Reconsider Your Economic Reform Policies, Catholic Bishops’ Urge President Tinubu

…Call For Prayer And Action Towards Repentance And Spiritual Renewal

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By Godwin-Maria Utuedoye

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria CBCN, has urged Nigeria President Bola Tinubu to reconsider its economic reform policies with a view to lifting the burden of hardship from the citizens and engender people-oriented and progressive development.

The bishops also lamented the hardship, hunger and dehumanizing poverty facing the Nigeria citizens  while those in power live an affluent lifestyle, with no visible effort at reducing the cost of governance.

The bishops in a communiqué issued during their Second Plenary Meeting held in Auchi Diocese, Edo State, between August 22–30, call for prayer and actions towards repentance and spiritual renewal.

PREAMBLE:

The year 2024 is dedicated to prayer, in preparation for the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025. As Christians we are a people of prayer. We pray in season and out of season, in an expectation that is typical of Christian hope. Our prayer amounts to nothing if it is not accompanied by action. No meaningful action would take place without repentance. We need to repent of all our wrongdoings, as individuals and as communities, as leaders and as followers, as Church and as a Nation.

The Sacred Liturgy is “an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ,” “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed” and “the font from which all her power flows”. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, nn. 7, 10). We must always bear in mind that the liturgy is received and not invented. It must therefore be safeguarded with the utmost reverence and fidelity. However, despite our constant directives and admonitions, we observe with deep concern, an alarming increase in aberrations during worship across the country such as unduly lengthy Eucharistic celebrations, excessive monetary collections, and the near absence of silence and decorum during Eucharistic celebrations (CBCN Communique 2016).

There is also the unfortunate incident of altering the words and elements of the Sacraments at will at the risk of invalidating the Sacraments (Can 846; Gestis Verbisque, n 22). We also observe with sadness the wrong use of the exposed Blessed Sacrament as if it were an instrument for magical and theatrical display during adorations. We equally note as abhorrent the inappropriate manner of dressing on the part of some priests and the lay faithful during liturgical celebrations.

These deviations from the norm constitute a direct affront to the sanctity of the liturgy and a scandal to many. As bishops, who have the primary responsibility of safeguarding the decorum of the sacred liturgy, we shall intensify our vigilance, in order to ensure that the liturgy is celebrated according to the approved norms of the Church. At the same time, we call on priests, our closest collaborators, to take the responsibility of celebrating the liturgy with utmost seriousness, shun arbitrariness, and not allow for a personal interpretation of the laid down norms.

Additionally, many of the priests involved in this trend become too distracted from their primary duty as pastors of souls. We reaffirm the teaching of the Church, that there is no other ministry than that of Jesus Christ entrusted to and guarded by the Holy Mother Church. We equally remind all, priests, religious, and lay faithful alike, that charisms are given to individuals in the Church in order to build up the body of Christ. They are not to be used for selfish and self-serving glorification (cf. I Corinthians 12: 7-18).  As pastors vested with the oversight function over the pastoral life of the Church, we call on all who want to use their charisms for the Church and not against her, to submit themselves to the competent authority, abiding by the rules and regulations established by the Church and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria in this regard.

The faithful are further advised to be wary of those who while claiming to be Catholics set up “ministries” that are not under the pastoral or spiritual guidance of any competent ecclesiastical authority. In fact no ministry, association or institution can bear the name Catholic without the express permission of the competent authority (Cf Can 216).

(a) In our nation, there are complaints at all levels, even from government officials who, however, blame the previous government for the current hardship in the country, claiming that the current government is, in fact, taking painful but courageous steps to turn things around. The government officials keep calling for patience and sacrifice, but their call does not fall well on the rest of the citizens who continue to suffer hunger and dehumanizing poverty, while those in power live an affluent lifestyle, with no visible effort at reducing the cost of governance. There is an unfortunate general feeling in the nation that we are stuck in a tight web of corruption from which we cannot extricate ourselves. There are economic policies that seem to be in favour of those in the corridors of power and their cronies in the business sector. May we at this point mention some of the recent worrisome developments in our nation:

#EndBadGovernance Protest:

Our people recently embarked on a protest as Nigeria’s economy continues to deteriorate and reduce millions of citizens to a life of abject poverty and ineffable hardship. We note that Nigerians have the constitutional right of expression to show their grievances through peaceful protests. The recent protest by a cross-section of the people was aimed at openly expressing their distress and frustration in a nation endowed with rich human and natural resources, yet unable to provide the basic needs of its citizens. There was a fear that the planned protest could be hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums to wreak havoc on the nation. In spite of all odds, the protest commenced peacefully, but went skewed along the line. In some parts of Nigeria, it became violent as there were reports of arson, looting, destruction of lives and property worth billions of Naira. Many were also reported injured.

Unfortunately, some security operatives, who should normally protect citizens during protests, resorted to threats, intimidation and blackmail to deter citizens from protesting, and, in some cases, it was alleged that they engaged in extra judicial killings. We pray for the happy repose of those who lost their lives, the speedy recovery of the injured and the consolation of the bereaved. We equally sympathise with all who lost their precious property during the protest.

We denounce the use of violence by some people and equally condemn in the strongest terms the killing of some protesting citizens by security operatives. Yet, we reaffirm the constitutional right of every Nigerian to peaceful protests. We wish to stress that as long as the nation is afflicted with poverty, hardship and corruption, and as long as the future of people remains bleak, we must continue to reckon with protests. We call on governments at all levels to address the issues that engender protests, and release all who are being detained for their support and expression of their constitutional rights to protest within the ambit of the law.

While we thank the federal government for its efforts in working for the autonomy of local governments for the benefit of the people at the grassroots, we urge that the Local Government Council elections should be free and fair and measures put in place for proper utilisation of resource allocations to the local governments. We equally call on the federal government to embark on a general electoral reform that will make for transparency and fairness such as compulsory and seamless electronic transmission of election results from the polling units in real time.

Debilitating Debt Burden:

We note that the socio-economic difficulties of our nation are clearly beyond what economic reforms alone can effectively resolve, no matter how well thought-out and how accurately executed. We must admit that the cost of running governments with many elected and appointed officials is stunning and unsustainable.

We therefore urge the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconsider its economic reform policies with a view to lifting the burden of hardship from the citizens and engender people-oriented and progressive development.

Taxes and levies are sources for government to generate revenue to meet its statutory duties. To finance its organs and to provide goods and services for the public, government has the authority to levy taxes on salaries, business profits, business transactions, goods and services to the public. Payment of tax is a civic duty, evasion of which is a grave offence. Yet, multiple taxation is a severe burden on business enterprises and individuals, especially within the Nigerian context, where many factories, industries and companies are being strangled by epileptic power supply, high costs of petroleum products, spiralling inflation, rising labour costs, the continuous weakening of the Naira, and scarcity of foreign exchange.

Due to the present adverse operating environment, many businesses, both foreign and indigenous, have shut down. Many others are merely struggling to survive, due to the harsh operating environment in the country. The situation has been further compounded by continuous hiking of bank interest rate and multiple taxation. Federal, state and local government agencies come up with different names to collect the same taxes from business enterprises and even voluntary agency institutions with threats, intimidation and blackmail.

All these contribute to the poor ranking of Nigeria in the ease of doing business index, and cause disincentive in the business community.

We appeal to governments at all levels to take urgent measures to harmonise taxes and address multiple taxation, in order to stem the tide of businesses collapsing in Nigeria with its consequent unemployment. This will also encourage investors already faced with the challenges of high production costs, low sales, insignificant profit margins and the depletion of business capital.

Hardship and Food Insecurity:

Nigerians are currently groaning under the yoke of hardship which is fuelled by high electricity tariffs, high cost of petroleum products, transportation and Medicare, and general lack of basic infrastructure. This situation has been heightened by grave threat of food insecurity and malnutrition due to increasing cost of basic food items. We learn from experts that food insecurity and hunger in Nigeria are caused, among other factors, by persistent insecurity from terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and herdsmen that has disrupted agricultural activities and livelihoods in many parts of the country.

We recognise the efforts of governments to deal with this problem such as declaration of state of emergency on food insecurity, importation of food, cash transfer scheme and the distribution of palliatives to the most vulnerable. Nevertheless, it is sad to observe that, in spite of these measures, the prices of food items have continued to surge.

We demand that governments put in place policies, programmes and initiatives that would address the multi-faceted factors that adversely affect food security with a good action plan for implementation such as provision of safety and security to farmers and their crops across the country. We enjoin governments to support farmers with subsidies, soft loans, modern technology and, improved seedlings, but not genetically modified seedlings. It would also involve supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling to add value to raw local food products through processing, preservation and packaging technology. We encourage families and individuals to embark on farming and call on government to ensure the security of farmers and their crops, offer incentives to private-sector agribusinesses, and take urgent and decisive steps to achieve food self-sufficiency in our nation.

(b) Need for Repentance and Concerted Efforts

Our nation is in a bad shape, as there is a deep sense of despair.  We must accept, however, that it is largely self-inflicted, especially through corruption in all its ramifications, from the head to the entire body of the nation. Therefore, we all need to accept responsibility for what has befallen us: from the highest levels of government to all the citizenry, with special responsibility to those who are in government to manage the affairs of our nation; and from all successive governments, past and present, but especially the present government who have asked for our votes to put things right. There is need for national re-orientation away from lies and dishonesty to truth and integrity.

(c)  Some Contributions and Expectations of the Church:

The Church is an expert in education. Our educational system, with its emphasis on all-round formation of the mind, conscience, and character, has continued to produce thousands of personalities who are doing exceedingly well in all sectors of life both within and outside the country. We therefore urge the ministries of education to respect the Curriculum of Catholic education and to offer our educational institutions the assistance they need to perform optimally.  Our numerous health facilities spread across the country have continued to provide quality healthcare service delivery to Nigerians at affordable prices. Though these social services are patronized across ethnic and religious lines, they hardly enjoy support or sponsorship by the various levels of government. We do not accept the fact that our schools and hospitals are seen by government as private ventures. They are indeed not-for-profit public facilities that render public services to all without exception. We therefore urge the government to complement the effort of the Church through regular financial subsidies for her to do more for our people across the board. This is a matter of justice for the children who attend our schools (Child’s Rights Act s. 15) and for the sick in our health institutions.

We call on all the faithful in Nigeria to observe the ongoing Year of Prayer, which will lead us into the 2025 Jubilee of Hope. We continue to enjoin Nigerians to pray and fast sincerely for our country as we go through the very difficult times, which we are assured by our faith in God that we shall overcome.

We are grateful to God for the successful ordination of Most Rev. Thomas Obiatuegwu as the Auxiliary Bishop of Orlu Diocese on 20 March 2024. We wish him a fulfilling and fruitful Episcopal ministry.  We thank the Holy Father Pope Francis, for the appointment of Most Rev. Simeon Nwobi, CMF, as the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese. He was installed on 20 June 2024. We pray that he has a grace-filled pastoral ministry.

Prayer is a concrete and vital exercise for spiritual renewal. It assists transparency and accountability both in public and private life. At the heart of spiritual renewal is repentance. Repentance consists of examination of conscience, admission of guilt, taking responsibility for our wrongdoing, as Church and political entity, with a concrete desire to make amends. There is need for a radical change of heart from a political ideology that -promotes arbitrary use of power for self-enrichment to politics as service and solidarity with the people. We therefore call on one and all to genuine repentance.  For scripture says: Unless we repent likewise, we shall all perish (Luke 13:3-5) While we continue to pray for Nigeria in distress, we commit our nation to the auspicious protection of our Mother Mary, Queen, and Patroness of Nigeria.

 Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru UGORJI, Archbishop of Owerri   President, CBCN