The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most. Rev. Matthew Kukah, on Saturday, urged Nigerians to compel political officeholders to fulfil their campaign promises.
Rev. Kukah who spoke on nation-building in a keynote address at a centenary public lecture and awards ceremony by the Catholic Herald, a publication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, at the Mother of Perpetual Help Church, Victoria Island, Lagos State.
The event themed: “The Nigerian State: Transcending Challenges, Attending True Nationhood”, was to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the oldest weekly newspaper in Nigeria, and the cleric said that the quality of the civil society, to a large extent, determined the extent of change in a society, while appealing to the leadership to be people-oriented in their policies and administration.
Kukah said that there was a need for governments to carry the citizens along in projects and programme implementation to meet the needs of the masses, adding, “Nigeria’s journey to nationhood should be of concern to the people and with an eye on the desired destination.
“Pray that God renews our strength to champion just causes. Nation-building is a long-distance race that needs patriotic zeal to sustain to stardom,” he said, while calling on Nigerians to be committed to nation-building.
NAN reports that the Catholic Herald was one of the platforms used by nationalists to push for Nigeria’s independence.
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Adewale Martins, said at the event that the newspaper played a major role in the pre-independence era, saying that the newspaper would, aside from its evangelism function, continue to stir public discourse to advance society, as he called on the newspaper’s editorial board to do more to expand its scope of enlightenment.
