The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev Dr Alfred Adewale Martins has admonished the newly sworn-in Ministers of the Federal Republic to serve the nation with utmost diligence and deep sense of patriotism in their various Ministries in other to help the President move the nation to greater heights. 

In a press release made available to newsmen through the Acting Director of Social Communications, Lagos Archdiocese, Rev Fr Anthony Godonu, Archbishop Martins, while congratulating the new ministers on their appointments, reminded them that they have a great responsibility ahead of them as the country was going through very difficult times in all facets. 

He challenged them to rise up to the demands of their offices by hitting the ground running and being alive to the yearnings of all segments of Nigerians who have been clamoring for a better lease of life irrespective of their religion, political party or ethnic affiliations. 

“There have been varying analysis and evaluation of the appointments but what is beyond contention is that the challenges before the new ministers are enormous. They are coming in or being re-appointed at a time when there is so much distress, anger and dissatisfaction among the people. The expectations of Nigerians are high since their desire for no more than the barest minimum of good living has been left unfulfilled for far too long. So, we hope that the Ministers would hit the ground running. Their two-day gathering or retreat should have helped them to identify the various ways their ministries can impact meaningfully on the lives of the people. The ruling Party has made a lot of promises and Nigerians hope that the Ministers would work to ensure that the promises would not go the way of similar promises in the past that were not satisfactorily discharged. It is only by making the lives of people manifestly better that they would be able to justify their appointments to these high offices.” 

The Prelate also called on President Muhammadu Buhari and his Ministers to avail themselves of wise counsel from all well-meaning Nigerians irrespective of the source of counsel. He advised the President to use his second term in office to make amends for all the shortfalls of his first tenure, namely: security of lives and property, supply of constant and stable power (electricity), fixing the dwindling economy as well as consolidating on the construction and provision of social infrastructure in country. 

While praying God to imbue the President with wisdom and all the virtues needed for his office, he implored him not to discountenance the growing agitations coming from the different corners of this country calling for the restoration of the Federal character of the country, often referred to as restructuring of the country. 

The Archbishop noted that President Muhammadu Buhari, as the father of the nation, should be prepared to make every sacrifice needed to rebuild and make Nigeria a peaceful nation, united and prosperous. We have for too long been the butt of jokes and cynical remarks and we hope the tides would change very soon.