TheCable

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) says the goodwill of President Muhammadu Buhari is fast depleting because of “failure on the part of government”.

Ignatius Kaigama, CBCN president, said this when he led a delegation to Aso Rock in Abuja on Thursday.

Kaigama said as spiritual leaders, they have the moral responsibility to tell the president the truth.

The bishop said they work with the people at the grassroots and this makes them have first-hand information about what they are going through.

“There is no doubt that when you came into office, you had an enormous amount of the goodwill of Nigerians, since many saw you as a person of integrity who would be able to bring sanity into a system that was nearly crippled by endemic corruption,” the CBCN president said.

“Nearly three years later, however one has the feeling that this goodwill is being depleted by some glaring failures of government which we have the moral responsibility to bring to your notice, else we would be failing in our duty as spiritual fathers and leaders.

“We work with the people at the grassroots and therefore, have first-hand information about what they are going through.”

Kaigama said there is too much poverty in the land and it appears that the country is under siege of “many negative forces seem to be keeping a stranglehold on the population, especially the weaker and defenceless ones”.

“Your excellency, there is too much suffering in the country: poverty, hunger, insecurity, violence, fear… the list is endless,” he said.

“There is a feeling of hopelessness across the country. Our youths are restive and many of them have taken to hard drugs, cultism and other forms of iolent crime, while many have become victims of human trafficking. The Nation is nervous.

“We are still more saddened by the recent massacre of unarmed citizens by these terrorists in some communities n Benue, Adamawa, Kaduna and Taraba States which has caused national shock, grief and outcry.”

He said the “silence of the federal government in the wake of these horrifying attacks is, to say the least, shocking”.