An Address Presented by our Archbishop and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, at the 2025 Interactive Session of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) with Prominent Lay Faithful of Calabar Ecclesiastical Province, today, September 13, 2025, at the Ikot Ekpene Diocesan Retreat and Youth Centre
1. It is my pleasure and indeed privilege to welcome Your Eminences, Your Graces, Your Lordships and our esteemed lay faithful to this interactive session between the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria with prominent lay faithful of the Calabar Ecclesiastical Province. We are happy and grateful that despite the challenges and cost of transportation in our country at this perilous time, you made a lot of sacrifice to attend this assembly. We thank God for bringing you safely here.
2. Over the years, it has been our custom to meet prominent faithful of the hosting ecclesiastical province wherever we gather for our second plenary assembly, to know them closely, to share their concerns and to acquaint them with our own concerns as shepherds of God’s flock in Nigeria. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council were stating the obvious when they pointed out that: “The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor and afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well” (Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, art. 1).
3. While we rejoice that there is notable progress here and there at the national and sub-national levels, we also lament that our beloved country Nigeria is sinking in many fronts. Insecurity continues to haunt us. Many towns and villages across the nation have become communities of fear, flight and funerals. Our fellow citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanised, killed or forced to flee their ancestral homes, abandoning their sources of livelihood to seek refuge in makeshift camps, exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water.
4. We are deeply troubled that our fellow Nigerians have continued to groan under economic hardship and seem doomed to a life of destitution and frustration. We are also worried about the high rate of youth unemployment which is driving some of our young men and women to crimes and others to migrate in search of greener pastures abroad, leading to brain drain and continuous loss of some of our best and brightest minds.
5. Our health sector is also a source of great concern. Indeed, the death of the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Rtd. General Muhammadu Buhari, in London on 13 July 2025 has raised fresh questions about our crumbling health institutions, the mass exodus of our medical professionals, the billions of Naira spent abroad by our leaders on medical tourism, while millions of Nigerians languish at home from treatable ailments due to the miserable state of our hospitals.
6. We are no less worried about our educational institutions that are facing significant challenges, including inadequate funding, decaying infrastructure and diminishing number of qualified teachers, leading to a steady decline in the quality of education. The energy sector is also a source of concern. It also faces challenges, including regular power outage, and obsolete and overstretched infrastructure. This results in high costs for businesses and individuals and limited access to electricity by a large portion of the population. Underpinning our problems as a nation is corruption, understood as moral rottenness, which is spreading unchecked like a deadly cancer to all sectors of our national life, silently eating up the soul of the nation.
7. While the country is faced with serious existential threats, many politicians at the national and sub-national levels seem more preoccupied with the 2027 general elections and less concerned with fulfilling their campaign promises to the electorate. Relegating governance to the background, they seem more concerned with pursuing their personal political ambitions. Far from standing against them, the opposition is busy building coalitions to clench power in 2027, strategising; aligning and realigning; defecting from one party to another; and posturing for future political offices.
8. If this state of affairs continues, the nation will totally collapse. There is need for a drastic change or rather transformation, where the common good drives our political, economic, social and cultural life. Who is to effect the transformation of our nation? We strongly believe that the lay faithful have a major and decisive role to play in this matter. We are convinced that we have a formidable laity, who being the salt of the earth (Mt 5:13), the light of the world (Mt 13:14 – 16) and the leaven of the society (Mt. 13:33), can help to a large extent to transform the temporal order by being living witnesses in the family as well as in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of our life, infusing them with Gospel values, fostering the common good, working for social justice and promoting human right. The poor state of the nation, therefore, calls for concerted joint actions by the laity aimed at bringing about social transformation.
9. This is by no means a small expectation. If we expect much from the laity in the area of national transformation, much has to be given to them in terms of political education. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council stressed this point when they said: “So that all citizens will be able to play their part in political affairs, civil and political education is vitally necessary for the population as a whole and for young people in particular, and must be diligently attended to” (Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, n.75). Similarly, in the words of Pope John Paul in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Church in Africa, Ecclesia in Africa no. 75: “each is to be formed according to his or her specific role ….The formation programme will especially include the training of the lay faithful, so that they will fully exercise their role of inspiring the temporal order – political, cultural, economic and social – with Christian principles, which is the specific task of the laity’s vocation in the world”. (See also Ecclesia in Africa, no. 107). This is the task that looms before us. Your Eminences, Your Graces, Your Lordships and highly esteemed lay faithful, the question is how are we to accomplish this task?
10. On this matter, we do not need to invent the wheel. We can benefit from the experiences of western countries with a good tradition of political education of the faithful. Given the increasing voter apathy in many communities, when all is said and done, political education in our country must stress the civic duty of all adults of voting age to possess their permanent voter’s cards and to vote at general elections responsibly in accordance with their conscience, not allowing themselves to be influenced by bribes, promise of gratification, intimidation, or ethno-religious considerations. Moreover, political education should encourage honest and God-fearing lay faithful to join political parties and persuade those with the talent for leadership to seek political office as a way of advancing the common good in accordance with the social teaching of the Church.
11. While we encourage political participation of the faithful through political education, we must keep in mind that citizen’s confidence in the electoral process was seriously eroded during the last general elections by electoral malpractice, fraud, and the so called election “glitches”. To restore trust among the electorate, it might be necessary for us at this Conference to call for a more robust and comprehensive electoral reform that addresses persistent electoral flaws in our nation such as electoral violence, voter suppression, logistical failures, electoral “glitches”, multiple thumb printing of ballot papers, manipulation of voters’ register, declaration of fake electoral results, etc. To drastically reduce electoral malpractice that undermine electoral integrity in Nigeria and conversely improve voter turnout during general elections, such an electoral reform should not only ensure an electronic transmission of results from the polling units, but also their electronic collation in real time.
12. Moreover, to fully restore the confidence of voters in the electoral process, electoral reform must give attention to the appointment of the principal officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who as envisioned by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) are to be non-partisan and persons of unquestionable integrity. The Constitution vests the appointment of the Chairperson and Board of the INEC in the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in consultation with the National Council of State with the confirmation of the Senate. Unfortunately, many of those so far appointed could neither be seen as non-partisan nor independent. This calls for the amendment of the Constitution to strengthen the independence and credibility of INEC and protect it from political manipulation. What needs to be done is no rocket science since what countries like the United States have done is well known. So those who need to amend of our Constitution in this regard know what to do but may not want to do it because of vested political interest. However, they should remember that fundamental reforms are necessary for the preservation of social stability and that those who try to frustrate such peaceful changes make violent changes unavoidable.
As I conclude, I wish to thank you for your attention. May the Lord, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, send us His Spirit of wisdom and understanding to lead us in our deliberations at this interactive session! Once more, warm welcome to you all.
+Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji
Archbishop of Owerri
President, CBCN
+Donatus Aihmiosion Ogun, OSA
Bishop of Uromi
Secretary, CBCN
