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People “killed on a daily basis”: Catholic Communicator on Security Challenges in Nigeria

Members of the Heads of various units of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria during the Fourth Media Parley with Journalists. Credit: ACI Africa

Nigeria is facing far-reaching security challenges, with daily reports of abduction and deaths, the National Director of Social Communications in Nigeria has said.

Speaking during a media parley, which the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) organized on February 7,  Fr. Michael Nsika Umoh called on the Federal government to take “decisive action against the escalating threats posed by marauding bandits and kidnappers nationwide.”

 “Our country is in a very distasteful situation at the moment, and it is not a time for politics,” Fr. Umoh said, and explained, “People are being killed on a daily basis; school children are being kidnapped and the Government is not doing anything to protect the citizens.”

He went on to recount an incident in the capital city of the West African nation, saying, “Recently in Abuja a nursing mother and her three-month-old baby were kidnapped together with her grandmother; ransom was demanded and since they could not pay, the woman and her mother were killed leaving the baby.”

“We didn’t see the government coming out in full force to condemn this distasteful situation,” the Nigerian Catholic Priest, who is at the helm of the department of Social Communications of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) lamented.

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For him, “the brutality of the attack underscored the severity of the security crisis.”

There is an urgent need to address the “deteriorating security” in Nigeria, Fr. Umoh said, and appealed to the government of Africa’s most populous nation to “prioritize the protection of its citizens.”

He underscored the need for “immediate government intervention to stop the killings and protect the citizens from these evil people called bandits and kidnappers.”

Also speaking during the February 7 event, the Deputy Secretary General of CSN highlighted the limitation of the Church amid security challenges. 

“Our own role is to expose moral truths so that consciences can be formed. While we cannot go into the field to provide what it takes to secure the nation in terms of military power, police and things like that, we can appeal to consciences when we preach, when the Bishops talk, they appeal to the government to rise up to its duties”. Fr. Michael Banjo said.

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The Nigerian Catholic Priest added, “Whatever is going on in society is a reflection of the situation in families because families are the building blocks of society.”

Abah Anthony John is a Nigerian Journalist with great enthusiasm and interest for Catholic Church Communication and Media Apostolate. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Benue State University, Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria. He has vast experience in Print,  Electronic and Multi-Media Production.