The Christian Association of Nigeria has expressed concern about the country’s recent spate of insecurity, claiming that the situation has severely harmed human life.
According to the organisation, the 2023 general elections will provide Nigerians with the opportunity to turn the country around.
Archbishop Daniel Okoh, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, made the remarks in a speech delivered at the ongoing second plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria in Orlu, Imo State, and obtained by journalists in Abuja on Monday.
“The unprecedented spate of insecurity in our nation today, calls for serious concern. We have come to a point in our national history where the value of human life has diminished abysmally,” he said.
While describing the killings as an aberration, Okoh told the Catholic Bishops that kidnapping for ransom had become a very lucrative criminal enterprise in Nigeria.
He said, “As I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, children were not allowed to see dead bodies. But now, even the sensibilities of the children are no longer protected. All kinds of crime and wickedness are available almost for free on social media.
“It is sad to note that those whose duty it is to guarantee the safety of our lives and properties appear to be helpless in the face of a real threat and advancing forces of darkness eclipsing the land.”
Okoh described Nigeria as a country of great potential, adding, however, that the nation’s challenges over the years had been a lack of patriotic, visionary, and committed leadership.
“This has become manifest in the brazen embezzlement of public funds, the entrenchment of bribery and corruption in almost every aspect of our public life, and the falling economic fortunes and joblessness among the youths that now confront us daily.
“Impunity, executive recklessness and political brigandage are tearing our nation apart.
“As a result of the long closure of our Federal Universities, our nation suffers another bout of brain drain that is unprecedented. Nigerian lecturers are being absorbed in a rapid rate by Ivy League universities in the Western world,” he said.
However, the CAN President stressed that despite all of these, the people should not lose hope.
Okoh said, “The 2023 general election is one valid chance that we have to turn around the fortunes of Nigeria for good.”
