The Presidency on Monday reacted to yet another message by which the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev Fr Matthew Kukah, accused President Muhammadu Buhari of showing more interest in the welfare of terrorists than that of law abiding citizens of Nigeria.
He also accused the president of having, unlike before, divided and destroyed every aspect of life in the country, this coming barely 16 months after the bishop issued a Christmas message of December 2020 that erupted the anger mostly of Muslims and some Christians who refused to be carried away by spirit of religious sentimentalism disparaging Islam as a religion with pool for violence as well as inciting coup against sitting President Muhammadu Buhari
In the reply, issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the Kukah’s message was dismissed as a wicked intention that will not come to pass.
Adesina’s reaction came via tweet a day after the Kukah’s message, saying: “Those who divided Nigeria with their mouths, with evil, unguarded speaking, are the ones now accusing President Buhari. How sad! Their wicked intentions shall not come to pass.”
Kukah, in his Easter message titled, ‘To mend a broken nation: The Easter metaphor’, had alleged that every aspect of life in the country had been destroyed while corruption was enthroned under President Buhari.
The bishop, who also criticised the president over his government’s “inability to tackle insecurity and corruption”, further claimed that President Buhari had divided Nigerians on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region.
According to him, “The challenge of fixing this broken nation is enormous and, as I have said, requires joint efforts. With everything literally broken down, our country has become one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy.
“Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, and infrastructure are broken. Our educational system is broken. Our children’s lives and future are broken. Our politics is broken. Our economy is broken. Our energy system is broken. Our security system is broken. Our Roads and Rails are broken. Only corruption is alive and well.
“The greatest challenge for Nigeria is not even the 2023 elections. It is the prospect for the reconciliation of our people. Here, the Buhari administration sadly has divided our people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region, in a way that we have never witnessed in our history. This carefully choreographed agenda has made Nigerians vulnerable and ignited the most divisive form of identity consciousness among our people. Years of friendships, cultural exchange, and collaboration built over time have now come under serious pressure from stereotyping.”
He chided the President for what he said showing far greater commitment to integrating so-called repentant terrorists than getting our children back from kidnappers or keeping our universities open.
In a statement on Monday December 28, 2020, Yerima Shettima, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum’s National President, said Kukah’s comments were inciting a “treasonable felony against the Nigerian state”. Shettima said the bishop was using “nepotism as a weapon of calumny against the government and people of Nigeria,” adding that it was an attempt to “set the south against the north in order to destabilize our country and further complicate matters”.
“Such a reckless statement by Kukah betrays something much more sinister against both the North and the nation as a whole because Nigeria is at a stage that it requires responsible advice for attaining peace and stability, not deliberate attempt to mischievously compound our problems,” he said.
“If Kukah wants to play politics, he should not do so on the pulpit and he should keep the bishop’s office aside and choose any Nigerian political party platform to contest for the president in 2023 and stop all the pretences.” The AYCF president said Kukah should be reminded of the struggle to rid the country of military dictatorship. “We will not allow opportunists who did make any contribution to scuttle the democracy achieved through the sweat and toil and the sacrifice of our liberty,” he vowed.
In his reaction to the December 2020 Christmas message, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) attacked the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Fr. Matthew Hasan Kukah, over his suggestion that there would have been a coup had a Southerner occupied the Nigerian seat of power in the last five years
MURIC described the Bishop as a first class blackmailer in a press statement issued to sent to the media including The DEFENDER on Monday December 28, 2020 signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, its director of the organisation.
The group had berated Kukah, wondering why the cleric never attacked former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who it accused of mass land donation to churches during his time in office, saying it was shocked by the vitriolic attack on Islam as a religion by Kukah, accusing the Catholic Bishop of referring to Islam as a violent religion.
“Kukah referred to Islam as violent but his fellow faithful, Gana, has been training terrorists and killing Muslims in Benue for years. Kukah lives in the heart of Islam and he has never been attacked. But how dare you mock the North? Are you not part of that geographical entity?
“We can understand Kukah’s frustration. Import duty waivers on every imported good, including private jets, are no longer available. Neither are billion naira contracts at the snap of a finger. A new Sheriff is in town. This is why Kukah has turned to a blackmailer nulli secundus.
“Kukah knows those who engage in favouritism but he has chosen to be a pot calling the kettle black. Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) inadvertently revealed the special favours rendered by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to Christians when he was president.
“The revelation was made at Orita Mefa Baptist Church, Ibadan, on Saturday, November 21, 2020 during the funeral service of Obasanjo’s two-term Pastor, Rev. S. T. Ola Akande.
“The CAN president poured encomiums on Obasanjo for favouring Christians during his regime. Among the special favours mentioned were the mass land allocation to the Baptist mission at Kubwa, Abuja; another land allocation to the Baptist in Festac town, Lagos; yet another land allocation to the church in Satellite town and another at highbrow Ikoyi, also for the church.
“No Muslim leader or Islamic organization has accused Obasanjo of favouritism to date. Perhaps Kukah thinks God was asleep during the regime of Obasanjo. But the garrulous bishop now has the temerity to remind Nigerians that God does not sleep.
“Kukah’s reference to a coup is a Satanic innuendo. We are aware that civilians have always been involved in coups in the past. Kukah’s interest is therefore not something new,” this way Kukah’s “provoking” Christmas message of December 2020 was reacted to by MURIC among several other groups both in the North and South of Nigeria on Monday December 28, 2020.
