Nigeria Content Online

Pope Benedict XVI
has advised the Nigerian government to take decisive steps to stop the
human carnage and violence in Jos, Plateau State.

He made the call
through his Apostolic Nuncio, Augustine Kasujja, a reverend, yesterday,
when he visited the Senate president, David Mark, in Abuja.

Mr. Kasujja said
that “the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is worried about the
incessant killings in Jos and wants the crisis put to an end.”

He also expressed
the Pope’s request that Nigeria should consider sending an envoy to the
Vatican saying, “Nigeria is too big not to have an Ambassador in the
Vatican.”

Under consideration

Mr. Mark promised that the country would consider the Pope’s request to deploy an ambassador to the Vatican City, Rome.

At the moment,
Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain oversees the affairs of the mission in
the Vatican. However, the Senate president said sending an ambassador
to Rome would facilitate and improve the bilateral relationship between
both countries.

He reiterated that Nigeria is a secular state where freedom of worship is encouraged.

“We practice
freedom of worship in Nigeria. There is no extremism. We inter marry
across religious lines and we live in harmony between and among
religious groups. That is why Nigeria is a unique country in Africa,”
he said.

Mr. Kasujja also
counselled that Nigeria should conduct its affairs in a manner that
would engender peace, progress and unity among the people. The
Apostolic Nuncio, however, expressed optimism that Nigeria has the
abundant human and economic potentials to lead Africa out of the
economic doldrums.

The Senate
president pledged that Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in
Africa. He added that President Goodluck Jonathan, as chairman of the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is leading the
efforts towards finding a solution to the political impasse in Cote d’
Ivoire.

Concurrent envoy

However, the
spokesperson for the foreign affairs ministry, Tony Ozonwobu, confirmed
to NEXT that the nation’s envoy in Spain is concurrently accredited to
the Vatican.

He noted that “it
is not for any other reason than the diplomatic distinction between the
resident ambassador to Italy and the Vatican, which is a different
state within the same state of Italy. The ambassador to Italy has his
own remit which is the Republic of Italy, while the envoy to Spain is
the one concurrently accredited to the Vatican.”

“When a diplomat is
accredited to a state, whether resident or not is of no consequence;
our ties and diplomatic relations are still engaging,” Mr. Ozonwobu
said.

He stated that he was yet to get the message from the Pope and declined to comment any further.

On what benefit
this relation will have for Nigeria, Gabriel Osu, the director of
social communication with the Archdiocese of Lagos, stated that
establishing the new embassy will save cost for Nigeria.

“It will in effect be easier and smoother for us to run our diplomatic relationship with the Vatican at a lesser cost.”

Monsignor Osu
wondered why the nation’s embassy in Spain is the embassy overseeing
relations with the Vatican while there is a resident ambassador in
Rome. He noted that most Arab countries all have their embassies in the
Vatican.

On how the Vatican
can help deal with religious crises, Mr. Osu stated that it “can only
appeal to the moral conscience and persuasions to the leaders of the
country who have refused to take decisive actions on the lingering
crises, particularly the one in Plateau State.”

Abdulfattah Adeyemi, an Abuja based Islamic scholar, welcomes the idea of sending an ambassador to the Vatican.

“It is part of
where Christians go to for pilgrimage; it will be a very good thing
that there should be a Nigerian ambassador there.”

He appealed to the
government to go out of the box in selecting the envoy, saying that
whoever should represent Nigeria in the Vatican should be someone who
can represent all sects of Christians, and the entire country’s image
with sound administrative qualities.

He also supported
the Pope’s call for a decisive action on Jos. He said the crises is a
national issue which cannot wait and that it should be handled with the
same manner the Niger Delta issue was resolved.