A civil society organisation, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has declared the papal invitation of President Bola Tinubu to the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV is undeserved.
A statement made available to journalists on Saturday, Intersociety said the invitation stands rejected.
It predicated its stand on the allegation that Christians were being killed in Nigeria on a daily basis.
The statement was signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Lead-Researcher/Head, Intersociety, Chinwe Umeche, Head, Democracy and Good Governance, Ekene Umeagu, Head, Religious Freedom and Human Rights, and Obianuju Igboeli, Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
The rights group claimed that in the two years of Tinubu presidency, “an estimated 15,640 Christians have been killed by Jihadists on average of 7,820 deaths per year, 650 per month, 22 per day and one per hour.
“Estimated 14, 600 Christians abducted on average of 7,300 per year, 608 per month, 20 per day and almost one per hour.
“Out of the estimated 14, 600 abducted Christians, 1,460 (10 percent) died in their captors’ dens.”
Intersociety said based on the above claims, it had “declared as undeserved and totally rejected the papal invitation extended to President Ahmed Tinubu, to attend the inauguration of the 267th Pope of the global Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV.”
It said the Catholics had recorded serious denominational and religious retardation, under-growth and under-development in Nigeria since the Boko Haram Jihadist uprising in July 2009, and the Jihadist Fulani state power conquest since June 2015 to date.
Intersociety also stated that the enlistment of some Catholic bishops in the itinerary of Nigeria’s Presidency to the Vatican was strongly condemnable.
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“It further exposes the conspiracy of the country’s Christian leaders in grisly and egregious attacks by Jihadists and their patrons against Christians and their properties.
“This, such clerics most likely do by way of being too attached to the country’s top serving political office holders particularly top federal and state executives and legislators.
“It must also be pointed out that much political attachment by top Christian clerics in Nigeria to the country’s top political office holders have brutally robbed Christian leaders of vocal and assertive voicing and powers, particularly in matters of defense of the Christian faith and securement of security and safety of the country’s lay Christians.
“It is therefore our insistence that the country’s Catholic bishops have no business whatsoever having their names in the list of the country’s presidential itinerary to the Vatican for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV,” the group said.
