream of a united, peaceful, and affluent sub-region appears to be nearly impossible to achieve.
“It is my hope that you will consider how to exercise the full force of your tremendous moral authority over our nations and the sub-region as a whole.” It is clear that without the faith communities in West Africa, we would not be able to achieve fraternity and harmony.”
RECOWA advises leaders to work hard to provide excellent governance to the people.
In his remarks, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, President of the Reunion of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa, urged political leaders to strive more to provide good governance to the people.
He insisted that, without becoming politically partisan, Catholic bishops in the region would continue to raise their prophetic voices on behalf of the voiceless multitude suffering.
“We know that in our region of West Africa, political governance is sadly not always about compassion, justice, truth, and transparency,” he remarked.
We also have to deal with issues such as youth unemployment, religious and ethnic conflicts, climate change, land grabbing; diseases even more deadly than the Covid-19 pandemic; money spent on arms rather than on alleviating hunger and fostering development; terrorist attacks, kidnapping threats, corruption, and so on.
“We don’t claim to have all the answers to the world’s multifaceted political, security, and social concerns. Only by continuing to educate the consciences of Christians, non-Christians, and persons of goodwill in our society can the Church fulfill her mission.
“As a result, regional leaders must utilize political authority to promote good governance rather than personal gain, and they must not allow religious, ethnic, economic, or political interests to trump the general good.”
Leaders must elevate merit, equally distribute resources, and eradicate the virus of corruption and self-centeredness. ”
Global issues necessitate international attention and action, according to Catholic bishops.
Most Revd. Lucius Ugorji, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, stressed in his speech that the international community must work together to establish innovative ways to address global issues.
“Global challenges necessitate global responses and actions in the spirit of co-responsibility, cooperation, and partnership,” he claims.
“Thus, in the face of a plethora of problems bedevilling our countries today, such as poor governance, human rights violations, poverty, unemployment, ethnocentrism, terrorism and organized crime, human trafficking, organ trafficking, illegal arms trafficking, international debt burden, drug abuse, migration, and the like, we must guide against the ‘culture of walls.
“These sociopolitical and sociocultural issues in our various countries endanger peace and obstruct progress. They urge that we come together as a human family in solidarity to face them.”
SAN explains why West Africa is underdeveloped.
Meanwhile, the event’s Chairman, Damian Dodo, SAN, defined the bane of West Africa’s underdevelopment as a lack of regard for human dignity, greed, undue ambition for power and abuse of it, warped sense of the sacred, and a loss of feeling of service.
He emphasized that, with the exception of a few locations, these vices have severely debilitated the region, preventing individuals from realizing their God-given abilities and beauty.
“The West African region, like many other parts of the world, is engulfed in a crisis of terrorism, pandemics, famine, and immense suffering.
“In general, our people are hungry and depressed.” They’ve been stripped of their humanity and have been traumatized. Our youth appear to have lost hope at home and are subjected to very suicidal high-sea experiences in pursuit of a life.
“This is a time when we need the Church’s powerful voice to restore hope to the hopeless, to usher in positivity where negativity seems to reign, love where hate reigns, and fairness where prejudice prevails.”
“We need the Church’s voice to speak out against the suffering caused by man’s inhumanity to man, especially among the poor, marginalized, and impoverished of West Africa.
“This voice is required to awaken our governments to a sense of brotherhood among the people they control.” “A call to develop fraternity entails a departure from self-aggrandizement and indifference to the struggle of the common man,” he explained.
