Funso Muraina
27 February 2007
Abuja — About 61 Catholic bishops will today converge on Abuja, to review the state of the nation, and advance the way forward.
The meeting, according to the Director of Social Communications of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Reverend Fr. Ralph Madu, and his Abuja Archdiocesan counterpart, Reverend Fr. Tor Patrick Alumuku, is the first yearly regular plenary of the Bishops for 2007, aimed at finding solutions to the nation's and Church's teething problems.
Addressing reporters at the weekend in Abuja, the Priests said His Grace, Archbishop Alaba Job, the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan, would chair the meeting, with Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, the Archbishop of Lagos and Archbishop Renzo Fratini, the Papal Nuncio (Pope's ambassador) in attendance.
Alumuku said it was unnecessary for President Olusegun Obasanjo and his Vice, Atiku Abubakar to be quarreling openly, adding that such public acrimony have negative consequences for the country.
He said "the country needs an improved political leadership and a consolidation of the relative gains made by this democratic Administration."
Reverends Madu and Alumuku said as the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) kicks off, the Church would emphasise that: "at a moment so close to the general elections, the bishops will reiterate their commitment in prayers and actions to ensure that all Nigerians, especially politicians, remain civil in all they say or do, so that a free and fair election may be realised and so that peace and stability may reign in our nation."
They said the Church played a cardinal role in bringing about peace and tranquility in the country and it called on the nation's political leadership to be seen working together for the common good.
In calling for the establishment of parameters to guarantee free and fair elections in April, the clerics said "it is necessary to recall that the 2003 general elections were anything but free and Fair."
Pointing out that issues such as political violence, rigging, wrong use of power of incumbency and negative deployment of government security agencies to intimidate opponents, they added that lack of a level playing ground for all political actors should be immediately addressed.
"On the journey towards the April elections, the story is not different, public confidence in all processes of the elections are dampened," they said.
The Church applauded EFCC, noting that it was in response to the prayer against bribery and corruption by CBCN that such agencies sprang up, but expressed worry that corruption index was yet to reduce in spite of EFCC and ICPC.
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