President Muhammadu Buhari and Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah
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The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the last seven years was full of nepotism, a development where some of his political appointees are mediocres and the nation has paid the price of entrusting power to characters who treated it like their family property.
Kukah lamented that since 2015, Buhari’s government has failed woefully in rescuing the school children from the captivities of bandits and terrorists, saying that the country is agonizing over the many failures of President Buhari.
He said: “Nepotism is a cancer which has consumed us in the last few years. We have paid the price of nepotism entrusting power into the hands of mediocres who operate as a cult and see power purely as an extension of the family heirloom,’’ he lamented.
He called for a change in approach to governance, saying those who sit on the throne of power in arrogance should be confronted even as they would reduce the country to jungle, if Nigerians don’t stand up firmly against them.
Kukah said, Buhari’s administration has created a caste system and he challenged Nigerians to rise up ‘’to destroy those who have institutionalised a caste system in our societies because every life matters.’’
Continuing, he said: ‘’Although the responses to my messages suggest that, generally, Nigerians listen to our voices in the wilderness. However, the deliberate culture of pauperisation and destitution of our people continues. So, we need a change of strategy so that we can turn a new page.
‘’We need a new strategy to confront those who sit on the throne of power in arrogance and are determined to reduce our country to a jungle. We need a new strategy that separates men and women of honour from those who have chosen dishonour.
‘’We need a new strategy that provides a clearer moral guide for ordinary citizens who, based on the moral strength of culture and religion, are seeking to build a good society, even if with straws. We need to stand up and stand firm. We need new mechanisms for saying no to the violence of governance.’’
He insisted that, “a caste system has emerged in our country. It has consolidated its hold and blunted the cutting edge of all institutions”, and Nigerians needed to rise up against the oppressors of the system.
The fiery priest said the country was worse under Buhari than the way he met it, noting that concerns have been expressed at seminars, workshops and committees as to why the nation was not moving forward without answers.
‘’Who would have imagined, after listening to the campaign speeches ahead of the 2015 elections, the new President’s inaugural speech, that we will be so worse off than we were? Yet, it could get even worse if we do not pause and pause very seriously,’’ he warned.
Recalling his 2021 Easter message in which he drew attention to the urgent need for Nigerians to reclaim their glory which was slipping away, Kukah lamented that the notion of patriotism was becoming alien as the country was falling to the pressures of ethno-religious nationalism, noting that “before our eyes, a dubious jihadist culture has held our nation to ransom with the government simply looking away.’’
“We agree with the revered Bishop that Nigerians should pause and reflect as they head to the polling units to cast their votes. The pains APC brought to bear on our people must be addressed by a leader who has seen it all. This is our message to Nigerians,” he added.
The ruling All Progressives Congress on Sunday night reacted to emotional Christmas message of the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, describing it as an ‘ungodly’ criticism of the President Buhari.
In his reaction, the Director of Publicity for the APC, Bala Ibrahim, in an interview said “I hold him (Kukah) in high esteem and respect him because he is a senior brother to a friend.
He said, though Hassan Kukah is a man of God, sometime his speeches were ungodly as there are not objective.
“If you are going to be objective or speak with fairness, you cannot but give credit to Buhari for the way and manner he handles this country.
“When we talk about healthcare, if Kukah is insinuating that Buhari has used public office or his position to access better healthcare, I think he has not been fair to him. All the medical attention the President has been getting has been abroad and at no cost to the government. He has been seeing the same set of doctors he was seeing in the last 40 years. This is not a new hospital he visits. It is the same facility and doctors he uses for years in London long before he became the military head of state.
The APC insisted that President Buhari has rescued some abducted students by terrorists with speed and he should be applauded rather than being criticized.
“Also, when he said there were a number of students or children still in the forest, I don’t know if he’s talking about the Chibok girls or the ones that were taken recently? If you look at the ones taken under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, look at the speed and efforts made to recover them within a short period of time. I think we must give kudos to the president.
“In the time when Chibok girls were taken, the government even refused to admit they were taken. That was how the lexicon ‘There is God’ came into our dictionary. They did not even admit that such a thing happened let alone acted to set them free. But this government came and within a short period sprang into action and some of these children were released even if it was in piecemeal. At least, we are still getting them.
“All the passengers on the Kaduna-Abuja train who were abducted had been freed without casualties. If you look at the speed and the rate of bombardment by the Air Force, you will agree with me that they are hitting these people hard so much that many of them are surrendering and giving up.
“You will not say this government is not doing well at securing and getting people freed from captivity. Gone are the days when Boko Haram attacked in a ruthless manner that they used to do, you don’t get to see that anymore because they have been decimated and no longer have the capacity for any spectacular attack anymore.
“So when a man of God speaks in an ungodly manner, I tend to feel uncomfortable. As I said earlier, he is not a man I will want to join issue with. I still respect him as a senior brother and hold him in high esteem. But I will want him every time he talks to do so in consultation with his conscience.”
Reacting to APC’s description of the sermon as ungodly, Ologunagba stated, “if punishing Nigerians is godly, then the sermon is ungodly. If pushing Nigerians into poverty with growing unemployment statistics is godly, then the sermon is godly. If bad is godly, then the sermon is ungodly.
