Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
By Chido Nwangwu.
In its Easter 2022 message to the country, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has called the attention of the President of the country, retired General Muhammadu Buhari, to its major observations:
“As a nation, we are celebrating Easter this year in a rather dismal atmosphere that breathes pessimism and despair. The growing insecurity of life and property in the country is compounded by the rising wave of mindless massacres of innocent citizens by unscrupulous terrorists, causing bereavement, trauma and uncertainty.
Economic hardship with soaring inflation continues to sweep across the nation like wildfire and seems to reduce millions of our countrymen and women to a life of wanton suffering and distress.”
The CBCN highlighted its position that: “Many young people are deeply wounded and degraded by unemployment and poverty, a poverty that breeds crimes and seeks relief in hard drugs.”
The group also lamented that “The appalling economic condition is worsened by the present scarcity of fuel, which is as puzzling as it is frustrating. This horrible state of affairs is driving many compatriots to a feeling of cynicism as they gaze at a gloomy future that seems to promise them little or nothing.”
The CBCN President, Most Reverend Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, who issued the statement through the National Directorate of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja, added that “The ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is thwarting the academic ambitions of many Nigerian students. In some parts of the country, workers are owed arrears of salaries, while retired senior citizens eke out an existence without regular pensions.”
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