Catholic bishops, under the umbrella of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), have said that Bola Tinubu‘s socioeconomic reforms have caused increased frustration, crime, hardship, pain and poverty in the country.
The Bishops lamented that, as religious leaders, they are aware of the level of suffering in the country and the dire situation where families struggle to afford necessities like food due to soaring prices, along with various other hardships.
These challenges were delivered in a speech at the opening session of the 2024 first plenary assembly of the Bishops held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria Resource Centre, Durumi, Abuja, yesterday.
The CBCN President, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, highlighted these challenges by describing the situation in Nigeria.
He said, “Families have been forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands by armed invaders, leading to the paralysis of social and economic activities within communities due to insecurity.
This has resulted in the closure of schools, denying children access to education, while farmers live in fear of working their land for fear of violence or abduction.
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‘”Consequently, businesses have shuttered, leaving many families without sources of income, perpetuating a cycle of hunger and starvation among displaced populations.
“Tinubu’s reform agenda has exacerbated the challenges facing Nigerians. The removal of fuel subsidies and the consolidation of the foreign exchange market have resulted in a significant surge in the prices of petroleum products at the pump and a consistent depreciation of the Naira’s value.
“The rampant inflation has created significant hurdles for the average Nigerian to obtain essential goods such as food and medication. Countless individuals across the nation now endure extreme poverty, facing immense suffering and hardship unparalleled in our country’s history. To cope with these dire circumstances, a growing number of impoverished individuals have turned to begging, exacerbating the situation, with over 80 million Nigerians living below the poverty threshold of less than two dollars per day.
“If we have to be very frank with ourselves and not wallow in self-delusion, we must admit that we are faced with a case where therapy is worse than the disease. The government’s reform agenda is turning out to be counterproductive. Despite the government’s efforts to boost our economy, our nation has continued to sink economically deeper into a bottomless pit.
“In withdrawing the fuel subsidies, the Tinubu led government assured Nigerians it would save a lot of money to be injected into other national development sectors. Rather than give evidence of money so far saved from the withdrawal of subsidies for which Nigerians are being afflicted with untold hardship, all we hear is the government’s accumulation of more foreign debts to balance its budgetary deficit, thereby mortgaging the future of our nation and generations yet unborn.
“We must also be frank to admit that Tinubu’s government’s efforts to fight corruption have remained prostrate, and as a result, Nigeria is rated as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Checks and balances need to be implemented in our public financial management to prevent dishonest and greedy public servants from stealing public money with ease and impunity.
“A financial management system that allows government officials to freely loot money from the public coffers, needs total overhauling. Though the ICPC and the EFCC have recovered billions of Naira from corrupt government officials, they have failed to win most of their cases before the court of justice due to poor investigation and presentation of corruption cases.
“Until our anti-corruption institutions can successfully prosecute government officials, corruption will continue to thrive in Nigeria. So, the government should rise to its primary responsibility of securing the lives and property of its citizens,” he concluded. #tinubu