Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to drastically cut down the high cost of running government and to seriously address the ever-deepening poverty and growing youth unemployment.
The bishops made the appeal yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Second Plenary Assembly of the CBCN in Abuja.
The eminent clerics also faulted the judgement delivered by the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) on September 6, 2023.
The bishops’ conference appealed to the Supreme Court to be impartial in handling the appeals from the two political parties, which have rejected the lower court verdict.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in February 25, 2023 presidential election and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart Peter Obi have rejected the tribunal’s judgement and declared their resolve to take their fight to the apex court.
The bishops said after hearing the election petitions, the five justices of the election tribunal unanimously dismissed them.
The bishops said despite the billions of naira of tax-payers money appropriated for the provision of the BVAS technology as a game-changer in the general elections, “the judges in their ruling tried, among other things, to suggest that it was wrong to expect the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to keep its promise or obey the electoral regulation of transmitting election results electronically in real-time from the polling units.
“While respecting the views of the judges, two of the petitioners rejected their verdict as lacking in justice and so have decided to head to the Supreme Court to seek justice. As this case moves to the next level, the fate of the country continues to hang in the balance and the future of democracy in our land stands on the edge of a precipice.
“We pray and hope that the Supreme Court judges will neither bend the law nor seek to satisfy the whims and caprices of any party. We also pray and hope for a day in our nation when all election results will be finally decided at the polling units and not at the Court,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji said.
The CBCN president said, they need not stress that the war against insecurity cannot be won through military might alone or by countering violence with violence, urging all that engaged in armed conflicts to beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
“As the economy sharply declines and the masses continue to suffer and die, the rate of crime increases. In the face of this dismal situation, we cannot get tired of urging the government to rise to its primary responsibility of securing the lives and property of its citizens.
“Government should urgently check the proliferation of small arms and light weapons caused by the booming business of gunrunning, which fuels insecurity in our country. It does not make sense to disarm the populace while allowing armed criminals to freely terrorize unarmed citizens.
“People have continued to live in a state of tension and uncertainty in our communities as they are subjected to a life of deepening poverty, chronic hunger, untold hardship, and wanton suffering.
“This situation has been worsened by the hasty and ill-planned removal of fuel subsidy, the floating of the naira, and the galloping inflation, which have affected the cost of food items, transportation, and other essential goods,” he said.
Ugorji said the efforts of the government to provide succour to cushion the harsh effects of the withdrawal of subsidies have not had any significant impact on the lives of millions of Nigerians groaning under the excruciating economic hardship unleashed on them by the ruling class.
“On the contrary, the distribution of ‘palliatives’ has largely turned out to be an attempt by the leadership to further enrich themselves at the expense of the suffering masses.
“How else can one see the whopping sum of money allocated in the name of ‘palliatives’ to 306 newly elected members of the National Assembly (NASS) and the National Judicial Council (NJC) headed by the Chief Justice of the Federation respectively at a time when the Judiciary is handling election petitions. What an outrage!
“It is no less outrageous that at a time when millions of Nigerians are not sure of their next meal, N40 billion was allocated to the members of the NASS for luxury cars, including bullet-proof vehicles for the leadership of the NASS, and a further N70 billion for furniture and repairs of the lawmaker’s office.
“By substantially increasing the cost of running government through the recent appointment of so many ministers and thereby having the largest Federal Executive Council since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the President gives the impression that he is disdainful and insensitive to the economic pain of the masses,” he said.
The CBCN president while speaking on the persisting insecurity in Nigerian communities, said insecurity remains a major problem in Nigeria, and that it is worsening in many communities as bandits, unknown gunmen, Fulani herdsmen, and Boko Haram militia terrorise the populace.
“Kidnapping for ransom continues to increase. Some of our communities have been completely taken over by criminals. As a result, many people in these communities have fled their homes, abandoning their farms, shops, businesses, and other sources of livelihood.
“The throng of internally displaced people in our country is ever growing, with many children out of school, making them easy prey to human traffickers. This state of affairs has been compounded by the incessant sit-at-home orders in the South-East issued by non-state actors. Many have paid the supreme price for failing to adhere to such illegal orders,” he said.
