The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew
Hassan-Kukah has called on Ndi Igbo to close ranks so as to enable them take
charge of the future of the people of South-Eastern part of Nigeria, who are largely Igbo speakers, reports
ITRealms.
Bishop Kukah made this call in a sermon he delivered during
a thanksgiving mass of the former Executive Governor of old Anambra State,
Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo at the Holy Ghost Cathedral, Enugu, Enugu
State, on Nwobodo’s return to Catholic Church.
“I want to appeal to the Igbo political and religious elite
to close ranks and take charge of the future of the people of this area,” he
declared.
He enjoined both the political and regilious elite of Igbo
extraction to learn from the mistakes of the elites elsewhere when politics was
allowed to trump the urgent task of community building.
“You must take charge and by negotiation and using back room
channels, improve on the quality of the sound of the music produced by your
Youth,” Bishop Kukah advised, pointed out that the elites should not ignore the
youth, but with patience, process and improve on the quality of their sound.
The Igbos, he said, enjoy ethnic moral and cultural harmony
to a large degree since they loosely speak one tongue and are predominantly
Christians.
“So, as St. Paul said to the Colossians, Let the message of
Christ in all its riches fill your hearts, use it to teach and admonish one
another (Col 3:16). You have lessons from the tragedy of the war and you have
lessons from within and outside Nigeria of allowing youth frustration and
restiveness to gestate,” he counseled.
Today, the Bishop noted, with wide oceans of inequality
between public officers and the rest of Nigeria, violence and anger are the
identity cards carried by the victims.
“Our leaders say that we cannot develop in an environment of
violence and instability. What they fail to accept is that the violence in
society is the reaction of the victims,” he said, quoting Pope Francis to buttress
his homily, saying “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence,
yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict
will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode.”
He emphasised that when a society whether local, national or
global is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political
programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can
indefinitely guarantee tranquility.
He commended Nwobodo and his family, especially the wife,
Patricia, for assembling former and current political as well as business
associates, family friends, and school mates with the thanksgiving.
Noting, however, that the Catholic Church has not gone out to
fish and find Chief Nwobodo, to the extent that humanity is Christian, children
of God, and his decision to come to the Catholic Church is at best a return
home.
“I say return home for reasons that all of us who are
Christians already know,” he asserted, hence, the thanksgiving mass was not a
celebration of victory or a big catch.
“We’re not here to celebrate what for some might be a big
catch. We’re not celebrating a victory, nor should anyone feel a sense of loss
or defeat,” he maintained.
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Catholic Church
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