By etop ekanem
THE Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), has described the closure of schools because of the ongoing voter  registration  as undemocratic, saying: “a democratic government cannot rule via radio and television as if we are in a military regime.”

Justifying the Catholic Church’s decision to open its school in defiance of the government’s directive, CBCN, in a letter written to the Minister of Education and signed by the President, Most Rev. Felix Alaba Job, the Archbishop of Ibadan, the bishops said: “we want to note for record purposes that the announcement made requesting the closure of schools was viewed  by us as undemocratic.

The government, in matters as important as this issue at hand, should have reached out to the stakeholders before the announcement of this nature as many issues and peoples rights are involved. The children in our nursery primary and secondary schools are not eligible to register and so depriving them of studies this period is unethical.

“Some have resumed before the announcement and to send them home is most unfair to them and their parents. These schools are not subvented by government and it is unjust to ask us to pay or even not to pay salaries to teachers for not working for two months of the year.

The closure of our schools will bring a strain on the academic year—syllabus, teachers and students.”

They, however, said the Catholic Church in Nigeria was prepared to co-operate with government to make the  voter registration a success so that “we may have credible, just and fair elections. We, therefore, request an urgent dialogue with government so that our procative remarks might yield positive measure for our nation”.