The Nigerian Church has recently celebrated in Ibadan, its first National Pastoral Congress, which brought together Bishops, Priests, Religious, and members of the Laity to reflect and pray over the theme, "The Church: Family of God on Mission. The four days of intense reflection and prayer on the mission of the Church in the areas of evangelisation and pastoral care, inculturation, the promotion of dialogue, reconciliation, justice and peace, and how the modern instruments of the mass media can be effectively utilised in all these, were immediately followed by the celebration of the third National Eucharistic Congress with the theme: Christ, Bread, Broken for the Life of the World.

The lectures, questions and answers, groups discussions and prayers during the two events, highlighted the many challenges that face the Nigerian people, and what role Christians, and especially Catholics have to play in restoring peace to a troubled land, in promoting mutual forgiveness for past hurts, in fostering mutual understanding and acceptance, and above all, what role members of the Church must play in promoting the sense of family, first in the Church, and then in the Nigerian society. The Congresses could not have come at a better time in our country, as we seem to be once again at a crossroad, what with the hightened tension all over the land following the senseless killings and arson in Kaduna and Abuja, that trailed the botched Miss World Competition in Nigeria. The violent eruptions triggered by fanatical Islamic elements in Kaduna and echoed in Abuja, has once again brought to the fore the tenuous nature of our national polity and what a keg of gunpowder we seem to be sitting on as a people.

True, after years of military dictatorship, the worst form of which was manifested in the Abacha dispensation, Nigerians had hoped for a period of peaceful transition to a just, equitable, democratic and peaceful society. We had hoped for a new Nigerian society where we can once again have the opportunity to channel our enormous natural endowments to positive use for the advancement of our teeming population We had hoped for a new Nigerian society where we can celebrate the richness of our diverse languages, cultures and religions. We had hoped for a new Nigerian society where we can take our rightful place in the comity of nations, and compete in the advancement of science and technology. But rather than make progress in these directions, multiple crises and conflicts have plagued post-military Nigeria. It has been an orgy of violence and a season of blood and tears in which the very foundation of the nation is now threatened. Precious human lives have been destroyed in their thousands, and property worth hundreds of millions of Naira have been set ablaze in Odi, Warri, Lagos, Shagamu, Aguleri, Umuleri, Ife, Modakeke, Zaki Biam, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Jos, and lately Abuja. We have witnessed thousands of internally displaced persons or refugees squatting in police and army barracks all over the place.

As a result of these sad developments, the Nigerian economy remains comatose. Investors have been scared away, in spite of President Obasanjo's numerous overseas travels. With the circumstance of widespread violence and great insecurity in the land, potential investors seem to have decided to watch and see. Unemployment therefore remains high and the majority of the people are plagued by acrimonious poverty, with the lot of many worsening by the day. Thus three and a half years after we said goodbye to military dictatorship, we are witnessing what appears sadly as another round of aborted dreams, broken promises and dashed hopes. Once again our leaders have failed to deliver, and we are once again being challenged to go to the drawing board.

The unfortunate turn of events in the last three and a half years surely bring to the fore the imperative of conflict resolution towards national reconciliation and peaceful co-existence. Perhaps the people of Nigeria along with their leaders had underestimated the extent of the problems that had built up in the land over the years of debauchery, when social injustice, economic isolation and political banditry reigned, breeding widespread anger and resentment that were kept in check all the while only by military might. With the violent conflicts that have erupted in the North and South, and in the East and West, over unresolved ethnic, religious, political and economic differences, and over boundaries and the ownership of land and other resources, Nigerians must now realise that there is a lot of structural defect in the Nigerian society that are a potential source of conflict. This is a challenge we must take up and address courageously, even, as many have suggested, in a national conference.

Many in the Igbo nation remain are resentful of the rest of Nigeria for the injustices of the 1967 to 1970 civil war, the abandoned property imbroglio, and the alleged post-war marginalisation of Igbo people in some vital segments of the national economy. Many in the Yoruba nation are angry with the rest of Nigeria for the injustices associated with the June 12 election annulment, and the alleged post-June 12 persecution and marginalisation of Yoruba people. The collocation of small ethnic nationalities which we call the Middle Belt are today vexed by the appendage status accorded them in the power structures of our nation. Many of them allege that they have suffered numerous injustices because of being falsely associated with the North all this time, while they gained nothing from the Northern hold on political power.

The citizens of the oil producing Niger Delta are poised for a show down with the rest of Nigeria, and if recent clashes are anything to go by, their youths appear to be well equipped for war with the rest of Nigeria, because of the callous exploitation of their natural resources for decade, while they are abandoned in a state of destitution. Many among the Hausa and Fulani Muslims of the core North who desire to live under the supremacy of the Islamic Sharia are incensed that the rest of Nigeria wants to jettison what they see as their religious freedom. Within each group, there is often bitterness over past hurts and wounds which have never been seriously addressed.

With so many un-addressed wounds and hurts over past injustices and inequities, our task of nation-building must begin with an elaborate programme of, and an honest commitment to conflict resolution towards national reconciliation and peaceful co-existence, or else our new preoccupation with democratic governance will lack the much needed foundation, and end once again in disaster. The leadership of Nigeria must learn to feel the pulse of the nation, to hear the cry of the people, and to react with utmost sense of responsibility to the desires and aspirations of the constituent units of the country for that kind of unity and peace that is based on mutual forgiveness for past hurts and wounds, and a mutual commitment to righting the wrongs of the past, and building our society on justice and fairness.

Christians have the imperative of forgiveness, the practice of which Pope John Paul II says is "the only guarantee for lasting peace." He observed in the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia that a world without forgiveness is a world of endless violence. With the Christian virtue of forgiveness, past hurts and wounds, and bitterness and resentment over such hurts and wounds, could be adequately healed, and wholesome human relationships can once again begin afresh.

During the Jubilee Year the Pope gave the world an example by asking for pardon for the past hurts and wounds caused by people who acted on behalf of the Church in its 2000 history. He also on behalf of every Catholic offered forgiveness for all the injustices the Catholic Church and its functionaries have suffered from others over the ages. Therefore, before Nigeria collapses under the burden of long-standing mutual antipathy, divisions and violent conflicts, we hereby challenge peace-desiring Nigerians to champion the cause of national reconciliation through forgiveness.

We challenge Catholics who have just concluded their first National Pastoral Congress where they reflected on the ideals and virtues that hold families together, to do an examination of conscience, and to courageously address the hurts and wounds of the past, to offer forgiveness for these hurts and wounds, and to ask for forgiveness for those injustices which they themselves have caused others. We challenge the rest of Nigeria, whether Christian or Muslim, Igbo or Efik, Itshekiri or Yoruba, Tiv or Ebira, to recognise that our peculiar socio-political history has made us one people, indeed one family, with a common destiny. We are therefore brothers and sisters who must work out the modalities for living and working together in peace.

In the recent past we have shed too much of the blood of our kith and kin, and set afire the little property and infrastructure we possess. It is time to sheath our swords and bury our hatchets, and work for national reconciliation and peace. Individual Christians, Christian groups and the institutional Church itself, that see themselves on being the light of the world, must champion this noble cause, for where there is no vision, the people perish.
(Agenzia Fides 16/12/2002)