A Communique Issued after a Meeting of the Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province Held from Monday to Tuesday 10th – 11th February 2025 at the Jubilee Conference Centre, (JCC) Oke Ado, Ibadan
We are Catholic Bishops of the Ibadan Church Province, including the Archdiocese of Ibadan (www.ibadanarchdiocese.org), Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti and Osogbo Dioceses, communiqué after the deliberation of praying at the first meeting held in 2025:
1. The year that the pilgrims hope for
The Church continues to work hard to fulfill the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, to enter the entire world, to become a disciple of various nations, and to promote the Kingdom of God on earth. To achieve this, she realized that maintaining the life of hope in each situation is crucial to her mission and mission. Jesus commanded his followers to maintain hope in adversity, when he said, “In the world, you will encounter difficulties, but be brave: I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33). The Holy Father Pope Francis declared 2025 as a year of hope, reaffirming the top priority of hope. Such a jubilee happens every 25 years and helps focus on the themes at the heart of human family health. Therefore, this Jubilee Year of Hope is themed on the theme of “Pilgrims of Hope” and therefore calls upon all children of God to be pilgrims of hope to sow hope in a world affected by war, rebellion, climate crisis, poverty and other vices . Therefore, we urge all of us faithful and faithful people to stick to the kind of hope that will never disappoint us and believe that God will have the ultimate statement. By living a holy life.
2. Public safety as a hopeful accessory
As leaders of the Ibadan Church’s Provincial Church, we commend our political leaders for rationally managing the security of this land over the past few years, which makes people hope to develop in a better future. This proves the motto: When there is life, there is hope. Citizens must be alive to work better. However, our leaders cannot rest. We must condemn the threats posed by recent attacks, kidnappings, robberies and other crimes in parts of Yorubaran. We call on the governors and security agencies of the Southwest states to face the challenges posed by these threats to maintain relative peace and security in recent years. Effective intelligence collection, good compensation and equipment of our safe clothing and determination to prosecute without bringing a crime are necessary to provide the security of life and property and must be carried out in a single thought.
3. Food security as a sustainer of hope
Now, the current government has come to power with a promise of a better life for all Nigerians, and it is now nearly two years. Unfortunately, millions of Nigerians still crave the most basic necessities of life. The government should worry about “Ebi npa wa” on every level, which means “We Hunger” has become a more popular song for many Nigerians on the lips of many Nigerians. In commending the cheers achieved by some governments to promote agriculture and promote agriculture, we urge more investment at all levels of the government to engage young people and promote food in a sustainable way through improved safety and will Integrate strategies into strategies. Reduce the entire food cost of Nigeria to upgrade. A country that cannot feed its citizens is not worthy of its sovereignty. For Nigeria, it is more authentic, giving all the necessary food-enough ingredients. No population food. Hope is hard to instill, productivity is reduced because a hungry person is a quiet person. We force governments to interact with experts and creative social engineers to reduce hunger rates in society to promote the hope of our citizens. It’s hard to maintain a hungry stomach.
4. Media as a supplier of hope
The media is known as the fourth estate in the field. Basically, no public interest program can be fully successful without the cooperation of the media. We thank Nigeria’s media and media workers for their role in maintaining Nigeria’s fragile sanity, which often poses great danger to their own survival. We ask governments and security agencies to see the media as partners in state-building and to suppress the media from all forms of intimidation and heads. The free media is the real antidote to dictatorship and a catalyst for human development. Therefore, we urge Nigerians to ensure that the media is still free to do their jobs. Instead, the media must resist its obsession with bad news, sacrificing balanced coverage, highlighting good and bad things that society is equally enthusiastic about. Only in this way can the media become true allies and hopeful people to mobilize public energy and creativity to conquer the challenges faced by us all together. Perception and image can play an important role in the development of any country, and the media is the main contributor to the image projected by a country locally and internationally.
5. The urgency of transformative leadership
Nigeria is still in a serious strait on many levels and does not require any emphasis. From different perspectives, most Nigerians feel the debilitating effect of the governance of poverty, the relentless pursuit of the rule of law at all costs, the corruption of our institutions and individuals, and the erosion of moral values and virtues over the years and the miserable neglect of Exploitation of the most vulnerable members of society. To restore people who wish to be so frustrated, Nigeria urgently needs transformative leadership. It requires training in intentional leadership to instill values of integrity, service and moral courage, which does not spend valuable time lamenting the plight of society, but rather taking decisive actions supported by individual sacrifice to counter them. As a church, we are committed to providing and supporting transformative education and programs that will give our young people the tools to lead with integrity, by prioritizing efforts, honesty, solidarity and compassion to redirect their values by redirecting their values , not Crass materialism. Through institutions and people we work to guide young people, learn from experienced leaders to cherish accountability and transparency, and teach them how to be pilgrims of hope and reconciliation in our frustrated and broken nation. We call on our government and private institutions to commit to these same aristocratic goals, and we ask them to provide infrastructure and incentives to train our people to win honest lives through better infrastructure. Only when we do this way can we become the agents of true hope for our country.
6. Hope President Tinob and the ethnic group of youth
The president’s proposed youth ethnic parish should not be another talk show shop or cosmetic exercise. Young people in this country will make their opinions in the affairs of the country, which should be a hopeful idea. In recognizing the challenges that may pose in the process of selecting participants, we urge the government to ensure a transparent and honest selection process that ensures fair and wide representation of young people across the country. We firmly believe that new creative ideas can only arise when the government and the real spokespersons of various young people in Nigeria correctly represent the process.
in conclusion
In short, we call on all Nigerians to continue to be good Samaritans to each other. Being confident is by bringing hope to all who meet, trusting in the common fraternity of all. Let us be driven by the words and actions of Jesus Christ in the Last Supper. When he washed the feet of his disciples, he said, “If I, the Lord and the Lord, wash your feet, you must wash your hands. I gave you an example so that you can copy what I did to you” ( JN.13:14-15)
Distributed by Apo Group on behalf of the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan.
