The Catholic Bishops of Kaduna, Abuja and Jos Ecclesiastical Provinces have bemoaned the level of insecurity, rising costs of living and social pressures stretching families to breaking point.

After a meeting in Kaduna, the Bishops warned that increasing kidnappings, killings and attacks on farming communities in Northern Nigeria are fuelling fear, displacement and hunger.

They urged governments and security agencies to intensify protection of lives and farmlands, noting that peace cannot thrive where justice is weak.

They also condemned expensive wedding customs creeping into church marriages, saying these “imported practices” are turning matrimony into a financial burden for families and communities.

They pledged to guide intending couples away from needless extravagance.

On the economy, the clerics acknowledged government efforts to bring down food prices, but stressed that high costs of fertiliser, fuel and farm inputs, are hurting farmers, undermining food security and deepening rural poverty

They called for fairer, better-coordinated agricultural policies and stronger support for small-scale farmers.

The Bishops however, released the good news of the release of over 230 abducted pupils and staff of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papari, and the election of the Bishop of Yola as First Vice-President of SECAM

They called for unity, dialogue and ethical use of digital media to counter misinformation, insisting that “hope never dies”.