The Archbishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Bishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso yesterday lampooned the Governments of Nigeria for piling up huge taxes burden on Missionary schools in Nigeria who are obviously filling up the gaps in educational institution.
Ndagoso who spoke during the thanksgiving Mass for Sacred Heart School after the Supreme Court Victory that returned the school to the Catholic Church in Kaduna Archdiocese, maintained that ” It is the responsibility of the Government to provide quality education for Nigerian children especially at the first 6 years foundational classes. They won’t allow us to do our best with the little money we have they are bringing all manner of taxes to cripple us and frustrate us meanwhile we are helping the public by providing Basic Education for all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and religion”
According to Archbishop Ndagoso, “Nigeria’s Education has become what it is after taking over schools in the early 70s. Remove the missionaries school there were no schools and the few schools were for the elites and well those who took over schools may have meant well but looking at what is happening now they must be regretting now, they have scattered the education and have destroyed it completely. They should go to the rural areas and see what education has become. The education system has become in a sorry state and only those extremely rich can afford private schools but as a church our missionary schools are public schools and we don’t discriminate everybody goes to our schools a man with or without religion can go to our schools”
Narrating how the school started, he revealed that” This school was originally built by us, (the Catholic Church) by my predecessor Archbishop Mycathy SMA and you know the Sisters rallied around with management as it was established to cater for the children of the elite especially when the textiles were established, the foreigners who came here to work were looking for a good school for their children and at that time Capital school was the only school that catered for the Children of the Elite and it was not enough and therefore the Lebanese Community went to my predecessor and requested that a school be established for their children and so this school was established with the OAL Sisters taking care of it.”
” Along the line, because of the way it was established, few parents were selected to constitute as the board and then came the Government takeover of Schools and so the school was not taken over by Government officially but some individuals who were on the Board decided to take the School and turn it to their own and that was how the battle began, a battle that lasted for nearly 40 years. The people in the Board were claiming the school is their own so my predecessor stood his ground going through the Court process for almost forty years, it was only in January 2019 that the Supreme Court gave the school back to us. As we got back the school in 2019, the COVID-19 came and a lot of things happened but we took over and we started reorganizing our it and since then I have been trying to come but I said let’s things settle first before I come officially to visit the school, so today I have come, I said let’s us organized Mass of thanksgiving to God for what has happened it could have gone the other way but the truth can’t be hidden. Even when the truth is glaring people use whatever means to change things but God helped us using Barrister Toroh SAN who fought from the beginning all these years to the Supreme Court in 2019 pro bono for the Archdiocese of Kaduna, so this is my official visit to the school so we are saying the Mass of thanksgiving to appreciate God and all those God use along the line especially Barrister Toroh SAN and his team to bring back the school to us.
