Aid to the Church in Need: The Church can help to renew Nigeria

The Church can help to renew Nigeria - A hungry man is an angry man

Posted by ACN News on 12/9/2009, 8:40 am
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ACN News, Thursday, 11th September 2009 – NIGERIA

The Church can help to renew Nigeria

A hungry man is an angry man

By Eva-Maria Kolmann

Nigeria is a land of superlatives – with 140 million inhabitants, it is the most populous nation in Africa. It has a federal system of government, to which 36 states belong. It is a country of many different tribes and religions. The constitution guarantees freedom of opinion and of religion to all Nigerian citizens, both within the federation and in the individual states. Close on half the population are Christians, and around 21 million people are members of the Catholic Church, a Church that continues to grow. Every year hundreds of young men enter the seminaries, while an equally high number of young women and men enter the religious orders. So it is that one single seminary in Nekede, near Owerri in southern Nigeria – the seminary of the Claretian Missionaries, who originally came from Spain – currently houses as many as 250 candidates for the priesthood.

In Nigeria there are immense challenges facing the political leaders, the Churches, and society generally. The vast oil and gas reserves, which a few decades ago seemed to promise a golden future, have turned out instead to be a curse. The great majority of the population have gained nothing from the oil business. The social situation is catastrophic and around 35% of the people are living in extreme poverty. Many are driven into crime by sheer financial need, with armed gangs rampaging, kidnapping representatives of the oil companies in order to extract ransom monies, or attacking the oil pipelines. Attempts to illegally tap off the oil supplies from the pipelines have resulted in numerous explosions, with hundreds of people maimed or burned to death. The Niger Delta in the south of the country has long since become a devastated ecosystem, for people who are hungry are concerned only to satisfy their hunger and have little time for the demands of wealthy nations who call for strict observance of environmental laws.

The North of Nigeria is likewise repeatedly shaken by conflicts which at first sight seem to be motivated by ethnic and religious differences but which, according to Father Nicholas Mbogu ultimately spring rather from underlying social reasons. During a visit to the headquarters of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) this 50 year old Catholic priest from Owerri pointed out, "Faith shapes people's identity. And Nigerians are a religious people. Hence there are always groups who are willing to exploit religion in order to stir up conflict". Father Mbogu, a member of the Claretian missionaries who is responsible for the training of the seminarians, is convinced that the majority of his fellow countrymen would rather live together in peace, despite their differing religious backgrounds. He adds, "My brother has lived for decades in the North as a Christian among Muslims and so far he has never personally experienced any conflict or violence".

(Father Nicholas Mbogu )

Father Nicholas points instead to the grave underlying structural problems. Properly used, the income from the oil exploitation – which accounts for around 80% of the national income of Nigeria – would enable the poverty in the country to be effectively combated, health care to be decisively improved and the inadequate infrastructure to be renewed and extended. But the reality is quite different. Instead, the income from the oil business merely feeds the all-pervading corruption in the country that has undermined the credibility of the politicians, the military and the administration alike. This has effectively sabotaged all attempts to change things for the better and increasingly destabilised the country. It is a situation that the extremists and the rebels are not slow to exploit for their own ends. The widespread discontent among the population is a fertile soil for their ideas and the social injustice helps their agitation. And so the ethnic and religious differences are stirred up, in order to make an already tense situation in certain parts of the country still more explosive.

And so, Father Mbogu believes, the Catholic Church has a real duty to try and break through this vicious spiral. "We have a very great responsibility for our country, for we can help to renew Nigeria", he says. The Catholic Church is widely seen as a moral authority, he explains, for whenever the bishops speak with a united voice, people sit up and listen.

Hence the Church must combat the widespread mentality according to which those who are rewarded are the ones "who only want to grab everything for themselves". As long as corruption is still seen as socially acceptable, nothing will change, he feels. Ultimately, everyone is a victim of the injustice and unrest, whether they are Christians or Muslims. "We have a saying in Nigeria – that a hungry man is an angry man", he tells ACN. "Social injustice is our real problem, added to which is the widespread tendency to think in tribal terms", he concludes.

Father Nicholas, who is working to establish a seminary in Owerri for the Claretian Fathers, in a project supported by ACN, believes that the Catholic Church must adopt a clear stance in her preaching. The numerous vocations to the priesthood show that there are many who yearn for a new beginning, he believes. Hence the Church could encourage and promote a sense of social conscience, for example in the many Catholic schools, strengthening a sense of responsibility and moral rectitude among young people.

Additionally, the Church could show people that it is indeed possible to live side by side in justice and peace – in other words bishops, priests, religious and laity should show by their example that morally upright behaviour is more important than economic favouritism and corruption, or thinking in class or tribal terms. Says Father Nicholas Mbogu, "Our Church has come of age. Priests from Nigeria are working today in many other African countries, in Europe, USA and Australia. We have long since become a missionary Church, and one that is capable of assuming responsibility".

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Bishop Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in
1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: http://www.aidtochurch.org

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