News just broke, a Nigerian Catholic Priest reportedly died by suicide in the US after he was redeployed back to Nigeria.
Pause on that sentence.
A man of God. A man trained to preach hope. A man who has seen suffering, prayed with the sick, buried the dead, and still chose death over coming home.
If altar boys, market women, and students dey run, we understand. But when a Reverend Father prefers death to redeployment, that is not just sadness. That is an indictment.
What kind of country makes its own priests afraid to come back? What kind of “home” feels more like exile?
This is what “failed state” looks like in human form. Not just bad roads or light wahala. It is when the people who should be shepherds are running from the flock because the wolves have taken over.
Insecurity. Extortion. Kidnapping. Hunger. Hopelessness. Priests have been kidnapped on highways. Churches attacked. Parishes closed. Yet Abuja keeps giving us press releases and prayers instead of policy.
We cannot keep normalizing this. You cannot build a nation where citizens, even men of the collar, would rather die abroad than live at home.
Government must stop calling Nigeria “the giant of Africa” and start asking why its own giants are jumping off cliffs.
Until Nigeria becomes safe, just, and livable, we will keep losing our best to japa, to silence, and now, tragically, to suicide.
A priest’s death is not just a church matter. It is a national emergency.
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bcradle@ymail.com
