The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Sunday, warned President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria may not find its way out of growing social violence and insecurity, if the Nigerian poor continue to get poorer, feeling hopeless and helpless.
The Catholic cardinal stated that while the rich were swimming in affluence, the number of poor Nigerians sadly continued to be on the increase.
Onaiyekan spoke at the inter-denominational church service for 2019 presidential inauguration ceremony held at National Christian Centre, Abuja.
He said: “The truth is that our nation is not in a state for us to rejoice. The ranks of the poor are swelling by the day, hopeless and helpless, as they watch in frustration the affluence of the very few cruising in a different world. Such wide social economic disparity has led to anger, tension, violence and outright criminality in the land. All is not well. But all is not lost either.
“Again, here we must tell the truth. For too long, we have been seeing what seems to be a policy of polarisation of the nation along primordial fault lines of ethnicity and religion. The result is that we have been indulging in the risky game of ’dancing on the brink of chaos’. “We do not know for how long we can continue to get away with this. But the handwriting on the wall is quite clear for all who cared to see. It is sad that no condition is permanent: certainly not the present state of our nation.”
Onaiyekan stated that the numerous ethnic groups in the country was predestined by God, asking Nigerians to lift themselves above the ethnic limitations to emerge as global power.
“Our ethnic diversity is God’s will and gift that we ought to appreciate and celebrate. We should beware of those who seek to manipulate this in a game of divide and rule, for selfish interests. In our emerging global world, we should be building on our long experience of living together across ethnic lines, if we are not to allow ourselves to be left behind in our fast developing modern world.
“We are living in a world where many are abandoning faith in God, at great cost to humanity now and in the future. We do well to commend ourselves for our generally high level and of religious fervor.
‘’But if this is to translate into a righteous nation, we must all seek the will of God for good human relations. This cuts across our religious differences and affiliations. Religion is good, but not enough.
“Religion evokes a strong emotions that ought to be deployed for solving the ills of our nation, not compound them. Those who manipulate religion for their selfish political interest end up destroying religion and harming the nation. Our constitution is not perfect. “But its basic provisions about freedom of religion are valid and must be scrupulously respected by all, especially by those who control state instruments of coersion.”
