Against an immediate backdrop of escalating mass kidnappings, jihadi resurgence, growing separatist sentiment in the old Biafra, and conflict over water and land that often assumes a religious and ethnic coloration, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria has issued a statement sounding the alarm over the very survival of the nation.
The statement expresses concern, inter alia, over high-level government officials advising citizens to resort to self-defense as exacerbating ethnic conflict. The statement acknowledges the costs of nation-building but affirms that the costs of Nigeria's tearing itself apart would be far higher. The statement does not directly attack President Muhammadu Buhari but rather calls on Nigerians to rededicate themselves to the "Nigeria project"--building a multiethnic, democratic society.
...