Abuja, 14 September, 2023 / 9:23 pm (ACI Africa).
The “sit-at-home” order that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) declared every Monday until their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is set free demonstrates the West African nation’s “leadership failure”, an Archbishop in the country has said.
In an interview with the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) on the sideline of the second 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Archbishop Anthony Obinna weighed in on the separatist group order in Nigeria’s Southeastern region that is advocating for the release of Mr. Kanu, who has remained in prison despite an August 2021 court order to have him set free.
“The sit-at-home order is a reflection of leadership failure in Nigeria.” Archbishop Obinna is quoted as saying in the report that the Nigeria Catholic Network (NCN) published on Wednesday, September 13.
The Nigerian Archbishop emeritus, who was at the helm of Nigeria’s Owerri Archdiocese from September 1993 when he was ordained Bishop till his retirement in March 2022 recalled the confrontations Catholic Bishops in Nigeria had with the country’s military government (1966-1999, with an interregnum from 1979-1983) when they pushed for civilian rule, adding that he found it regrettable that the civilian rule has not met Nigerians’ expectations.
“Unfortunately, the hope we had about the civilian government has not quite matured. We are still hoping for a brighter tomorrow because Nigeria is still in a state of nastiness,” the 77-year-old Archbishop lamented.
