Politics
THE Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, the Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, has admonished the new ministers to serve the nation with diligence and sense of patriotism to help President Buhari move the nation to greater heights.
Martins gave the advice in Lagos on Tuesday through a statement issued on his behalf by Rev. Fr Anthony Godonu, the Acting Director of Social Communications in Lagos Archdiocese.
Martins, while congratulating the new ministers, reminded them that they had a great responsibility ahead of them as the country was going through very difficult times in all facets.
He challenged the ministers 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 on all the shortfalls of his first tenure.
While praying to God to imbue the President with wisdom and all the virtues needed for his office, he implored him not to discountenance the growing agitations for restoration of the federal character, often referred to as restructuring.
The archbishop said the president, as the father of the nation, should be prepared to make every sacrifice needed to rebuild and make Nigeria a peaceful, united and prosperous nation.
“We have for too long been the butt of jokes and cynical remarks and we hope the tides would change very soon,” he said. (NAN)
– Aug. 27, 2019 @ 13:29 GMT |
Tags: Catholic Archbishop tasks new ministers on diligence patriotism
