We, Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province, comprising Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti and Osogbo Dioceses, after prayerful deliberations at our second meeting for 2024 at the Domus Pacis Pastoral Institute, Igoba, Akure, Ondo State, have prayerfully deliberated on pertinent issues of Church and national interest and hereby issue the following communique:
ISSUES ABOUT THE PROTEST IN NIGERIA
Protests should cause no consternation in any normal democratic setting because the right of protest is guaranteed in true democracies all over the world. Protests are organised to draw the attention of governments and authorities to the opinion or demands of people or groups in society. In Nigeria, the impending protest has raised a furore of opinions regarding its legitimacy and expediency. Many believe that the protests are not a solution to Nigeria’s problems. They are right. Protests are not meant to provide solutions to problems. Protests are held as a last resort for citizens who have cried out for solutions to problems and have not been heeded. Protests are the last resort for amplifying the voice of those who feel oppressed. The protests in Nigeria should be made to serve that purpose and none other. The protesters should exercise restraint and not disturb or intimidate those who may choose not to participate in the exercise knowing that it is their inalienable right not to do so. Such people should be allowed to go about their lawful business unhindered. The organizers of the protest have therefore a responsibility to ensure all these or call off the protest.
We strongly believe that if governments in Nigeria at all levels had responded more promptly and effectively to the groans and distress calls of the Nigerian people the current protest would not have gathered momentum. Nigerians have cried out about dire hunger in the land, persistent insecurity, failed promises, dashed hopes, outrageous cost of living and governance, and ineffectiveness of the rule of law in curbing criminality among public officials not to talk of many public officers’ ineptitude with serious national issues. We strongly urge the Federal, State and Local Governments to promptly attend to the distress call of the Nigerian people and turn a new leaf by responding promptly and effectively henceforth to the problems and distress of Nigerians. As we have said in the recent past, governance by palliatives, by intimidation or by hide and seek methods cannot provide a permanent solution to the challenges faced by the country. During this protest therefore relevant security organizations must show restraint and civility in discharging their duties and avoid violence and accidental deaths which unfortunately seem to have characterized past exercises in Nigeria.
JOINING HANDS TO SALVAGE NIGERIA
On the instruction of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church recently celebrated our grandparents and elders as gifts to the families, Church and society. We thank the faithful, church groups and the institutions that observed this and assured our elders that they are still relevant and needed in our families, Church, society, and nation. In like manner we now exhort all Nigerians to join hands together to rescue this nation. Nigeria is a great country, and we are a great people and to this we all agree. Our current situation of hunger and deprivation is not as a result of economic poverty, but rather due to greed, corruption lack of accountability, lawlessness, indiscipline, selfishness and poor attitude to work.
The challenges we face, if we work together, cannot overcome our God- given greatness, drive and courageous spirit. Our challenges and problems come from the bad will and bad conduct of some of us, Nigerians in every walk of life and at every level. We therefore plead with all Nigerians to show our true, indomitable, sterling, character and salvage this country because we have no other. This is not beyond us to do if we all, grandparents, elders, men, women youth and children begin to give our best wherever we find ourselves. It is true that where there is ravaging hunger patriotism can become a rare virtue. However, we must try because we cannot go on wallowing in the current cesspit of corruption and indiscipline. Let us all decide that everybody has a role to play in restoring our country to the path of sanity and order. We therefore call on all agencies of national orientation to take up this task and ginger Nigerians back to the path of righteousness and new life. Righteousness it is said, exalts a nation.
HALTING THE DEMONIZATION OF RELIGION
We agree that the religious depictions of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting with contemporary ideological figures that are clearly offensive to Christianity at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2024 in France is shocking and disrespectful. Sadly, it is a perpetration of deliberate ongoing attempts in Europe and America to repurpose and demean Christian themes without regard for peace loving Christians who practice and profess their religion in peace. That this decadent caricature of one of the most cherished events of Christianity, “The Last Supper”, is publicized in France, a country with a rich and old Christian heritage, and at the Olympic games detracts from the status of the Olympics and belies all claims to enduring civility and respect for freedom of religion in the West. We have unfortunately occasionally witnessed similar disrespectful depictions and parody of religion and religious themes even here in our country. Such disrespect for religion and religious themes must not be allowed to take root in Nigeria. As Africans we have a great respect for the divine and for religious sentiments. Nothing must make us think that this constitutes part of our problem. Religion, faith and spirituality help people to deal with many fundamental issues of existence and therefore constitute a positive instrument. It is the abuse and misuse of religion faith and spirituality that cause harm and must be curbed. Regardless of what we go through as Africans we must never disrespect or thrash religious symbols and sentiments which touch people at their deepest levels of their being. To do this is to throw our humanizing and spiritual values and ideals to the dogs
THE YEAR OF PRAYER AND THE JUBILEE OF HOPE.
We call on all the faithful to observe the ongoing Year of Prayer which will lead us into the 2025 Jubilee of Hope which the Holy Father Pope Francis has called on all believers to celebrate. The Jubilee of hope reassures us of hope in God which does not disappoint us and which will keep us going even in the toughest times. The year of Prayer on the other hand, reminds us that prayer is an indispensable corollary to all our endeavours and undertakings. No matter how hard we work or toil we need God’s blessings to reap the reward we intend. “If Yahweh does not build a house in vain do its builders toil” (Psalm 127:1). We enjoin Nigerians to pray and fast sincerely for the country as we all go through the very difficult times which we know by faith in God that we shall overcome. Again, as the psalmist said “Just as the eyes of slaves are on their masters’ hand, or the eyes of a slave-girl on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on Yahweh our God, for him to take pity in us” (Ps. 123:1).
CONCLUSION
We wish to remind Nigerians that we have no choice but to keep working and hoping for better times. Trust in God’s power in us ought to be our watchword to get out of our current situation. As Saint Paul counselled “But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own. We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair, we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our body” (2Cor. 4:7-10)
Most Rev ‘Leke Gabriel Abegunrin
Chairman
Most Rev John Akin Oyejola
Secretary
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan.
