The Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province, comprising Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti and Osogbo Dioceses, have applauded the Federal Government’s signing of the agreement between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), after 16 years of dilly-dally.

The clerics, in a communique issued after their first meeting for 2026 held at the Jubilee Conference Centre (JCC), Ibadan from January 19-20, and signed by its chairman and secretary, Most Rev ‘Leke Gabriel Abegunrin and Most Rev John Akin Oyejola, want same gesture, including the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, to be extended to private and mission universities, saying they also train future Nigerian leaders.

The bishops noted that implementing the agreement would halt incessant strikes and stress in the universities. The body also commended the Federal Government’s presidential grants and loans to Nigerian youths, the new National Policy on Almajiri Education and other programmes aimed at empowering and securing the future of Nigerian youths.

Urging state and local governments nationwide to improve educational facilities and staff welfare in their jurisdictions, the bishops said all such programmes must be periodically evaluated to eliminate bottlenecks in the system.

Other issues of national concerns raised at the two-day conference included the current zeal to tackle insecurity through courageous policies and action; controversies surrounding the ongoing tax reforms; rebuilding a welfarist society in Nigeria; the need to pray for Nigerian leaders and the country; role of the Church in advancing Jesus Christ’s mission and events of the Jubilee Year of Hope, which ended recently. On the issue of insecurity, the conference unanimously supported the government’s recent zealous change in approach to the issue.

According to the conference, “a few developments in recent times have shown that when governments demonstrate the political will to act, even insecurity can be curtailed.”

It urged the three tiers of government to sustain the tempo, tasking them to be firm in criminalising and prosecuting bandits, kidnappers, insurgents and other criminal elements for the current effort to succeed.

While calling on Nigerians to unite in the effort to re-establish security, peace and safety of all, regardless of religion, tribe or status, the bishops described life as sacred, adding that nobody has the right to take someone else’s life, seize or destroy somebody else’s property without serious consequences.

On the ongoing tax reforms, the clerics lamented that agents of misinformation had been busy discrediting the new scheme in spite of the consultations that preceded its legislation.

They urged the government and concerned authorities to allay the anxieties of the people by giving the reforms a human face and “give the most vulnerable among us the latitude to get used to the new tax regimes before applying the full force of the law.” The bishops also urged fairness, transparency and accountability to govern the conduct of government and the tax authorities in the entire process.