We, Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province, comprising Ibadan Archdiocese (www.IbadanArchdiocese.org), Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti and Osogbo Dioceses, after prayerful deliberations at our first meeting for the year 2025 at the Jubilee Conference Centre, JCC, Oke Ado, Ibadan have prayerfully deliberated on issues of Church and national interest and hereby issue the following communique:
1. Pilgrims in a Jubilee Year of Hope
The Church continues in her effort to fulfil the mandate of the Lord Jesus Christ to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations and promote the kingdom of God on earth. In pursuit of that objective she realizes that keeping hope alive in every circumstance is essential to her mandate and mission. Jesus commanded his followers to sustain hope in adversity when he said “In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33). The Holy Father Pope Francis restated the imperative of hope by declaring 2025 as a Jubilee Year of Hope. Such jubilees occur every 25 years and help to focus on themes that are central to the health of the human family. With the theme: “Pilgrims of Hope”, this Jubilee Year of Hope therefore calls all God’s children to become pilgrims of hope, sowing hope in a world suffering from the impacts of war, insurgency, the climate crisis, poverty and other vices. We urge all our faithful therefore to hold on to that hope which never disappoints us and to believe that God will have the final say. by living holy lives.
2. Public Security as Accessory of Hope
As leaders of the Church in Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province we commend our political leaders for managing the security situation in this land reasonably well for the last few years, making the hope of the people in a better future to grow. This proves the dictum that when there is life, there is hope. Citizens have to be alive to work for better times. Our leaders however cannot rest on their oars. We must denounce the threat posed more recently by the resurgence of the menace of herdsmen attacks, kidnappings, robberies and other crimes in parts of Yorubaland. We appeal to governors and security agencies in the Southwestern States to rise up to the challenge posed by these threats in order to maintain the relative peace and security of recent years. Efficient intelligence gathering, good remunerations and equipping of our security outfits and a determination to prosecute crime without favour, are all necessary for the provision of security of life and property and must be pursued with single mindedness.
3. Food Security as Sustainer of Hope
It is almost 2 years now when the current administration came to power with glowing promises of a better life for all Nigerians. Regrettably, millions of Nigerians still yearn for the most basic necessities of life. It should worry the government at all levels that “Ebi npa wa” meaning “We are hungry” has become a more popular song on the lips of many Nigerians than the celebrated national, regional or state anthems. While commending some cheering strides made by some governments to promote agriculture, we urge the government at all levels to invest more in agriculture, facilitate the involvement of the youth in it and boost provision of food in a sustainable manner through improved security and put strategies in place to reduce the escalated cost of food all over Nigeria. A country that cannot feed its citizens is not worth its sovereignty. This is even more true of Nigeria which is well endowed with all the necessary ingredients for food sufficiency. Without food for the population. hope is difficult to instill and productivity is diminished because a hungry people is a restive people. We enjoin government to engage with experts and creative, social engineers to reduce the rate of hunger in society as an added means of strengthening the hope of our citizens. It is difficult to sustain hope on hungry stomachs.
4. The Media as Purveyors of Hope
The media is called the fourth estate of the realm. Basically, no programme of public interest can fully succeed without the cooperation of the media. We thank the media and media workers in Nigeria for the role they have played in sustaining the tenuous sanity in Nigeria, often at great risk to their own survival. We enjoin the government and security agencies to see the media as partners in nation building and desist from all forms of intimidation and gimmick to gag the media. A free press is the real antidote to dictatorship and a catalyst for human development. We therefore urge Nigerians to ensure that the media remains free to do its job. Conversely the media must resist its obsession with bad news at the expense of balanced reporting which highlights both good and bad things happening in the society with equal passion. Only in this way can the media become true allies and purveyors of hope in mobilizing public energy and creativity to collectively conquer the challenges facing us all. Perception and image have a huge role to play in the development of any nation and the media is a main contributor to the image which a nation projects of itself both locally and internationally.
5. The Urgency of Transformative Leadership
That Nigeria is still in dire straits on many levels does not need any emphasis. Most Nigerians from different perspectives feel the debilitating effect of poor governance, relentless pursuit of wealth at all costs sidelining of the rule of law, corruption in our institutions and individuals, and the erosion of ethical values and virtues from many years past and a tragic neglect and exploitation of the most vulnerable members of the society. In order to restore hope to such a depressed populace, Nigeria urgently needs transformative leadership. It needs training in intentional leadership that instills values of integrity, service and moral courage which will not spend valuable time lamenting the woes of the society but which takes decisive action backed by personal sacrifice to counter them. We as a Church are committed to providing and supporting transformative education and programs which will equip and inspire our youth with the tools to lead with integrity, reorientate their values by prioritizing hardwork, honesty, solidarity and compassion over crass materialism. We are committed through our agencies and personnel to provide mentorship for our youth to learn from experienced leaders to cherish accountability and transparency and teach them how to become themselves pilgrims of hope and reconciliation in our depressed and fractured nation. We call on our government and private institutions to commit to these same noble objectives and more, we ask them to provide infrastructure and incentives to train, enable and encourage our people to earn an honest living through better infrastructure. Only if we proceed in this manner can we become together true agents of hope for our country.
6. Hope in President Tinubu’s National Confab with the Youth
The national confab for youth proposed by the President should not be another talk shop or cosmetic exercise. It should be a hope-generating idea that the young people of this country will have a say in the affairs of the country. While acknowledging the challenges that may arise from the process of selecting participants, we urge the government to ensure a transparent and honest process of selection that will guarantee a fair and widespread representation of the young people all over the country. We are convinced that such a confab of youth can generate fresh creative ideas if and only if the government gets the representation process right with authentic spokespersons of the youth all over Nigeria.
Conclusion
In conclusion we appeal to all Nigerians to continue to be Good Samaritans to one another. To have faith is to believe in the common fraternity of all by bringing hope to all whom they meet. Let us be driven by the words and action of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. When he washed the feet of his disciples he said: “If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you” (Jn.13:14-15)
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan.
