The Catholic Bishops of the Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province have advised the Federal Government to evolve new strategies to fight corruption.
They faulted the current approach, which they said was not yielding the desired results but rather causing pains and hardship on Nigerians.
They gave the advice in a communiqué at the end of a two-day conference at the St Michael’s Catholic Cathedral, Minna Niger State on Tuesday.
The communiqué jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the conference, Arch Bishop Mathew Man-Oso Ndagoso and Bishop John Niyiring, also stated that the federal government’s approach had been marred by ‘legal technicalities’ and as such yielding less results.
“The fight against corruption seems mired in judicial technicalities. There is the need to encourage the relevant agencies in the fight against corruption to find new strategies for winning the war against corruption”, the communiqué said.
The conference also lamented that despite government assurances, insurgency, cattle rustling, assassinations and kidnapping were on the rise in Nigeria.
“We are saddened that things seem to have gotten progressively worse today by the daily increase in wanton loss of lives,” the bishops stated.
The Provincial Catholic Bishops from seven states – Sokoto, Kaduna, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and Kano – also noted that two years into the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration, nothing much has changed for the better as promised.
“There are still no measurable changes in the welfare of our people. The recession has not abated either while the daily lives of ordinary people have continued to hang in a balance”, the communiqué further stated.
According to the communiqué, “Sadly very little has happened to assure every Nigerian that they have a stake in their own country. We cannot successfully go into the next election in this state of siege.
“We are saddened by the fact that the APC-led government did not take advantage of the opportunities that our last elections presented us. Our people entrusted them with their hopes and voted across religion and region. The government however seemed to have squandered most of that goodwill and instead created the conditions for the situation we are now in”.
The bishops also blasted members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for calling members to down tool by incessant industrial strike which they said, ‘has now become a bigger burden for parents and their children whose future also hangs in a balance.”
While calling on the federal government to consider the pains Nigerian populace is going through above religion and political sentiments, the Provincial Catholic Bishops pointed out: “ASUU’s season of strikes has not only undermined the credibility and value of education but seriously lowered the integrity of Nigeria’s academia”.
The bishops in the communiqué also thanked God for the recuperation and return home of the President, stressing, “We will continue to pray God to give him strength and wisdom to face the challenges that Nigeria is facing at present.
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