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the image and likeness of God as well as the so they must own up to the responsibility of
lives of others. To such a great extent, when it
comes to the issue of self-defense, what I will
say as a bishop is that every Nigerian has the
right to defend himself or herself but should
extend same gesture to others. It is not just
about us alone as individuals but the
protection of life is a collective responsibility.
This is where our Christianity comes in.
Whatever you have to do to secure your life,
you should also think of what you can do to
secure the lives of others, including the lives of
those who are involved in some of these
criminal activities. This is because sadly
enough, when some of these persons are
caught, at times they are subjected to some
form of jungle justice and in the process, they
may even end up losing their lives. By
implication, this means that we have
individual and collective responsibility
towards ensuring justice, unity, development
and peace of the nation as a whole. When an
enabling environment is created for all to
thrive, Nigerians have the exceptional
capacity, resilience and creativity to
pick up the pieces of their lives once
again. Crime waves can be
reduced to the barest minimum
when the art of governance also
improves in our land. National
security is our collective duty
and our obligation. Both the
citizens and the government at
all levels must play their part in
improving the fortunes of this
great country. We must think, not
only of ourselves but also of others; as
such, for me, I see security as both a
personal and a collective responsibility.
Gadfly: Your Lordship, although it is true
that the living conditions in most parts of
the country are in a sorry state due to the
failure of the government to provide decent
habitable conditions for her citizens
nevertheless, it remains a fact that many
Nigerians too are not doing their part in
keeping their environment clean due to
their carefree and negligent hygiene habits.
What can you say to Nigerians about this?
Bishop: Thank you so much. I think Nigerians
are always in the habit of blaming the
government but actually, we have the right to
do that. The reason why we have to hold the
government accountable is that they are
holding forth our common sovereignty, our
commonwealth and our collective resources
living up to the expectation of the public who
put their trust in them. In spite of that, every
Nigerian also has a personal responsibility for
his own life and for the life of the nation. Every
Nigerian has a right to develop himself; he has
a right to contribute to nation building; he has
the duty to improve his relationship with
others and his service to the public. Inasmuch
as we try to hold the public officers
accountable, at the same time, we also have
that civic responsibility to ensure that Nigeria
becomes better, greater and cleaner. I have
that duty to ensure that in my little space, I am
doing everything possible to make the
country cleaner and better. That being the
case, we have the responsibility to clean up
ourselves and our environment, to develop
ourselves, and as well, allow our cultural, social
and religious values to impact on our health
h a b i t s , h y g i e n e , e n v i r o n m e n t a l
consciousness, and our general well-being.
Gadfly: Prior to the general elections,
the Catholic Church in particular,
through her pastors, relentlessly
encouraged her members to
exercise their civic duties of
procuring the voters cards and
doing the actual voting to
which many complied. Now
that all that did not pay off
especially with regards to the
presidency, how can we
convince them to embark on
the same process with same
electoral officers in the same
system again?
Bishop: Thank you. It is a fact that we the
pastors of the Church have that divine
mandate and responsibility to exercise our
prophetic mission by teaching what is right
and by educating the conscience of our
people as well as conscientising them to be
a b l e t o t a k e s e r i o u s l y t h e i r c i v i c
responsibilities. It is our duty to do that, and
the Bishops did this so well during the last
elections and as such, the failure is not on the
part of the Church and its pastors. The failure is
on the electoral system and on the corrupt
political structure that we have in Nigeria
which allows people to buy their ways into
government and then use the same
government to oppress and suppress the
same citizens who supposedly put them
there. For me, if you know the right thing, and
you continue to preach the right thing and