Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of “dividing our people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region, in a level that we have never observed in our history,” on Sunday.
In his Easter Message to the Church and Nigerians, Kukah stated that Nigeria’s difficulties and concerns extend beyond the 2023 elections.
He bemoaned the government’s vulnerability, saying it had “ignited the most contentious form of identity consciousness among the people.”
“Stereotyping has put a strain on the years of friendships, cultural interchange, and collaboration that have been developed through time.
Despite these obstacles, religious leaders must regain their moral authority and resist falling prey to politicians’ plans and material enticements, according to the Catholic Bishop.
“With radicals from both sides of our faiths rejecting the idea of discussion with their counterparts of other faiths,” he said, “the values of interfaith dialogue have come under significant strain and pressure.”
“Prejudice has coupled with ignorance and miseducation to create the lie that one religion is somehow better to the others.”
With so many ill-equipped crooks acting as religious leaders, there is a compulsion to defame others and expand our horizons.
“In recent years, we’ve received some encouraging news from beyond Nigeria’s borders. The move taken by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque, Shaikh Mohammed Al-Tayeb, in 2019, when the two met and signed the Document on Human Fraternity, is the most notable. In 2020, Pope Francis issued an encyclical titled “Fratelli Tutti, We Are All Brothers,” which he dubbed “Fratelli Tutti, We Are All Brothers.” The General Assembly of the United Nations recognized February 4th as World Day of Fraternity the following year. ‘We need to foster the consciousness that currently, we are either all saved together or no one is saved,’ both leaders agreed.
Poverty, depravity, and suffering in one corner of the world serve as a silent breeding ground for issues that will eventually afflict the entire planet.”
“We need to think of a Nigeria beyond banditry and kidnapping and the continuous spirals of violence that have swallowed our towns and nation,” Kukah added.
We can no longer pretend that the violence in the name of God that has tarnished our religions has no theological implications. The only way out is for the Nigerian state to impose its secular status, allowing citizens to be free of the shackles of semi-feudal uncertainty about the relationship of religion and the state in a plural democracy.
“We must be willing to embrace modernity and figure out how to retain our religions and cultures without turning religion become a tool of oppression, exclusion, and dictatorship.”
“In charting our course forward,” he said, “the President must accept that it is within his power to decide how we will end the war that has enveloped and is ripping our nation apart.”
The federal administration appears to be far more committed to integrating so-called repentant terrorists than to reuniting kidnapped children or keeping our universities open. Operation Safe Corridor stated earlier this month that it had graduated 599 members of various terrorist groups who had learned new skills and were now ready to integrate back into society.
“The total currently exceeds a thousand.” The program is likely to include psychosocial assistance, rehabilitation, vocational training, skill acquisition, and start-ups.
“Despite all of this, the main issue is that their respective communities have expressed apprehension about receiving their erring sons back. Nigerians have no access to the transcripts of these terrorists’ confessions, let alone evidence of their promise to not sin again: “All we have are the terrorists’ statements and the military with which they have been fighting a war.
It says a lot when the President and his military hierarchy choose to believe these young men who took up guns and conducted war against their country for years, killing, maiming, and destroying entire villages, and now they’re being housed, fed, and clothed using public monies,” he continued.
“All the while, their victims have been compelled to make the numerous IDP camps their new homes!” Kukah said. Where is the justice for the victims, as well as the rest of the country, that they have ruined?”
As a priest, he stated he couldn’t be against a repentant sinner or a criminal changing their ways because “after all, the doors of forgiveness must always remain open.”
“However, Nigerians in this case have very little knowledge of the complete rehabilitation process.” Is their remorse merely a strategic and tactical repositioning, or have these terrorists felt the heat or seen the light? So far, there is no proof that these terrorists have been able to approach their victims, let alone ask for forgiveness. Something isn’t right. These terrorists are dressed in our national colors, wearing green and white kaftans and trousers, and appear to be state heroes!” Are we to believe that they have established themselves as role models for Nigerian youth? Perhaps the next graduating class will be greeted with handshakes from the President and celebrations at the mansion in full national regalia.”
‘It appears that the continuous callous acts of mayhem, killings, and arson happening almost on a daily or weekly basis around us; either within communities or on the roads we ply, has automatically reset our human psyche,’ he said, adding that last week, in solidarity with him, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, JNI, said in a statement: ‘It appears that the continuous callous acts of mayhem, killings, and arson happening almost on
“Any government that is incapable of preserving its citizens’ lives has lost its moral reason for existing in the first place….our humanity is being destroyed, and that loss is becoming the new normal.”
Furthermore, Kukah noted that the Northern Elders Forum and the House of Representatives recently called on the president to quit since it was apparent, in their opinion, that he could no longer protect his people.
“This comes three years after the Catholic Bishops’ Statement of April 26th, 2018 made the same call, which was met with skepticism,” he said.
The monk went on to say that the task of repairing “this damaged nation” is “enormous” and “needs “shared efforts,” as he put it.
“With everything literally broken down, our country has devolved into a massive emergency national hospital with a waiting list. Our personal hearts have been broken; our family dreams have been broken; our houses have been broken; churches, mosques, and infrastructure have been broken.
Our educational system is broken; the lives and futures of our children are broken; our politics is broken; our economy is broken; our energy system is broken; our security system is broken; and our roads and trains are broken. He went on to say, “Only corruption is alive and well.”
“As 2023 approaches and the stage is prepared, Nigeria’s next president must be a man or woman with a heart, a sense of empathy, and a soul on fire who can put limits to the human indignities imposed on citizens that he or she can bear,” the Bishop says.
We don’t need any more deceptive and pompous religious language filled with phony messianic hyperbole.
We need someone to mend our shattered country and save our people from the approaching threats of famine and poverty.
“Our presidential candidates must demonstrate by their legacies and antecedents that they are familiar with the country and its grave scars. Whoever wants to rule us must show that he or she is aware of the situation on the ground.”
He praised the president for accepting the recommendations of the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and pardoning over 150 Nigerians who had been imprisoned for varied periods of time.
The more significant task, according to Kukah, is to quickly free all innocent Nigerians who are being held captive for the only reason that they are Nigerians.
The Bishop, on the other hand, congratulated Christians, noting that Easter gives hope and restoration.
He went on to say that Easter fulfilled what Jesus Christ had said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains merely a single grain, but if it dies, it bears abundant fruit.”
The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are crucial to the Christian faith, according to Kukah.
“Our nation hoping on and to survive the 2023 elections,” he said, citing one of the country’s greatest challenges as how to begin the process of reconstruction.
“The true issue now is to look beyond politics and address the challenge of creating personalities, faith in our country,” he concluded.
