Pope Francis has appointed as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, currently archbishop of Jos, the Vatican announced March 11, 2019.
Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama was born on 31 July 1958 in Kona, diocese of Jalingo in Nigeria. He studied theology at the “St. Augustine” major seminary in Jos. He was ordained a priest on June 6, 1981, for the diocese of Yola. In 1991 he received a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was appointed as the first bishop of the diocese of Jalingo on February 3, 1995, and was consecrated on 23 April 1995. He was transferred to the metropolitan see of the Archdiocese of Jos on April 14, 2000.
Since 2015 he has been president of the Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA-CERAO), and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization from July 25, 2012.
He is the former president of the C.B.C.N., the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (2012-2018).
