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A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has cautioned the Church to stop celebrating people with ill-gotten wealth as such “behaviour creates incentives for these celebrities, spurring them to acquire more wealth by all means.” He says human person is the essence of development.
Soludo, recently named as Member, National Economic Advisory Council, said that Nigerians should live out the values of their faith for the good of the common man.
He noted that the difference between the rich and the poor was opportunity.
“Nigerians should see themselves as one united people and work for justice and fairness to ensure peaceful and united nation,” he said.
He was speaking during the 2019 Annual Diocesan Laity Council Seminar held at the Archbishop AK Obiefuna Retreat, Pastoral and Conference Centre Okpuno, Awka.
Delivering a lecture on the topic: “Check Maladministration for National Development’’, he said Catholic Laity should live out their slogan as ‘salt of the earth and light of the world’.
Soludo emphasised that it would make the difference only when Catholic politicians exhibit the Catholic values.
He said that to check maladministration, there must not be human relativity; rather a code of conduct should be drawn.
He, then, called on the Church to draw a template for Catholic politicians aimed at promoting human dignity, noting that with the template, the person would be recalled if he or she misbehaved.
Soludo noted that most politicians would be attending all functions organised by the Church when they were vying for political positions but once they win, they disappear only to return at the end of the first tenure seeking for re-election.
He added, “The Church can sing a new song by getting the template right by designing a systematic governance programme to lift everybody up.’’
He urged the council to be united having at least `one parish one empowerment’ and in future partner government to leave no one behind.
On Christian Laity and Catholic Social Teachings, Rev. Fr. Clement Ezeka said that the Catholic social teachings rest on one fundamental principle: “individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution’’.
Fr. Ezeka said that the choice to live out the Christian vocation demanded Christian maturity, manifest in saying a whole-hearted “yes’’ to God’s will.
The cleric, then, urged the laity, in the context of the Catholic social teachings, to participate actively in politics with proactive Christian intention of changing the field of Nigerian politics for common good. (MOI)
