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In our context in which the state has essentially abdicated its responsibilities, community members need to start acting together to save themselves. The first step is to start reconstituting the capacity and authority of traditional rulers… It is only when communities start discovering and discussing their problems that they can start working out how to solve them.
Nigeria is experiencing the most serious security challenge in its history. It is facing an even bigger challenge of social disintegration and anomie, signalling the disintegration of community. At its root is the breakdown of religious authority and hierarchies, as children seek different religious affiliations from their parents. At the same time, there is a decomposition of socialisation and moral education within the family. This is accompanied by galloping urbanisation, in which poverty and ghettoes are providing an atmosphere in which the disconnected individuals wallowing in misery c
My father was before then the headmaster of the elementary school in Garkida.
It was a missionary school, and obviously, he was a Christian.
When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the missionaries closed all their functions because there were problems moving from the United States to Europe, then to Africa, because of the hostilities that were over the place.
Therefore, my father stopped being the headmaster.
He looked for employment with either the Native Authority or the government, and when he went to Yola, one obvious employment was the recruitment of every able-bodied young man into the Nigerian Army to aid the British war efforts.
Dear Bishop,
WHEN I met you in Calabar three years ago at Southern Senators Retreat, you were still as fresh as the very Father Kukah I met in Lagos in the dangerous days of Sani Abacha when fear reigned over the land. Those were the years the Catholic church whose secretariat you headed led us to pray for Nigeria in distress. Those lines were so powerful and we joined in recitation anytime we visited and joined for mass at the Catholic secretariat:
Prayer for Nigeria in distress
All powerful and merciful Father
You are a God of justice love and peace.