World Communication Day: Nigeria’s Constitution Faulty, Needs Reform, Says Catholic Bishop

Fidelis David in Akure

The Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Most Revered Dr Jude Ayodeji Arogundade, yesterday  charged media practitioners to always propagate the truth in the course of discharging their duties.

This is just as Bishop Arogundade faulted the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, saying the country needed a constitution that will reflect the genuine will of the citizens.

The Catholic Bishop stated this during  his homily to mark the 57th edition of the World Communication Day (WCD) held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral in Akure with the theme: “Speaking with the Heart, the Truth in Love”.

Bishop Arogundade said this year’s WCD was an invitation to journalists to champion truthful reportage that promote society, love, tolerance and brings about development, stressing that by so doing, they are propagating the Christ who is truth Himself.

His words: “Media practitioners have a lot to do. What you have to do is to write about truth, not minding who is out there, not comfortable with the truth. We need a country first, we need a nation first.” 

“Our constitution is  under a great trial because of so long, people have treated it as worthless, not even worth the paper which it is written. I don’t know how you can have a free and fair election under a constitution that is not free and fair.

“I want you to know that the world communication’s day is a great time for us to truly express those things that matters to the unity, love and greatness of our country and as a people. Who are we as a nation? What is the goal of our nation? And what are we doing about so many disagreements? The  infighting, lack of contentment, and all that is going on in our country at the moment.

“And when we look at our country, we say, it is a heavily christian country and we know that many of us who are present here today, whether you are a Muslim or Christian , we all have come together as a people to live together as one, as a nation and to work for the good of everyone as a nation and it is the duty of you media practitioners to work hard to see that whatever message you present out there brings about peace, unity and about progress

“What kind of unity and progress are we talking about? It has to come from love and justice. In a couple of days, we will be swearing -in a new president and all over the country, there is tension here and there. People have disagreed over all kinds of things. In this country, we have disagreement over everything,” the Bishop stressed.

Speaking on the current challenges bedeviling the nation and his agenda for the incoming president, Bishop Arogundade faulted the  1999 Constitution, saying the 1999 edition was built on a faulty foundation.

“When you think about this country very well, you think about it deeply, it is not INEC that is on trial, it is not APC or any political party that is on trial. What is on trial is Nigeria’s constitution. You want to talk about rigged election? First, deal with rigged constitution. You want to talk about Nigeria, please, talk about the amalgamation.

“Somebody once said that Nigeria wasn’t founded, it was amalgamated. It is time for us to see that we’ve gotten it wrong from the begging and anyone who is coming to power at the moment must begin to think that how can we have a nation. A country that everybody belongs to,  a country that we can all be proud about. Not a country where people will invade and begin to kill citizens like chickens all around and the government will ask you to give up your land for these invaders.

“A country where people behave anyhow and expect  the best? It doesn’t work that way. We must find a platform where everyone and that is the duty of you media practitioners in this country to bring everybody together under shared values, shared platforms. A platform where we can discuss and live together and respect one another and grow together as people,” he added.

In his goodwill message, Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Ondo Council,  Leke Adegbite charged journalists to continue to uphold the tenets of journalism by reporting the truth, calling on practitioners to always crosscheck and verify their information before publishing.