The Federal Government had been told to find new strategies to fight corruption because the current approach is not yielding the desired results, but rather causing pains and untold hardship on the entire Nigerian populace.
According to the Eagle Online, the Bishops said current strategies adopted in fighting corruption is taking its worst toll on innocent Nigerians who has no hand in any looting yet are made to suffer simply because the government is recovering illegally acquired wealth from politicians.
The Catholic Bishops of the Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province Conference made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of their two-day conference held at the St Michaels’ Catholic Cathedral, Minna, Niger State on Tuesday.
In the communiqué jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the conference, Archbishop Mathew Man-Oso Ndagoso and Bishop John Niyiring, the Bishops demanded a change in the Federal Government’s approach, which they said seems to have been marred by “legal technicalities” and as such yielding less desired 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, adding: “We are saddened that things seem to have gotten progressively worse today by the daily increase in wanton loss of lives.”
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 All Progressives Congress 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 continue to hang in a balance,” the communiqué further observed.
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 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 Nigerians are going through above religious 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, however, joined “millions of Nigerians in thanking God for answering our prayers for the recovery and return home of the President, we will continue to pray God to give him strength and wisdom to face the challenges that Nigeria is faces these difficult moments”.
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