The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said lack of transparency and accountability in governance in Nigeria is giving the country a bad name, impoverishes the citizenry, and threatens national security.

This is contained in a communiqué of the first plenary meeting of the CBCN held over the weekend in Abuja themed "Faith and the Dignity of the Human Person" and signed by Archbishop of Jos Ignatius Ayau Kaigama and Archbishop of Lagos Alfred Martins, president and secretary of the conference respectively.

"Nigeria faces many challenges, veritable threats to human dignity: the challenge of good governance and the attendant stifling of the potential of the governed, the problem of insecurity, the epidemic of corruption, the collapse of moral and technical infrastructure, violation of the rights of the Nigerian citizen on the grounds of ethnic affiliation, religious creed, gender, state or local government of origin. These and other discriminatory practices pose threats to human dignity in our land today," they said.