NIGERIA: Country Falling Apart Due to Rising Insecurity, Church Warns

By Arnold Neliba

ABUJA, FEBRUARY 26, 2021 (CISA)-The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in a Tuesday, warned against country’s imminent collapse going by the alarming spate of insecurity ravaging different parts of the country.

“The country is falling apart due to seriously rising insecurity clearly evident in the widespread loss of lives and property triggered by the increasing number of bandits, Boko Haram, killer herdsmen and other criminal elements across the country,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has warned.

In a February 23 statement signed by the President of CBCN, Archbishop Augustine Akubueze and the Secretary, Most Rev. Camillus Raymond Umoh, the bishops said the country had remained together by the grace of God, but expressed displeasure that the survival of Nigeria was hanging on a precipice at the moment.

According to the Bishops, “The clamour for self-defense is fast gaining ground. Many ethnic champions are loudly beating the drums of war, calling not only for greater autonomy but even for outright opting out of a nation in which they have lost all trust and sense of belonging.”

The prelates warned the government against ignoring the rising calls for secession from people who have given up on the possibility and desire for country to stay united.

“The Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari can no longer delay rising to its obligation to govern the nation; not according to ethnic and religious biases but along the lines of objective and positive principles of fairness, equity and, above all, justice,” said the bishops disclosing how the present state of instability has disturbed them.

Despite the cries around assassinations, Covid-19, kidnappings, murders, banditry, armed robberies the bishops affirmed their faith that the Nigeria will overcome the challenges and prosper as one Nation.

“This must not be allowed to continue to fester and degenerate. We are raising this alarm because of our deep patriotic love for our nation, not for any sectional interests, be they political, ethnic or even religious,” they added.

To the citizens, the bishops asked them to be ready to seek a common purpose also inviting groups to be ready to take necessary sacrifices that would enable us to manage their differences better and turn them into a positive, rather than a negative force.