The Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II, receiving a gift of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria during a courtesy visit to his palace in Benin City on October 12th,2017.
PROFILE
Born in the Nigerian State of Taraba on the 31st July, 1958, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama was ordained a Catholic priest in 1981. In 1995, he became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Jalingo, the capital city of his home State of Taraba. In 2000, he was installed as the Archbishop of Jos, capital of Plateau State and on 11th March 2019, the Holy Father Pope Francis appointed him Coadjutor Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja and he took full possession as Archbishop of Abuja in December 2019. Archbishop Kaigama is the founder of the Dialogue, Reconciliation, and Peace Centre, Jos (2011). He was elected President of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) in 2015 and also served as the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) for six years.
He has held positions as Chair of the Plateau State Inter-Religious Council for Peace and Harmony and Chair of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Plateau State for years. He was also a member of the Solomon Lar Presidential Committee mandated by the Federal Government to look into the causes of the Plateau ethno-religious crises and to proffer ways of bringing them to an end. He travels all around the world to speak about peace and share his experience of dialogue/interfaith collaboration and peace-building efforts.
His Grace holds a PhD in spiritual theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy and two honourary doctorate degrees in Public Administration and Human Resource Management by Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu (2015) and Madonna University (2016) respectively.
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