“The degree of violence visited on Nigerians recently in many parts of the country shows clearly the lack of compassion and forgiveness by the perpetrators of such violence,” the Catholic Archbishop said.
He explained, “Nigerians are yelling, grumbling and complaining about the deteriorating situation of poverty and insecurity; they are very eager that university students should return to school, people should feel safe in their homes, markets, schools, public gatherings, in the airports, trains and highways.”
The Local Ordinary of the Archdiocese of Abuja urged preachers in the country to remind their followers about conscience examination besides condemning mismanagement of resources by the government officials.
“While we agree that the hardships we are encountering are a result of the incompetence, insensitivity, and mismanagement by political leaders, we must not fail to be self-critical; to flash the torch on our hearts to see the sins that the Bible says come from inside our hearts and defile and pollute us and our nation,” he said.
In the current world, the 63-year-old Archbishop went on to say, the sense of sin is being eroded slowly as sin itself is being rationalized. He said that many people of God seem to have completely lost their conscience.
Highlighting some of the misdeeds in the Nigerian society, Archbishop Kaigama said, “How do you explain that a student is failed because he/she does not offer a bribe; persons from the same tribe or clan kill each other; an official hides the file for your rights and privileges until you ‘settle’ him!”
He spoke about those who frustrate pension claims in the country and those who, despite their religious values, prefer contract sums and said that such actions lead to shabby jobs thereby contributing to the collapse of structures and unnecessary deaths.
The Nigerian Archbishop posed, “What about the taking of unborn lives in abortion; people cutting down food crops, killing animals, burning houses because of religious or ethnic hatred? What of immorality like adultery and fornication?”
Archbishop Kaigama condemned taking bribes at road blocks, in the airports and also unethical behaviors that usually happen during recruitment into security agencies. He said that such offenses constitute sin against one’s neighbor.
He said that all the offenses against humanity as mentioned including buying of votes during elections, extorting money from students to render them services, and denying rights to minority groups defile the country just like in the days of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Nineveh.
