By Justine John Dyikuk
Youths in Nigeria have been described as the “wealth of the Church” on whose enthusiasm lies the future of the Church.
This charge was given by the Deputy Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Abuja, Father Michael ‘Leke Banjo at a training for Youth Chaplains across the 51 dioceses in the country held recently.
According to Father Banjo, “Youths are the wealth of the Church and the future of the Church depends to a very large extent on them.”
The cleric also maintained that “In the Church, youth ministry is held in very high esteem and the reason for this is clear” namely that “If the youths of today are well formed, then the future, not only of the Church but also of the state is, very bright.”
Citing a former US President, J.F. Kennedy, who once said “the future promise of any nation (entity) can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youths,” he emphasized that “we can conveniently say to you, Youth Chaplains, that the Church has committed its future into your hands and looks up to you to help build a promising future.”
On the current strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the priest maintained that “While bemoaning the government’s deplorable attitude in the face of the ASUU strike, which has kept our youths away from their institutions of learning for too long, we are grateful to you, Chaplains, for your commitment to forming our youths.”
He further expressed appreciation to the Chaplains for “for contributing to the growth of the Church and the development of Nigeria. Some areas of concern and the need for strategic response.”
He expressed satisfaction with the Secretary of the CSN unit for youths, Fr. Boniface Idoko, for his hardwork and for organising this training, his predecessor, Fr. Mark Obayifor a job well done and other resource persons for taking out time to enrich the body of chaplains in the country with valuable knowledge.
The cleric siezed the occasion to draw the attention of his colleagues to the monsters of modernism and secularism infiltrating the vary fabric of African cultural values and the faith.
“With the turbulent wave of secularism, wide-spread corruption of the true faith, moral decadence, relativism and other crisis of faith around us, there is a great and urgent need for the unchanging and saving message of Christ to be diffused and be made to become alive and active in the lives of our youths” said he.
He also observed that “in contemporary times, we are experiencing a surge in the number of youths who are turning to traditional worship for various reasons; some in search in power and some, in search of wealth, which is connected to the yahoo yahoo syndrome, which has become very prevalent.
“There are those who are building the ideology that we must go back to the faith of our fathers. This is worrisome and calls for strategic response on our part. We must urgently work towards developing a response that is capable of leading the youths towards holistic development and maturity.”
Father Banjo also underlined that as Chaplains, their ministry is built on five pillars which include inculcating faith, morals, human and character formation, academic enhancement and career development.
On top of that, the cleric argued that youths across the country must take to entrepreneurial, leadership and vocational skills as well as getting the right information about human sexuality which would prepare them adequately for marriage, family life and care for the underprivileged and the environment.
He reminded priests to “realize the urgency of the matter” while urging the participants to take advantage of the training to take the youth apostolate in Nigeria to the next level.
The latest Labour Force report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that unemployment among young Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 34 is the highest in the country, with 21.72 million or 42.5 per cent of the 29.94 young Nigerians in the labour force unemployed, while the national unemployment rate stood at 33.3 percent as at December 2020.
According to econometric models, Nigeria’s youth unemployment rate is projected to trend around 53.00 percent in 2022 and 51.00 percent in 2023.
It is expected that the training of Youth Chaplains across the 51 dioceses grouped into 9 provinces, serving about 30 million Catholics in the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja would prepare them to further impact the lives of young people in the country towards mitigating restiveness and redundancy in matters of faith and integral development.
