The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev Dr Alfred Adewale Martins has
admonished the newly sworn-in Ministers of the Federal Republic to serve the nation
with utmost diligence and deep sense of patriotism in their various Ministries in
other to help the President move the nation to greater heights.
In a press release made available to newsmen through the Acting Director of Social
Communications, Lagos Archdiocese, Rev Fr Anthony Godonu, Archbishop Martins,
while congratulating the new ministers on their appointments, reminded them that
they have a great responsibility ahead of them as the country was going through
very difficult times in all facets.
He challenged them to rise up to the demands of their offices by hitting the ground
running and being alive to the yearnings of all segments of Nigerians who have been
clamoring for a better lease of life irrespective of their religion, political party or
ethnic affiliations.
“There have been varying analysis and evaluation of the appointments but what is
beyond contention is that the challenges before the new ministers are enormous.
They are coming in or being re-appointed at a time when there is so much distress,
anger and dissatisfaction among the people. The expectations of Nigerians are high
since their desire for no more than the barest minimum of good living has been left
unfulfilled for far too long. So, we hope that the Ministers would hit the ground
running. Their two-day gathering or retreat should have helped them to identify the
various ways their ministries can impact meaningfully on the lives of the people. The
ruling Party has made a lot of promises and Nigerians hope that the Ministers would
work to ensure that the promises would not go the way of similar promises in the
past that were not satisfactorily discharged. It is only by making the lives of people
manifestly better that they would be able to justify their appointments to these
high offices.”
The Prelate also called on President Muhammadu Buhari and his Ministers to avail
themselves of wise counsel from all well-meaning Nigerians irrespective of the
source of counsel. He advised the President to use his second term in office to make
amends for all the shortfalls of his first tenure, namely: security of lives and
property, supply of constant and stable power (electricity), fixing the dwindling
economy as well as consolidating on the construction and provision of social
infrastructure in country.
While praying God to imbue the President with wisdom and all the virtues needed for
his office, he implored him not to discountenance the growing agitations coming from
the different corners of this country calling for the restoration of the Federal
character of the country, often referred to as restructuring of the country.
The Archbishop noted that President Muhammadu Buhari, as the father of the
nation, should be prepared to make every sacrifice needed to rebuild and make
Nigeria a peaceful nation, united and prosperous. We have for too long been the butt
of jokes and cynical remarks and we hope the tides would change very soon.
