Imams and Bishops Urge Government to Ensure Food and Security for the Poor at the Grassroots Level

The rising cost of living, occasioned by food inflation, has continued to bedevil Nigerians, with concerned groups demanding definite action to end the suffering of citizens.

Reacting to the food crisis across the country, the Council of Imams and Ulama in Kaduna State, and bishops in parts of North Central and South West, said that citizens were facing severe hunger and hardship.

Imams in Kaduna called on Governor Uba Sani to prevail on the 23 local government chairmen to provide palliatives to the people in their areas.

On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province decried the precarious socio-economic situation prevalent in the country, saying that “the ship of state is foundering.”

The province, comprising Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, and Osogbo dioceses, stated this at the end of prayerful deliberations at the Jubilee Conference Centre, Ibadan.

The Imams made their position known while addressing a press conference at the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) national headquarters in Kaduna, yesterday, where they said it would be dangerous to neglect the hungry poor at this moment of economic hardship.

Similarly, in Ibadan, the Chairman of the bishops, Most Rev. Leke Gabriel Abegunrin, said Nigeria was fast becoming a hostile, killing field as evidenced by the regrettable kidnapping and killing of two monarchs; the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba David Babatunde Ogunsakin, and the Olumojo of Imojo Ekiti, Oba Samuel Olusola in Ekiti State and the kidnapping of teachers and school children in the same state.

He added that the same unfortunate fate befell Oba Peter Segun Aremu, the Olukoro of Koro, Kwara State, whose wife and two others were kidnapped.

The ship of the nation is foundering under the weight of pervasive insecurity, economic hardship due to hyperinflation and the collapse of the naira, cybercrime, high cost of food, lackadaisical governance, and widespread corruption.

Day-to-day living is fast becoming an ordeal for millions of Nigerians because of pervasive poverty, driven by the harsh environment which has driven many to desperation and even suicide. It would be nothing short of hypocritical to put all the misery being suffered by Nigerians today down to change in the world economy.

The bishops therefore called on elected officers not to make excuses but to change things for the better.