CBCN Kicks Against Proliferation Of Private Ministries

…denounce the use of violence during peaceful protests

By Simeon OSAJIE

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has kicked against the proliferation of private ministries by some priests and lay faithful in the Catholic Church noting that these ministries often tend towards unorthodox practices, causing scandal among the faithful, thereby hurting the unity of the church.

This assertion was made known in a communique issued and signed by Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, Archbishop of Owerri and Most Rev. Donatus A. Ogun, Bishop of Uromi Diocese, President and Secretary of CBCN respectively to mark the end of the Second Plenary meeting of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, in Auchi Diocese.

The CBCN further stated that many of the Priests involved in the trend now become too distracted from their primary duty as pastors of souls and reminded all priests, religious and lay faithful alike that charisma are given to individuals in the church in order to build up the body of Christ and not to be used for selfish and self-serving glorification.

On the state of the nation, the CBCN said there are complained at all levels even from government officials who, however, blamed the previous government for the current hardship in the country.

It noted that the government officials keeps calling for patience and sacrifice adding that their calls does not fall well on the rest of the people who continued to suffer hunger and dehumanizing poverty while those in power live an affluent lifestyle with no visible efforts at reducing the cost of governance.

The CBCN equally noted that the people recently embarked on a protest at end bad government as Nigeria economy continued to deteriorated and reduced millions of citizens to a life of abject poverty and ineffable hardship says Nigerians have the constitutional right of expression to show their grievances through a peaceful protests.

It however wondered why some security operatives who ought to have protect citizens during protests resorted to threat, intimidation and blackmail to deter citizens from protesting and in some cases, it was alleged that they engaged in extra judicial killings.

Hence, the CBCN denounced the use of violence by people and equally condemned the killing of some protesting citizens by security operatives as it reaffirmed the constitutional right of every Nigerian to protest.

“As long as the nation is afflicted with poverty, hardship and corruption, as long as the future of people remain bleak, we must continue to reckon with protest. We call on government to address the issues that engender protest and release all who are being detained for their support of their constitutional rights to protest within the ambit of the law”.

While thanking the federal government for its efforts in working for the autonomy of local governments for the benefit of the people at the grassroots, the CBCN urged that the local government elections should be free and fair and that measures should also be put in place for proper utilization of resource allocation to the local government.

The CBCN also worried about the nation’s huge debt burden which is a great affront to our present and future generations, saying servicing huge debt to international monetary agencies has reduced most Nigerians to a life of cruel suffering and wretchedness, the debt burden has also turned out to be a new form of enslavement of present and future generations.

It noted that the socio-economic difficulties of the nation are clearly beyond what economic reforms can effectively resolved saying no matter how well thought-out and accurately executed, the cost of running governments with many elected and appointed officials is stunning and unsustainable. Therefore urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconsider its economic reforms with a view to lifting the burden of hardship from the citizens and engender people-oriented and progressive development.

“Our nation is in a bad shape as there is a deep sense of despair. We must accept that it is a largely self-inflicted especially through corruption in all its ramifications, from the head to the entire body of the nation with special responsibility to those in government to manage the affairs of the nation, past and present especially the present government who have asked for our votes to put things right”.