ANTONIO Fillpazzi, an archbishop and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Embassy of Holy See Vatican, has pledged Vatican’s support for the anti-corruption crusade and development of education sector in Nigeria. ‘Apostolic Nuncio’ is the term used for the Pope’s direct representatives to countries.

Fillpazzi, who gave the indication on Thursday, August 31, in Abuja, when he paid a courtesy visit to Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Pope Francis was interested in assisting the country to address its social economic problem and the challenge of irregular migrants to Europe.

“In the past and in the present, the Catholic has been part of development in education and social economic development and we wish to continue. There is no intention to withdraw in this commitment because it is part of our faith and our religion.

“As it is indicated by the president and the diplomatic community, I think that the Catholic Church can do a lot, especially in addressing the problem which sometimes comes from lack of education and information.

“The church will be preaching the gospel and also do orientation to the society to be an example and solution to the problem of corruption. Pope Francis is interested in what corruption is and how to address the challenge,” he said.

According to him, another area of interest for Pope Francis is addressing the problem of immigrants from Africa to Europe in a very daring situation which is the biggest problem of the United Nations. He pledged to contribute to the development and enhance the progress of Nigeria as well as make meaningful impact in the lives of Nigerians before the end of his official assignment.

Earlier, Onyeama had commended and solicited for the continue support of the Vatican for Nigeria. “We appreciate the good work that the Vatican is carrying out in various fields in Nigeria, especially in education social, economic and religious, so we look very much forward for you to continue.

“Though, we should not rely on Vatican to solve our challenge but we certainly look forward to increasing cooperation from the Vatican,” he said.

The minister said that though Nigeria had a lot of challenges in security, economy and good governance, but the present administration was doing what it could to address them.

“We are faced with a number of challenges in the country, the first one is security, which we are facing in the northeast and south-south and one or two other areas in the country

“It is a major challenge for us and has led to humanitarian catastrophic, with the displacement of over two million persons.

“We have received a lot of support from the international community for those challenges, but the government has also invested enormous resources in addressing the challenges.

“However, we are extremely grateful for the support we are receiving from the Vatican to address the huge humanitarian crisis,” he said.

He said that the government was pushing for diversification of economy by moving away from oil dominated economy to the agriculture and manufacturing sector.

– Sept. 1, 2017 @ 19:20 GMT /