By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko

This last week of May 2026 has entered the history book as the one in which the head of the over 2 billion membership Roman Catholic Church made landmark policies on two key issues that dominate human history and constitute cogs in achieving the fullest development of humanity: slavery and the emerging science of artificial intelligence or AI in a short form.

For us in Nigeria and the black continent of Africa, the theme of slavery is something we are very passionate about going by the vast amount of consequences of this practice by the foreign forces who invaded our continent and seize all of the homelands of the different communities of the black world and converted our ancestors into captives through slave trade and colonisation of these nation states for nearly one hundred years.

The truth is that nearly a hundred years after the end of slavery, contemporary Africans are still asking questions to ascertain why their forefathers were subjected to the indignity of slavery by the White colonial slave drivers.

Some Africans have canvassed the payment of compensations/reparations by the western societies that benefitted enormously from the enslavement of our forefathers.

The Church was also blamed for sanctioning the practice. This is what the current hierarchy of the World’s most populous religious body has decided to apologise for.

In the same week, the Pope spoke too about the dangers to humanity by the fast development science of Artificial intelligence in the areas of losing opportunities by man to work as man but instead the robots created and infused with artificial intelligence could be positioned to take over some of the critical intellectual tasks that human beings are now doing and if this happens, then humanity is in a state of catastrophic end. This is because if artificially built robots are activated to take over the basic jobs that man as man is positioned to do, what then is the essence of living? Life without work is not worth living.

This is what the Pope is calling attention to and the World must listen, the Scientific community must be regulated to slow it down on the evolution of AI. Here is how the two key developments unfolded in the Vatican city. The Pope made the policy statement in his first ever social Encyclical as reported by the Vatican News.

At the presentation of his first social encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV appealed for artificial intelligence to be placed firmly at the service of humanity, warning against technologies that foster domination, exclusion and war.
Addressing participants gathered in the Synod Hall on Monday for the presentation of the encyclical, the Pope described the current technological revolution as an “epochal turning point” comparable to the upheaval confronted by Pope Leo XIII during the Industrial Revolution.
“Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence, he said, noting that it is also “dramatically changing how war is waged.”

A new “Rerum Novarum” moment
Drawing a direct parallel with Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIV said the Church today is likewise called to interpret the “new things” of the age in the light of the Gospel and the dignity of the human person.
He explained that Magnifica Humanitas emerged from extensive listening to scientists, engineers, educators, political leaders and families concerned about the future of younger generations. At the same time, he said he had heard “very troubling voices” regarding autonomous weapons systems and algorithms capable of denying access to healthcare, employment or security based on unjust and prejudiced data.
From that process of discernment, the Pope said, came a conviction expressed clearly in the encyclical: “artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed.”
Acknowledging the forcefulness of the phrase, Pope Leo XIV said the gravity of the present moment requires words capable of “awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.”

Technology and moral responsibility:
Recalling the Church’s longstanding support for nuclear disarmament, the Pope said every great technological power must be accompanied by moral discernment and public accountability.
“In a similar sense, artificial intelligence now demands to be ‘disarmed,’ freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion or death,” he said.
Quoting Saint Paul’s exhortation to “keep awake” (1 Thess 5:6), the Holy Father warned that peace itself is endangered whenever technology weakens humanity’s critical sense and moral vigilance.
Yet the Pope stressed that the task before humanity is not merely to restrain dangerous technologies, but also to build a more just future together.
“No one rebuilds alone”

Reflecting on his years as a missionary in Peru, Pope Leo XIV recalled the devastation caused by torrential rains and floods in 2017, saying he learned there that rebuilding involves far more than restoring physical structures.
“It means repairing bonds, restoring trust, and reawakening hope in the future,” he said, adding that “no one rebuilds alone.”
The Pope then turned to the biblical figure of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, presenting the image as a model for the ethical construction of the digital age.
“Artificial intelligence can be a construction site of history from within a horizon of communion, in which technical progress learns to serve human life,” he said.
The human person at the centre
Citing Saint Paul VI’s teaching that authentic development concerns “each man and the whole man,” Pope Leo XIV insisted that no one must be excluded from digital transformation and that human beings can never be reduced to “productivity,” “cognitive performance,” or “mere data.”
“The person bears within him – or herself – a freedom, an interiority and a vocation to love and worship that no machine can replace or block,” he said.
The Holy Father called for cooperation among nations, institutions, technology developers, and those most affected by technological systems in order to ensure that advances in artificial intelligence benefit the entire human family rather than “a privileged few.”

A “civilisation of love”:
Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the Church’s desire to contribute “with humility and frankness” to global conversations on artificial intelligence, not by offering technical expertise, but by safeguarding a vision of the human person rooted in dignity, conscience and openness to God.
Inviting all people to become “artisans of hope,” the Pope urged believers and non-believers alike to work together toward “a more human and fraternal society.”
Entrusting the initiative to the Virgin Mary, whose Magnificat “sings of the greatness of God who uplifts the lowly,” the Holy Father prayed that the “civilisation of love” envisioned by Saint Paul VI and Saint John Paul II may continue to mature in history.

Corollary, the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology for Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery:

Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the role the Holy See itself played in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”

Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope has ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes themselves played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, (“Magnificent Humanity”), which was released Monday.

The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Leo raised the trans-Atlantic slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling, such as the unregulated labor required to procure rare minerals needed for AI chips.

In doing so, Leo responded to decades of calls by Black American Catholics, activists and scholars for the Holy See to atone for its own role in the colonial-era trade in human beings.

It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Centuries of legitimizing slavery for European colonizers:

The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere.

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”

That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

Nicholas V’s permissions to the Portuguese were confirmed or renewed by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Pope Sixtus IV in 1481, and Pope Leo X in 1514, according to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.”

Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas.

In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren’t to be enslaved.

Holy See late to condemn slavery, Leo says

In his encyclical, Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888, though that was long after many countries had already abolished it. Before that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, even church institutions had slaves.

In acknowledging the Holy See’s own role and the 15th-century papal bulls, Leo wrote in his encyclical: “Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of ‘infidels.'”

Leo said that it wasn’t possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today’s standards.

“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” he said.

The pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he said.

Leo said that the church today must firmly condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution “if we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith.”

Leo’s own family history and past apologies:

During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not for the popes’ own role in it. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, which was the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in The New York Times.

During a visit to Angola last month, Leo prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. While at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, Leo recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, but he didn’t refer specifically to slavery.
Source: Vatican News.

*Why do we need reparations for slavery and colonialism given that they happened so long ago?*

Slavery, the slave trade and colonialism are not only harms of the past. For racialised people, including Indigenous Peoples, the legacies of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism persist in present day structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality.

These legacies remain among the primary barriers to the full enjoyment of human rights by racialised people including Indigenous Peoples throughout the world today. The historical harms of slavery and colonialism are therefore inextricably linked to present racial injustices, global inequality and human rights violations.

There is growing recognition by international human rights bodies and mechanisms that the legacies of slavery, including the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism require urgent reparatory justice.

*What atrocities were committed under European colonial rule?*

It is estimated that between 25 million and 30 million people were violently uprooted from Africa for enslavement throughout history. From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, approximately 12.5 million Africans were enslaved by Europeans and shipped to colonies in the Americas in what has come to be known as the “transatlantic slave trade.” Of those 12.5 million enslaved Africans, it is estimated that close to 2 million lost their lives during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean.

The trade in enslaved people did not only affect the African and American continents. For example, between 1500 and 1850, Europeans were also involved, directly or indirectly, in trading between 953,900 to 1,275,900 enslaved persons “within an oceanic world that stretched from eastern Africa and Madagascar to the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos”.

The colonial empires built by European states between the 15th and 20th centuries extended across nearly 80% of the entire globe. This means that two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations, approximately 127 out of 193 Member States, were subject to European colonial rule at some point in history. In many cases, this rule lasted for over 250 years. Among the many harms of colonialism was the denial of self-determination and dispossession of land from Indigenous populations, the imposition of colonial borders, plunder of natural resources, the exploitation of labor of enslaved and colonized peoples, and the destruction of local cultures, languages and knowledge systems. Source: amnesty international.

I think both the Holy Father, Amnesty international and other prominent campaigners who have consistently advocated for a lasting apology for slavery and payment of compensations by Europeans and the USA, are right. My proposal is that the United Nations, the World Bank and other international organisations should hold a world Forum on slavery and agree on the way forward to actualize the goal of the agitation by Africans for the payment of reparations to the Afrucan nations for slavery so the world brings to an end this inglorious chapter of human history. Thank you Holy Father for your forthrightness and for the massive show of honesty and humility in tendering this unreserved apology and for adding your profoundly eminent voice to call for scientists to be regulated in their development and advancements of Artificial intelligence. This is the agenda of the global human society. We must have our unconditional support for this Papsl.advocacy of justice and transparency.

*EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). HE is a journalist and author of three books.

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By George Mgbeleke

PROMINENT Pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) expresses grave concern over emerging warnings from continental and global health authorities indicating a renewed and expanding Ebola threat across parts of Africa.

The situation, if not urgently contained, carries significant risks for Nigeria given our population density, cross-border mobility, and historically vulnerable health surveillance systems.

In a statement signed by National Coordinator Human Rights Writers Association, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko,reports from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that no fewer than ten African countries are currently assessed to be at risk of Ebola transmission due to ongoing outbreaks in Central and East Africa. The countries identified include Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia.

The agency has attributed this elevated risk to a combination of factors, including high population movement across porous borders, insecurity in conflict-prone regions, and weak health infrastructure in several affected states. These conditions create fertile ground for cross-border disease transmission.

This warning comes in the wake of earlier emergency declarations by the World Health Organization (WHO) which classified the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern due to its lethality, rapid transmission potential, and historically high fatality rates.

Ebola remains one of the most dangerous viral diseases known to humanity, spreading through direct contact with infected bodily fluids and often progressing rapidly to severe hemorrhagic illness, organ failure, and death if not contained early.

HURIWA’S POSITION: NIGERIA CANNOT AFFORD COMPLACENCY:
HURIWA is alarmed that, despite these clear and credible warnings, Nigeria has yet to publicly communicate a comprehensive, structured, and visible national preparedness framework comparable to the coordinated response mechanisms effectively deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PROMINENT CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION HURIWA recalls that during the COVID-19 crisis, Nigeria demonstrated that coordinated federal-state collaboration, daily public briefings, and mass sensitization campaigns were essential in limiting the spread of the virus. That same urgency and transparency must now be replicated—without delay.

We are particularly concerned that there is currently insufficient public-facing information outlining:
The Federal Government’s updated Ebola preparedness strategy
The level of readiness of isolation centres nationwide
The state of border surveillance and screening mechanisms
The deployment status of rapid response teams across states
The communication strategy for rural and high-risk communities
Silence or ambiguity at this stage is unacceptable.

URGENT CALL FOR A NATIONAL EBOLA PREVENTION AND RESPONSE PLAN:
HURIWA therefore calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately activate a full-scale National Ebola Prevention and Preparedness Framework coordinated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with state governments.

This framework must include:
1. NATIONAL AND STATE-LEVEL EMERGENCY ACTIVATION
Every state must have a clearly defined Ebola response protocol, not a centralized document sitting in Abuja without implementation at the grassroots.
2. BORDER AND ENTRY POINT SURVEILLANCE
Enhanced screening must be enforced at all land borders, airports, and seaports, including surveillance for travelers from high-risk countries.
3. DAILY PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT CAMPAIGNS
The Federal Government must immediately launch continuous awareness programs across:
National television networks
Radio stations in all geopolitical zones
Community broadcasting systems
Social media platforms
These messages must be delivered in English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and other major Nigerian languages to ensure nationwide comprehension.
4. HEALTH SYSTEM READINESS AND TRANSPARENCY
The government must urgently disclose the readiness status of:
Isolation centres
Personal protective equipment stockpiles
Ambulance and emergency response systems
Laboratory diagnostic capacity
5. FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKER PROTECTION
Medical personnel must be provided with adequate training, protective equipment, and risk allowances to prevent hospital-based transmission.
6. PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AND DAILY BRIEFINGS
We demand the reintroduction of structured, regular national briefings to keep citizens informed and prevent misinformation, panic, or rumor-driven anxiety.

A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND HUMAN SURVIVAL:
Ebola is not merely a medical issue; it is a national security threat, an economic disruption risk, and a humanitarian emergency in waiting. Any delay in response could result in devastating consequences for Nigeria’s healthcare system and economy.
The lessons of past outbreaks are clear: early detection, rapid communication, and aggressive containment save lives. Delay, denial, and silence cost lives.
HURIWA therefore warns that Nigeria must not wait for confirmation of local cases before acting. Prevention is always more effective—and far less costly—than crisis response.

CONCLUSION
HURIWA calls on all relevant authorities, including federal and state governments, health agencies, and border security institutions, to treat this warning with the urgency it deserves.
Nigeria must move immediately from passive observation to active prevention.
Anything less would be a failure of leadership and a betrayal of public trust.

By George Mgbeleke

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has launched a blistering attack on the Federal Government over what it described as “dangerous silence and double standards” surrounding controversial comments by Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, demanding his immediate investigation and possible prosecution under Nigeria’s anti-terrorism laws.

In a fiery statement issued on Saturday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the rights group warned that Nigeria risks legitimising terrorism if influential figures accused of making statements perceived as sympathetic to bandits continue to escape scrutiny.

HURIWA said the nation was stunned by Gumi’s recent appearance on AIT on May 19, during which he reportedly urged Nigerians to “learn how to live with terrorists” while also suggesting that bandits depend on kidnapping proceeds to sustain their war against government forces.
The organisation described the remarks as reckless, provocative, insensitive, and potentially capable of emboldening violent criminal gangs that have turned large parts of Nigeria into killing fields.

According to HURIWA, at a time when communities are being sacked daily by armed groups, schoolchildren abducted, travellers kidnapped on highways, and farmers driven away from their lands, no public figure should make statements that appear to rationalise terrorism or portray mass murderers as unavoidable partners in coexistence.

The group backed calls earlier made by activist lawyer Deji Adeyanju for Gumi to face prosecution under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, insisting that the law clearly criminalises not only direct acts of terrorism but also support, encouragement, justification, or ideological sympathy capable of aiding terrorist operations.

HURIWA accused the Federal Government of operating a selective justice system, arguing that authorities have aggressively pursued separatist figures such as Nnamdi Kanu over alleged inflammatory broadcasts while allegedly overlooking repeated controversial comments linked to armed bandit groups in the North.

“The fight against terrorism cannot be selective. A nation that punishes one set of voices while shielding others destroys the moral foundation of justice and weakens public trust in the rule of law,” the group declared.

HURIWA further warned that failure to decisively address statements perceived as sympathetic to terrorists could send a dangerous signal that violent groups enjoy ideological protection from powerful interests.

The advocacy organisation said Nigerians are exhausted by bloodshed, mass abductions, and insecurity, stressing that leaders—especially religious leaders—must speak in ways that strengthen national unity and support security efforts rather than create ambiguity around terrorism.

The group therefore called on the Department of State Services, the Office of the National Security Adviser, and the Attorney-General of the Federation to immediately launch a comprehensive investigation into Gumi’s statements and determine whether criminal liability exists under extant laws.

HURIWA maintained that no democracy can survive where terrorism is normalised through rhetoric, defended through silence, or treated with political caution