INTRODUCTION
In Nigeria, the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, to borrow the words of the creed, is popularly known as the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM). We have so identified our Church with the word "Mission" that everything in us, around us or belonging to us is identified, baptized and called "Mission". Consequently we hear the terms like mission property, mission land, mission hospital, mission school, mission compound, mission car, and mission boy. I remember reading a record of court proceedings where the bone of contention was a stolen mission goat. The lawyers had a though time establishing whether the goat belonged to the Parish Priest, the Bishop or the Pope. So much are we in love with the word mission.

THE MISSION MANDATE
Christ gave us the mandate to go and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19). This mission, this mandate is given to all the baptized without exception. From that time, different Christians at different ages have carried it out in their own ways. Yet, a few years ago, towards the end of the last millennium, the Holy Father announced to the whole world that we are only beginning, that the mission is far from completion (Redemptoris Missio n.1).

THE PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES
At its own time, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, some individuals among the People of God took some missionary initiatives, which gave rise to the four Pontifical Mission Societies, namely:
- The Pontifical Mission Society for the Propagation of the Faith;
- The Pontifical Mission Society of St. Peter the Apostle;
- The Pontifical Mission Society of the Holy Childhood;
- The Pontifical Missionary Union.
The Vatican Council II established that the Pontifical Mission Societies should occupy a central place in missionary cooperation: < It is right that these works should be given first place, because they are a means by which Catholics are imbued from infancy with a truly universal and missionary outlook and also a means for promoting an effective collection of funds for all the missions, according to the needs of each. > (A.G. 38). Having become the official and principal instrument of the Church for missionary cooperation, the Pontifical Mission Societies have assumed a fundamental importance.

How do we translate this into action? We propose three important lines of action for the Nigerian Church:
i. Information
ii. Structures
iii. Missionary cooperation

I. Information
The first step is to know what the societies are. We have therefore organized the School of Missionary Animators (SOMA) at the National level and trained over 150 priests, religious and laity. These in turn are now organising the SOMA at the diocesan level: those who have not yet held their diocesan SOMA by now are certainly lagging behind. The next step is the parish SOMA. As soon as that is over we shall go to SOMA II. At that stage, we shall have to turn to our Bishops to invite them to do the second stage. They were not invited to SOMA I because we presumed that they have passed that stage.

II. Structures
The structures which we need to keep this very important arm of the Church's apostolate on course have been set up by our Bishops at the National level. The Bishops have appointed diocesan PMS Directors who, with the National Director form the National PMS Council. The National Missionary Council of Nigeria has also been inaugurated with representatives drawn from among our priests, religious and laity. The CBCN has set up a department of Mission and Dialogue within the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. With the effective cooperation of these three bodies, the National framework shall have been properly put in motion.
At the Diocesan and Parish levels, those who have not yet formed the PMS Council/Committee are dragging us back. Proposals for the membership have been agreed upon by the National Council some three years ago. Guidelines for their more effective apostolate will be published soon.
At the level of institutions, we have published guidelines for Mission Club in our Seminaries, and a separate one for Formation Houses for the Religious.
By far the most effective and widespread of all the PMS is the Holy Childhood. We must pay special attention to our Children. The Holy Childhood Association (HCA) is an effective instrument in our hands. Let us make sure that every one of our children is involved. I am aware of a diocese that has formally enrolled more than 6000 children. We need to cast our mind on how to assist our children to graduate from the HCA into the appropriate lay apostolate organization where they can find identity. Here, a passing over ceremony from the HCA (as soon as they cross the age limit of 14) to that other organization will be useful.
Our next focus will be PMS families. We plan to use children as the missionaries to their families. This will be followed by the missionary youth.
The Popes have named the Pontifical Missionary Union (PMU) the soul of all the other Pontifical Mission Societies. This is reserved for priests and religious. Those who have not registered are requested to do so today. Registration forms are available.

III. Missionary Cooperation
Missionary cooperation is done in many ways. The three standard ones, which we need to take up as our take off ground, are:
i. Spiritual Co-operation: The Vatican Council has told us that "Holiness must be called fundamental presupposition and irreplaceable condition for everyone in fulfilling the mission of salvation in the Church (Redemptoris Missio n.90; Christifideles Laici n.17) We must therefore strive for holiness, and storm heaven with prayers in solidarity with all the baptized, for the mission of the Church.
ii. Personnel: We have to be more open and generous in offering our personnel, - priests, religious and laity for other areas both within and outside our Country. We must both train and support our missionaries.
iii. Material Co-operation: We must try to gradually reduce our dependence on other parts of the world, and increase our contribution to the universal solidarity fund. As it stand now, if the PMS withdraws its support from our seminaries; most of them will close down. This October, I was comparing notes with one small African country, and I discovered that what the country contributes to the universal solidarity fund for the training of priests and religious amounts to 5% of the total sum it receives from the PMS for that purpose, while the percentage for Nigeria is scandalously only 0.55.

CONCLUSION
It is very auspicious that we are discussing "The Church in Nigeria - Family of God on Mission" as the theme of this congress. We now have the opportunity of getting the Pontifical Mission Societies to occupy the first place in our pastoral plan for missionary cooperation in accordance with the directives of Vatican II and subsequent Popes.
I like to thank our Bishops, the PMS Diocesan Directors and our animators for their wonderful cooperation.
Please take some time and visit the PMS Pavilion before you leave. You will be able to get a selection of publications meant to inform you fully on the PMS.