2015-03-16 18:53:00

The Bishop of Enugu Diocese in Nigeria lectures on the importance of Catholic education in overcoming the ills of the country


The Bishop of Enugu Diocese in Nigeria recently spoke about the importance of Catholic education in overcoming the problems facing African’s most populous nation. Below is the report by the Catholic News Service of Nigeria.

 

BISHOP ONAH OUTLINES IMPORTANCE OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

ABUJA, NIGERIA - Mar 14, 2015 (CNSNg.org):

Bishop Godfrey Onah of Enugu Diocese has asserted that Catholic University Education is a vital pivot in finding solutions to crisis of values in Nigeria. The bishop affirmed this believe in his presentation at the 2015 Convocation Lecture of the Catholic Veritas University of Nigeria, Abuja, (VUNA). The theme of his lecture was: Catholic Education and the Crisis of Values in Nigeria. The ceremony took place recently, at the Conference Hall of the National University Commission (NUC), Abuja.

According to the bishop: “Catholic education, especially, Catholic higher education, can help the Nigerian society in its search for the best way to handle this crisis. For a Catholic University has some specific characteristics that equip her for a fruitful dialogue with different cultures in such a way as to not only transmit the values of a culture but also to reflect critically on them and on the other aspects of culture.”

Bishop Onah speaking extensively on Crisis of Values in Contemporary Nigerian Cultures, enumerated the causes of this crisis, particularly in the context of the modern-day world; stressing: “Contact with persons of other cultures, natural disasters, wars, changing social conditions, significant demographical changes and, above all, the infinitely fertile and creative imagination of human beings which drives their inventive skills, these are among the many things that occasion cultural changes.”

He added: “Sometimes cultural changes are slow and superficial. At other times, they are rapid and profound. Hardly any culture in Nigeria has remained immune to change, even those that are presumably cut off from contacts with other cultures.”

The local ordinary of Enugu Diocese, using visible examples did a comparative analysis of how the agents of modern-day civilization and development  have affected societal life and cultures of the country.  The lecturer gave a few examples to buttress his point. He said:  “The modern means of rapid and mass communication have changed our way of being a community and our method of education. The personal encounter that was the only way of exchanging information and emotions is being rapidly replaced by the virtual, emotionless, encounter of the social media, with the attendant risk of creating a mass of lonely persons in a crowded virtual space. “

The Bishop further stated: “Many of our young people now have their opinions and characters formed and, in some cases, deformed, not in the classrooms or in the Churches they attend with their parents but through the home video, the internet and other forms of social network and by whichever pastor they may choose for a particular moment and for a particular need (there is now a difference between “going to a church” and “worshipping in a church”: “I go to church at the Holy Trinity Church Maitama, but I worship at the Church of the Selected of Christ, Wuse II”). This change in the source of knowledge and sense of security has, in turn, eroded our traditional concept and value of authority, domestic as well as religious.

He continued: “The aggressive market economy is replacing solidarity with competition. Urbanization and improved social conditions have transformed our understanding of family. Our population is growing larger but our families are growing smaller. Such values as discipline, altruism, fraternal solidarity and sharing which were normal values in larger families within a village setting, are more difficult to communicate in families with only one child or at most two children in urban centres. Furthermore, when young and overexploited nannies take the place of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and older cousins in the earliest years of a child, one should not expect such a child be a living repertoire of the village folklore with its rich treasury of values.”

The bishop added: “Perhaps, but only perhaps, we may not be sufficiently aware of how much successive military dictatorships and the Nigeria-Biafra war have contributed to creating the present culture of violence in our society, where far too many people now see it as normal, or at least feel no outrage, when some people forcefully take what is not theirs, and where immunity has taken the place of accountability for persons in public offices.”

Bishop Onah speaking on the specific Character and Mission of a Catholic University, went on to articulate how Catholic higher education can help solve the crisis of values in the country because “a Catholic University can engage the Nigerian cultures on a wider range of issues and with greater variety of methods and instruments.”

The lecturer traced the genesis of university education in the world stressing that the Catholic Church was a principal facilitator modern European Universities established in the 12th century “under the pastoral and juridical guidance of Popes and Bishops”. Outlining the challenges before VUNA, the lecturer emphasized that: Education is about transformation, about empowerment, about actualizing the potential hidden within each person.” 








All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.