in Abuja

The Catholic Church in Nigeria has advocated the use of mass media to champion peace and unity of the country.

The church said that no one can deny the fact that the country is sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines and that leadership deficit is a key challenge facing the country.

It said that idea of the church collaborating with media practitioners was to populate the media space with positive news while reflecting clarity and the true position of things in the society.

Addressing journalists shortly after a Special Church Service to mark the end of the Communications Week of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja, Chairman of the Social Communications of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) Most Rev. David Ajang, said the media can be used to build bridges of peace and unity in the country.

He also said that one of the most challenging problems facing Nigeria today is that of having the right leadership that will unite and galvanise the population to achieve greatness.

Speaking on the current difficulties in Nigeria, the bishop said that no one can deny the fact that the country is sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines. 

“You can carry out a survey, listen to the news and close your eyes, when you listen to a perspective then you will where the person is coming from. That is how divided we are. This is where I think the leadership of the country has a lot to do.” 

“There is strength in numbers and people are coming together. He said that all over the world, people are thinking of coming together, if you look at the European Union this is coming together of different countries because they believe there is strength in numbers.” 

Bishop Ajang said Nigeria already has the population but that how to harness the human resource endowment has been the biggest challenge the country is facing. 

According to the bishop, what is  currently fueling disunity in Nigeria is the feeling of isolation. 

 He said that it is this feeling of being left out of power that is probably driving the current opposition coalition against  president Bola Tinubu.

“When a certain region is in power, the thinking in the minds of most people is that it is the turn of the region to enjoy the goodies of the country anybody who is not in power will be sidelined,” he said 

  “I think that if we fix the problem of leadership such that it doesn’t matter who occupies the seat, all of these agitations will die,” he said.

Earlier in his Homily the National Director of Social Communications at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Nsikak Umoh, enjoined journalists to practice active listening by hearing others out and responding with empathy. 

He said: “Let us strive for a common ground by looking for areas of agreement, and building bridges. Let us strive to be instruments of God’s love, sharing the hope in our hearts with gentleness and compassion.”