The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) have painted a grim picture of the nation’s state, warning that the country is “sinking on many fronts” amid worsening insecurity, economic hardship, decaying institutions, pervasive corruption and moral decline. They have also challenged the Catholic laity to take a leading role in transforming society, insisting that national renewal will require active political education, participation, and moral courage.
Speaking at the 2025 Interactive Session of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria with prominent Lay Faithful of Calabar Ecclesiastical Province, held at the Diocesan Retreat and Youth Centre, Nto Ekpu, Ikot, Obot Akara L.G.A., Akwa Ibom State, from September 11 to 19, CBCN President and Archbishop of Owerri, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, said the country was at a dangerous crossroads. Communities of fear, flight, and funerals “Insecurity continues to haunt us,” Archbishop Ugorji lamented.
“Many towns and villages across the nation have become communities of fear, flight and funerals. Our fellow citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanised, killed or forced to flee their ancestral homes, abandoning their sources of livelihood to seek refuge in makeshift camps, exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water.” The Archbishop described the crisis as an assault on human dignity, one that has rendered many Nigerians homeless, hopeless, and vulnerable to exploitation.
Economic hardship and a lost generation
Turning to the economy, Archbishop Ugorji said the bishops were “deeply troubled” that Nigerians continued to groan under inflation and unemployment. “We are also worried about the high rate of youth unemployment which is driving some of our young men and women to crimes and others to migrate in search of greener pastures abroad,” he said. “This has led to brain drain and the continuous loss of some of our best and brightest minds.”
Collapsing health and education systems Archbishop
Ugorji linked the July 13, 2025 death of former President Muhammadu Buhari in a London hospital to the crisis in Nigeria’s health sector. “His death has raised fresh questions about our crumbling health institutions, the mass exodus of our medical professionals, and the billions of Naira spent abroad by our leaders on medical tourism, while millions of Nigerians languish at home from treatable ailments due to the miserable state of our hospitals,” he said.
He warned that Nigeria’s education sector was no better, with inadequate funding, decaying infrastructure, and a dwindling number of qualified teachers leading to “a steady decline in the quality of education.” “The energy sector is also a source of concern,” he added, noting frequent power outages, obsolete infrastructure, and rising costs that are crippling businesses and denying millions of Nigerians access to electricity.
A cancer called corruption
Archbishop Ugorji identified corruption as the thread tying all these crises together. “Underpinning our problems as a nation is corruption, understood as moral rottenness, which is spreading unchecked like a deadly cancer to all sectors of our national life, silently eating up the soul of the nation,” he said. The bishops expressed concern that politicians appeared more focused on the 2027 elections than on governance. “Far from standing against them, the opposition is busy building coalitions to clench power in 2027 — strategising, aligning and realigning, defecting from one party to another, and posturing for future political offices,” he said.
A call for transformation — and lay participation
The CBCN president warned that unless drastic measures were taken, Nigeria risked total collapse. “There is need for a drastic change or rather transformation, where the common good drives our political, economic, social and cultural life,” Archbishop Ugorji said. He placed responsibility not just on government but on the laity, whom he described as crucial agents of national renewal. “We are convinced that we have a formidable laity, who being the salt of the earth (Mt. 5:13), the light of the world (Mt. 13:14–16) and the leaven of the society (Mt. 13:33), can help to a large extent to transform the temporal order by being living witnesses in the family as well as in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of our life,” he said. The bishops urged Nigerian Catholics — and all citizens — to infuse Gospel values into public life, work for social justice, and demand accountability from leaders. “The poor state of the nation calls for concerted joint actions by the laity aimed at bringing about social transformation,” Archbishop Ugorji stated.
Building a politically conscious laity
The bishops made a strong case for empowering the Catholic laity through political education as a path to national transformation. “If we expect much from the laity in the area of national transformation, much has to be given to them in terms of political education,” the CBCN stated. Quoting the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes, they stressed that “civil and political education is vitally necessary for the population as a whole and for young people in particular, and must be diligently attended to.” Similarly, they referenced Pope John Paul II’s Ecclesia in Africa, which calls for “training of the lay faithful, so that they will fully exercise their role of inspiring the temporal order – political, cultural, economic and social – with Christian principles.”
Political education, they said, must go beyond theory. “Given the increasing voter apathy in many communities, when all is said and done, political education in our country must stress the civic duty of all adults of voting age to possess their permanent voter’s cards and to vote at general elections responsibly in accordance with their conscience, not allowing themselves to be influenced by bribes, promise of gratification, intimidation, or ethno-religious considerations.” The bishops further encouraged “honest and God-fearing lay faithful to join political parties and persuade those with the talent for leadership to seek political office as a way of advancing the common good.”
Electoral reforms as a cornerstone of democracy
The bishops said that citizens’ trust in elections had been severely damaged by “malpractice, fraud, and so-called election glitches” during the last polls. “To restore trust among the electorate, it might be necessary for us at this Conference to call for a more robust and comprehensive electoral reform that addresses persistent electoral flaws in our nation such as electoral violence, voter suppression, logistical failures, electoral glitches, multiple thumb printing of ballot papers, manipulation of voters’ register, declaration of fake electoral results, etc.,” they said.
They called for reforms that would ensure electronic transmission and collation of results in real time. The bishops also pressed for constitutional amendments to guarantee the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). “Unfortunately, many of those so far appointed could neither be seen as non-partisan nor independent,” they said, urging lawmakers to “strengthen the independence and credibility of INEC and protect it from political manipulation.” They warned that failure to enact peaceful reforms could invite unrest: “Those who try to frustrate such peaceful changes make violent changes unavoidable.”
CBCN’s track record on national issues The CBCN has historically played an active role in shaping Nigeria’s public discourse, regularly issuing communiqués on governance, elections, and national security. In the run-up to the 2023 and 2019 general elections, the bishops were vocal on electoral integrity and voter participation, urging free, fair, and credible polls. They have also consistently spoken out against insecurity — particularly the herder-farmer clashes, banditry, and terrorism — and have demanded government accountability on issues of corruption, poverty, and the rule of law. This latest call underscores the bishops’ long-standing view that Nigeria’s revival depends not only on reforms from the top but on an informed, active, and morally principled citizenry.
