The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address the problems of insecurity and other vices that have plagued the country in recent years.
He condemned the latest invasion of Government Senior Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State by bandits who kidnapped hundreds of students of the school and called on the President to fish out those behind the attack.
Archbishop Martins made the call while delivering his homily during the inauguration and installation of executives of Catholic Action Nigeria held at the Holy Cross Cathedral recently.
According to him, insecurity is a major problem that the government must address, adding that killings and kidnaps of innocent citizens are becoming unbearable.
He pleaded with the nation’s leadership to be more serious and pragmatic in tackling the problems currently bedeviling the nation, and the continuous threat to agricultural activities caused by herdsmen’s attacks.
He regretted the state of the nation’s economy, the decline in the quality of education, high rate of unemployment and called for all hands to be on deck to ameliorate the situation.
He said: “Almost everyday, we hear issues of kidnapping on the roads, on the farms, we cannot count the number of kidnapped victims on a daily basis. A few weeks ago, these so-called bandits slaughtered over 40 farmers who were tied like goats and then killed like chicken on their farms. Students are kidnapped in schools.
“At this time that people are losing their jobs, with high cost of food items, increase in electricity and fuel tariffs, our government has continued to do things the same way. The government refused to change the security strategy, refusing to accept the idea of state policing and the consideration to change the country to true federalism.
“At the same time that COVID-19 is ravaging, our government is also preparing the ground on the prosperity of our neighboring country.”
