NAN-H-137
Crises
Abuja, March 9, 2017 (NAN)The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) on Thursday urged the Federal Government to carry all Nigerian citizens displaced by insurgency in the Northeast along while addressing the humanitarian crisis in the region.
The President of CBCN and Arch Bishop of Jos, the Rt. Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, and the Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, gave the advice in Abuja.
The bishops spoke after the Conference issued a communiqué of its meeting at Christ the King Chuch, Kubwa.
They noted that indigenes and non-indigenes alike were displaced during the Boko Haram attacks and advises that all those affected should be adequately compensated through the resettlement initiatives of the government and its partners.
“There are different pockets of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps scattered in Maiduguri and they have not got anything.
“We hope that the matter will be addressed holistically, those who are there affected, indigenous people and those who came for business and hard their property destroyed and over 200 churches.
“These were all for the service of the people and nobody seems to be saying anything.
“And we hear there is an initiative where some prominent members have been selected to administer funds that will be made available to remedy the situation.
“The church is not part of that and yet we are the people who have been with the distressed people as far away as Cameroun.
“So we should be collaborating more and be taken into confidence that we have the interest of refugees and IDPs at heart,’’ Kaigama said.
He said it was a shame that huge sums of money meant for IDPs were allegedly misappropriated by individuals in authority.
“It is a shame, a tragedy that this should happen; I think those people should not find any voice anywhere.
“We are hoping that the government should do something better than they are doing,’’ Kaigama said.
Onaiyekan added that the situation called to mind the request by the bishops that the problem had brought out the issue of citizenship which the Conference fully raised from a different angle.
“When we talk about rehabilitating the Northeast people are not thinking of those who ran away but rather of the indigenes of the states.
“When we talk about rehabilitating the Northeast those who lived there were Nigerian citizens and they too have as much rights as anybody,’’ he said.
Onaiyekan urged all Nigerians whose life savings had been destroyed by Boko Haram to organise themselves and make their case so that they would not be forgotten.
The Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Godfrey Onah, while reading the text of the briefing, called on the Federal Government and the states to respect and enforce the relevant provisions in the Nigerian Constitution to all citizens a shared sense of belonging.
According to him, we are guaranteed freedom of movement but the average citizen knows that today the contrary is the case.
The Conference condemned the failure of the government to obey court orders on the release of some Nigerians in custody.
“We comment the president on his war on corruption; we believe however that this war will be meaningful if it is owned by the generality of Nigerians.
“Several incidents have contributed to undermine the faith of Nigerians in the credibility of the fight against corruption.
“To restore the faith of the people in this war, we call on the Federal Government to allow an independent investigation into recent allegations of corrupt misconduct against senior members of the administration.’’
They also expressed sadness that many states and tertiary institutions were breaking the nation’s constitution in many respects.
They specifically mentioned the refusal by some Northern states to issue Certificates of Occupancy for church buildings and asked those involved to desist.
The bishops criticised the diminishing sanctity of human lives in different parts of the country, saying such acts were against cultural and religious values.
“Life has never looked so cheap.
“Exposed to violence almost on a daily basis, more young children are losing innocence as they watch their parents being randomly slaughtered and their property vandalised.
“We acknowledge the progress made under the present administration in degrading Boko Haram insurgency.
“Although the Federal Government has announced the `technical defeat’ of Boko Haram we have no reason to believe that they are not regrouping, nor can we discount their evolution into perhaps something more deadly,’’ they said.
The bishops hailed the rescue of some Chibok Girls by the military but added that the success would not be complete until the rest of the girls in captivity returned to their homes.
They also called on the government to end restiveness among the youth, the intolerable level of poverty and inequality, return of mission schools as well as ensure human rights.
The bishops prayed for the quick recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari to enable him to return to his duty of salvaging the country. (NAN)
DCU/JCE
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Edited by Chukwudi Ekezie