The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has observed with concern that the current administration’s reform agenda has increased the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.
Lucius Ugorji, the President of the CBCN, disclosed this, while speaking at the commencement of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the CBCN, held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria Resource Centre in Durumi, Abuja.
According to the bishop, the inflation had made it challenging for the average Nigerian to afford essential commodities, such as food items and medication, claiming that the reform agenda of the present government has added to the plight of Nigerians.
He said with the withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market, there has been a sharp increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the naira.
As a result of the government’s reform agenda, he observed that millions of Nigerians have been reduced to a life of grinding poverty, wanton suffering, and untold hardship as never before in the country’s history.
In a bid to survive, he added that an increasing number of the poor have resorted to begging, with more than 80 million Nigerians living under the poverty line of less than two dollars a day in the country, according to the recent disclosure of the World Bank, which is the world’s second-largest poor population after India.
He said, “While many impoverished Nigerians continue to suffer and die as a result of the hardship caused by the government’s economic reforms, the president has continued to urge the populace to make even more and more sacrifices with the assurance that brighter days lay ahead.”
