The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has noted with concern that the current administration’s reform agenda has increased the hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Lucius Ugorji, the President of the CBCN, made the declaration while speaking on Sunday at the commencement of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the CBCN, held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria Resource Centre in Durumi, Abuja.
According to the bishop, the inflation had rendered it challenging for the typical Nigerian to afford essential commodities, such as food items and medication, alleging that the reform agenda of the present government has added to the plight of Nigerians.
He said with the withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market, there has been a sharp increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the naira.
As a result of the government’s reform agenda, he observed that millions of Nigerians have been reduced to a life of grinding poverty, wanton suffering, and untold hardship as never before in the country’s history.
In a bid to survive, he added that an increasing number of the poor have resorted to begging, with more than 80 million Nigerians living under the poverty line of less than two dollars a day in the country, according to the recent disclosure of the World Bank, which is the world’s second-largest poor population after India.
He said, “While many impoverished Nigerians continue to suffer and die as a result of the hardship caused by the government’s economic reforms, the president has continued to urge the populace to make even more and more sacrifices with the assurance that brighter days lay ahead.”
He said that Nigerians were expecting to see a drastic cut in the cost of running the government at all levels as the government demanded additional sacrifice from the struggling masses.
On insecurity, the bishop explained that despite the money appropriated monthly as security votes, communities continued to experience persistent insecurity, stressing that recently, there has been an upsurge in kidnapping for ransom and increasing cases of bloodshed across the country.
