Bishops under the umbrella of The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) on Thursday told President Muhammadu Buhari that the enormous goodwill with which he assumed office in 2015 is fast depleting because of some ‘glaring failures’ of his administration.

The bishops stated this in their address to the President during a courtesy call at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The address which was jointly signed by the CBCN President and Archbishop of Jos, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama and the Secretary who is also the Bishop of Gboko, Most Rev. William Arenya regretted that there was too much suffering in the country, with poverty, hunger, insecurity, violence and fear among other evils bedeviling the land.

“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.

“Nearly three years later, however, one has the feeling that this goodwill is being fast 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,” the bishops said.

They continued: “Our beloved country appears to be under siege. Many negative forces seem to be keeping a stranglehold on the population, especially the weaker and defenseless ones.

“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 violent crimes while many have become victims of human trafficking. The nation is nervous.

 

“Just as we seem to be gradually emerging from the dark tunnel of an economic recession that caused untold hardship to families and individuals, violent attacks by unscrupulous persons, among whom are terrorists masquerading as herdsmen, have led to a near civil war situation in many parts of the country.

“We are saddened that, repeatedly, innocent citizens in different communities across the nation are brutally attacked and their sources of livelihood mindlessly destroyed.”

“Lives are wasted and property worth billions of naira, including places of worship, schools, hospitals and business enterprises are torched and turned to ashes.”

While expressing sadness and shock over the Federal Government ‘s silence in the wake of the attacks, especially in Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna states, the bishops warned that with the feeling of helplessness among Nigerians, there was danger that some people might begin to take the law into their own hands.

They therefore called on the government to immediately curb the spate of killings and agitations by investing more in equipping the Police, addressing the imbalance in government appointments and distribution of amenities by respecting the Federal Character Principle as enshrined in the nation’s Constitution.