He condemned the recent killing of a priest, Rev. Fr. Charles Onomhaele Igechi, of the Archdiocese of Benin City, Edo State.
During a Mass to celebrate this year’s event at St Augustine’s Parish, Sun City, Abuja, Kaigama charged political authorities to ensure that Nigerians, including clerics, are not kidnapped or killed just because they are agents of peace, unity, equity and dignity of life
The priest regretted that Nigeria is not lacking people with egocentric, megalomaniac and exclusive tendencies, unconcerned about dragging the country into anarchy or hostile inter-religious, political or ethnic relationships by their unguarded utterances and actions.
He said: “These were part of our concerns when the then presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, met a group of Catholic bishops during our conference in Abuja, a few days to the presidential election. Our memo to him was very clear about many hurting issues.”
Kaigama appealed to the President to find a way of taming Nigerians with paranoid dispositions, who often blow the trumpet of disunity and hostility.
“He should promote better religious harmony, as he promised us, by being fair and just to all religious groups and their adherents. The ball is in his court for now,” he advised.
Kaigama went on: “Despite the atrocities experienced, our Christian faith still teaches us that life is sacred. Christians must not discriminate and look down on others or promote our interest at the expense of others, but to create a community of love.
“We cannot be partaking of the Eucharist and be living in resentment towards other Nigerians. If some Nigerians speak with reckless abandon and arrogant insensitivity, claiming they are better than other Nigerians, and are determined to keep those they call ‘outsiders’ and ‘inferiors’ under domination, we can never grow as a nation to maturity and progress, and measure up to other developed nations. I was edified when invited by UFUK Dialogue Foundation, an Islamic Turkish Foundation, to join them to break the Ramadan fast and I saw this quote: ‘Reserve in your heart a seat for everyone’. Leaders, whether Muslim or Christian, must create a space for everyone in their hearts, in the spirit of equity, brotherliness and hospitality.”
The cleric added: “We must learn to live under one canopy of love: Sacrificing selfish ambitions for common good. Uncontrolled venomous utterances will certainly generate unnecessary tension among Nigerians of whatever persuasion.”
