You can’t overcome insecurity without involving women, Kaigama tells government

• Ex-general tasks military personnel on dedication

CATHOLIC Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, yesterday, insisted that it remains impossible for government to fully tackle insecurity without involving women in policy-making and implementation.

In his homily to mark the 2022 Mother’s Day at the Divine Mercy Pastoral Area, Karu, Abuja, Kaigama stated that as pillars of the home, mothers could positively influence their husbands and children to build a culture of peace, honest dialogue and harmony.

He said: “Today, as we celebrate Mother’s Day, we ask God to bless all mothers and make them channels of God’s grace to transform our society, wounded and corrupted in many ways. The degree of violence visited on Nigerians, recently, in many parts of the country shows clearly the lack of compassion and forgiveness by the perpetrators. Nigerians are yelling, grumbling and complaining about the deteriorating situation of poverty and insecurity, they are very eager that university students should return to school, people should feel safe in their homes, markets, schools, public gatherings, airports, trains and highways. Preachers, at any given opportunity, condemn the lack lustre performance and the mismanagement of resources by government officials.”

The cleric went on: “Preachers must not however forget to urge individual Nigerians to an examination of conscience. The Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 only saw the sins of the tax collector, not his own! While we agree that the hardships we are encountering are a result of the incompetence, insensitivity and mismanagement by political leaders, we must not fail to be self-critical, to flash the torch on our hearts to see the sins that the Bible says come from inside our hearts and defile and pollute us and our nation.”

According to Kaigama, “today, the sense of sin is gradually being eroded. Sin is rationalised. Conscience seems to be dead.”

THIS is even as former Military Governor of Oyo and Ogun states, Major General Oladayo Popoola (rtd), demanded more commitment from military personnel in the fight against banditry and insurgency.

Popoola, who spoke with The Guardian after being conferred with an honorary doctorate by Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), at the weekend, said besides the problem of banditry and terrorism, parents and teachers needed to watch over their children to prevent them from being lured into cultism or ritualism.
 
He regretted that cultism was breeding hoodlums like armed robbers and kidnappers terrorising the people.
He said: “I want to challenge parents, children, teachers and lecturers that from the years past, there was nothing like cult, Yahoo. If you go to our schools now, you will see the presence of these social vices. Those are the bane of insecurity in Nigeria, apart from what is happening in North, which they call banditry.”
 
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who is the Visitor to LAUTECH, advised the fresh graduates to be resilient, saying they needed it to overcome challenges that would come their way. He also charged Nigerians to make informed and guided decisions at the 2023 general elections.
 
The governor stated: “We are here today to witness the 14th convocation of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. As has been acknowledged by other speakers, this is a convocation like no other. It is a joint convocation of graduates from 2015 down to 2021.”