Kaigama Urges Global Sanctions against Corrupt Government Leaders

Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama yesterday asked the international community to consider imposing sanctions on those he described as insensitive leaders who corruptly enrich themselves and fail to provide for the wellbeing of their citizens

While delivering his Homily at the Church of Annunciation, Arab Road, Kubwa, Abuja, Kaigama said that leaders should allow themselves to be used by God to reach out to the needy.

He said: "Political leaders in Nigeria should ensure that nobody should go to bed hungry, feel unsafe in his/her environment or become so poor as to be unable to access the necessities of life: water, light, education, healthcare, food, shelter, etc.

"I imagine that the international community can put pressure on insensitive leaders who corruptly enrich themselves and provide no social security for their people, leave youths largely unemployed, and spend so much on governance,” he said.

He argued that the rights of the less-privileged must be put on the front burner, maintaining that the international community must do more to pressure Nigerian leaders to serve the people who elected them.

"When can the rights of the poor, victims terrorised by religious bigots and terrorists, kidnappers, be put on the front burner of the hierarchy of priorities of the international community?

“How I wish the international community would confront our leaders who govern badly and pressurise them to fight poverty, diseases and immorality.

"Unfortunately, powerful nations seem to provide more support for war, easier services for abortion, zealously promoting the rights of same-sex couples, but weakly respond to the issues of poverty, hunger, and disease and a host of anomalies," he stressed.