Treat kidnapping like B/Haram – Catholic bishops

The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has urged the Federal Government to take decisive action against rising wave of kidnapping and banditry the way it handled the Boko Haram insurgency.

This is contained in the Archbishop of Jos and President of CBCN, Ignatius Kaigama’s opening address at the first plenary of the CBCN in Abuja.

He said the lesson to be drawn from the recent Southern Kaduna circle of attacks is that Nigeria as a nation, hardly get to the root causes of crucial matters.

He said approaches to crucial issue are often lackadaisical, parochial or indifferent coupled with sentiments of ethnicity, regional interests and religious bias instead of patriotism thus crippling efforts at practical and lasting solutions.

“A clear policy followed by concrete and creative measures on how to stop the menace of herdsmen is long expected from the presidency and yet the herdsmen become so fierce and assertive. Could the same zeal used in tackling Boko Haram not be applied? Sambisa forest has fallen, but when will the empires of kidnappers and the marauding herdsmen and armed banditry fall?” Kaigama said.

He said some social issues like the frequent statement even from some highly placed Nigerians that ‘only prayer can solve the problems of Nigeria’ may be true in one sense but in another is not only a fallacy but a passing on of the buck.