Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
The National Association of Catholic Lawyers (NACL) has called on the federal government to revitalise and rejig the entire security structure that is technology driven to curb the rising insecurity in the country.
The group made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Committee (NEC) Meeting, and Colloquium held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria Resource Centre, Durumi, Abuja.
In the communiqué signed by its President, Chukwuma Ezeala and National Secretary,
Angela E. Odunukwe, the Catholic Lawyers observed among others the alarming level of insecurity in Nigeria, declaring that no part of the country was safe currently.
“The visible level of insecurity is a fall out of social injustice, mismanagement of our collective patrimony and resources due to lack of accountability, transparency and paucity of good governance in the Nigerian State.
The insecurity in the country has negatively affected socio-economic activities; hence business activities can no longer thrive optimally in the interest of the nation. Insecurity has heightened youth restiveness that is inimical to peace, growth and development of Nigeria”, the communiqué noted.
The group, at the NEC meeting with the theme, ‘the Role of Catholic Lawyers in the Church and the Nation’, also noted the wide-spread abuse of human rights that undermines the dignity of human person in the country, pointing out that the agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting abuse of human rights are either overwhelmed or lack the wherewithal to effectively rise to the incessant human rights abuses in the country.
The NACL further noted: “The country is currently experiencing poverty, insecurity, youth restiveness, contraptions, illiteracy, deprivation, hunger, unemployment, primordial sentiments, ethnicity, nepotism, marginalisation, religious bigotry that are inimical to the optimal growth and development of Nigeria.
It was observed that the government and her citizenry pay lip service to fundamental rules of life that promote common good.
“Breach of the Rule of Law which is the fulcrum of existence of any group of people is either compromised or not strictly adhered to thereby undermine democratic principles in Nigerian society.
“Accountability and transparency is a far cry amongst the politicians, civil servants and unfortunately noticeable within the churches, mosques, the three arms of government and the society at large. This scenario has made it difficult to effectively combat the war against endemic corruption in the country”.
They urged the government to work on how to embrace core values in governance and wellbeing of the Nigerian State so as to jettison the primordial ethnic cleavages that have always held us down as Nigerians.
The meeting had in attendance the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Most Rev. Dr. Augustine Akubeze; Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Benin; John Cardinal Onaiyekan; the Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Abuja, Archbishop Mathew Man’Oso Ndagoso; Chairman Department of Church and Society and Archbishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese and Bishop Anselm Umorem, Auxiliary Bishop of Abuja Archdiocese. Also in attendance were representatives of Catholic lawyers from eight of the nine Provinces of the Church of Abuja, Benin, Calabar, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Onitsha and Owerri.
