The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji says Nigeria is experiencing the worst times in the areas of security and economy, adding that the reform agenda of the Federal Government has worsened the plight of Nigerians.
“Withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market has led to a sharp increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the Naira,” he said.
The Archbishop, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) with the theme, “Synod on Synodality: Areas of Concern for the Church in Nigeria,” said as the government demands additional sacrifice from the struggling masses, there should be a drastic cut in the cost of governance at all levels, adding that on the contrary, top government officials live by the sweat, toil and tears of the poor as they spend huge public funds on ostentatious and luxurious lifestyles and seem incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.
“Every day, outrageous and spine-chilling stories are told in the media about different public servants who have stolen staggering amounts of money from public coffers in a country where millions of citizens live in deep and debilitating poverty.”
“We cannot easily overlook the sordid roles of many fraudulent politicians and Bank Executives in fleecing the whole nation and destroying our national economy through the dirty game of corruption, causing untold hardship and untimely deaths across the nation,” said Archbishop Ugorji.
In a related development the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has expressed optimism that despite all the difficulties, there is light at the end of the tunnel, “As long as the country can sustain a positive trajectory, Nigeria will get out of its economic woes and the foreign exchange market will begin to moderate itself.”
The banker blamed the high inflation rate in the country on so much liquidity in the market, and noted that as a result of some of the recent efforts of the CBN, over the course of the last week, about $1.8 billion came into the markets.
The CBN Governor said that in another week, the Apex Bank will have the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, where very critical decisions will be made to continue making the economy more investor-friendly.
He also said that an attempt to merge the outside rates with the official rates and the black market rate has been made, and that the difference between the two is now significantly lower.
Cardoso said, “There is a positive outlook on that. The positive outlook comes from the fact that a series of reforms have been made by the Federal Government and the Central Bank, which are now paying off in such a way that international investors are coming back in again.”
