Abimbola Abatta, Osogbo
As part of the efforts to ensure good governance and guarantee the complete wellbeing of Nigerians, the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo has inaugurated a movement, Catholic Action Nigeria.
The movement aims to create awareness and conscientise people to vote wisely while also educating active politicians.
The Catholic bishop of Osogbo Diocese, Most Rev John Oyejola, inaugurated the movement and installed its executive during a Holy Mass at St Benedict Cathedral in Osogbo on Sunday.
Oyejola said the group was not established to represent the interest of Catholics alone but all Nigerians in Osun state, also calling on all Nigerians to support the movement.
In his charge to the executives of the group, “I want all of you (Church members) to support them (Executive of Catholic Action Nigeria). As Christians, use your status to bring change to the world. This group is all over the dioceses in Nigeria. You are to represent us and serve humanity. You are not to represent Catholics alone. You have to endure sufferings. We have those who are government but they are not governing us.
“The church wants you (the group) to help in bringing people out. We can’t live this world like this, this is not how we met it. We have got to repair this world for the coming generation. We need to restore the future for our children. Speak the truth always.”
He further said, “Catholic Action Nigeria is not a political party, neither is it new. It is a lay organisation in the Catholic Church, instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1927 to help spread the Church’s social teachings, and to mobilise the people to be more involved in socio-economic and political matters that affect their lives.”
Also speaking, the president of the group, Dr Paul Oyebiyi, noted that “the Catholic Action Nigeria is established to represent the voice of the Church and ensure good governance in such a way that the total wellbeing of every individual will be guaranteed: security, economic prosperity, good living and also achieving our eternal home while on earth.\
“The first role of the Catholic Action of Nigeria is to serve as an advocacy group to advocate for all these that have mentioned, especially, good governance. To also create awareness and conscientise people to vote wisely. It is also to educate our active politicians. Like those of us in the Action group, we are not partisan politicians but we will do as much as possible to be an independent umpire in a free and fair and credible election.
“We will also ensure that our people go out to vote, you will discover that we have a large percentage of voters who don’t vote and if you are not voting, you cannot get the desired results. And we need to be able to vote for credible candidates, not necessarily Catholic, not necessarily Christian but candidates we know that will be men and women of their words that will be able to achieve good governance for the masses.”
“We are encouraging Catholics to participate in politics. As many people that are interested and capable, we encourage them to go into politics; especially the younger generation because we want to build the generational gap.”