Amidst growing concerns and divided views over the state of the nation message delivered on Christmas Day by Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, the National Directorate of Social Communications of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja, has risen in defence of the religious leader.
In the statement entitled, “A call in Support of Truth”, the Catholic church maintained that the series of flaks which the stirring and dramatic message has attracted is “the stock in trade of evil people”.
“As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message…However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing”.
Recall that Kukah in his Christmas message came hard on the Buhari administration and its supporters, stressing that the nation is almost rudderless without a clearly profound leadership under President Buhari’s watch.
The Bishop who spoke on a wide range of subject matters including the worsening insecurity in Nigeria as well as the perilous, uncertain state of Nigeria’s economy, accused Buhari’s administration of nepotism and biased favour for northern domination.
According to Bishop Kukah, the ethnic dimensions and bias of the government are reflected in several areas, a development he asserted has not yielded positive dividends for Northern Nigeria as it is the worst affected by a rage of insecurity.
In his own words, the very danger of a potential failed state stares Nigeria in the face, with “endless bloodletting, a collapsing economy, social anomie, domestic and community violence, kidnappings, armed robberies”
He added: “There is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it. There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions.”
However, in a swift reaction, Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed fired a torrent of condemnation against Kukah, accusing the Bishop of calling for a coup.
Lai Mohammed said it was “graceless and impious for any religious leader to use the period of Christmas, which is a season of peace, to stoke the embers of hatred, sectarian strife and national disunity”.
Lai Mohammed further cautioned: “Calling for a violent overthrow of a democratically-elected government, no matter how disguised such a call is, and casting a particular religion as violent is not what any religious leader should engage in, and certainly not in a season of peace.”
He added: “While some religious leaders, being human, may not be able to disguise their national leadership preference, they should refrain from stigmatising the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever.”
Similarly, the ruling APC in its response carpeted Kukah, averring that Nigeria is no where near what can be called a failed state.
Correspondingly, Professor Ishaq Akintola, lambasted Kukah for what he called ” a reckless and unguarded statement.”
He was quoted as saying:“Kukah’s statement is reckless, inflammatory and unguarded. It is the most egregious, luciferous, serpentine and diabolical statement of the year 2020. Hasan Mathew Kukah is ululating from the wrong side of the pulpit.
“Kukah is in the habit of demonizing and demarketing any president who happens to be a Muslim. In particular, we are most disappointed that such a heavily prejudiced and explosive statement is coming from the secretary of Nigeria’s Peace Committee. His behaviour is consistently inconsistent with his status.”
But while reacting to the deluge of criticism, the Catholic Church in its statement said it stands behind the views credited to Bishop Kukah.
The statement reads in part: “We are quite aware of the 2020 Christmas Message by our revered Bishop Hassan Kukah and the enormous space it has enjoyed on social media and in public sphere.
“As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message. This is the stock in trade of evil people. However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing. I am therefore calling our attention to this new development so that we can all rise in unison and stand for truth…”
The Church further asserted that “evil is absence of good”, adding that people should add a voice in support of goodness, in order to forestall the reign of evil…”
