Abuja (Fides Service) - The Nigerian Church has stated collecting funds to build a Catholic University of Nigeria CUNA
The initiative for collecting funds was presented by all the Nigerian Bishops during their Plenary Assembly held in Abuja. The president of the Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, underlined that the Church has a long tradition of education, indeed it has played a pioneer role in education. Many universities all over the world were founded by the Church and in Nigeria there are examples of ecclesial institutions at university level: "our seminaries are affiliated with universities in Nigeria and in Rome and their degrees are recognised all over the world" Mons. Onaiyekan underlined "moreover, the Catholic Institute of West Africa CIWA at Port Harcourt has assigned university degree for more than 20 years".
The project for the Catholic University of Nigeria is only the first element in a vast programme for the foundation of a series of Catholic universities in Nigeria. All the participants at the Plenary Assembly agreed that education is a basic element for development, lamenting the deterioration of the Nigerian school system in recent years and voicing the conviction that the new Catholic University of Nigeria will help to elevate the national educational standard. The Catholic University will also contribute towards instilling in the people high human and spiritual values, besides elevating the nation's cultural and economic standards. The College will adopt high educational standards in line with other Catholic Universities in the rest of the world.
The representative of the President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjoin, professor don Yosuf Obaje, described the initiative of the Catholic Church as "an opportune event at an opportune time". The representative of the President thanked the Catholic Church for its "immense contribution in the field of healthcare, education and its efforts to favour the maintaining of peace". He recognised that "Catholic schools have existed for a long time in Nigeria, while Catholic seminaries formed some of the most prominent pastors on the African continent".
He described the project of the University "the crowning of the Church's efforts in its educational projects for the development of the people" adding that the project is important also because it is a response to the appeal from the Government to private persons to intervene in the national education system. The President recalled that the Catholic Church has an undeniable experience in the field having developed one the best education systems, which has given and continues to give important results. For this, he adds that the government of Nigeria is happy to be associated in this field with the Catholic Church. LM (Fides Service 1/4/2003 EM lines 35 Words: 457)