THE Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has said all aspects of life in Nigeria have been destroyed under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Kukah, in his 2022 Easter message sighted by The ICIR on Sunday, said that with everything broken down, the country had been turned into “a big national hospital with full occupancy.”
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He said, “Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, 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 cleric added Nigerians could no longer recognise their country, which, according to him, “has been battered and buffeted by men and women from the dark womb of time.”
According to him, although it was not difficult to know how the nation had gotten to the deplorable state it is, Nigerians must find a way out.
He said, “It is no longer necessary to ask how we got here. The real challenge is how to find the slippery rungs on the ladder of ascent so we can climb out. Yet, we ask, ascend to where?”
“One would be tempted to ask what is there to say about our tragic situation today that has not been said. Who is there to speak that has not spoken? Like the friends of Job, we stare at an imponderable tragedy as the nation unravels from all sides.
“The government has slid into hibernation mode. It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just don’t care. Either way, from this crossroads, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right or return home. None of these choices are easy, yet, guided by the light of the risen Christ, we can reclaim our country from its impending slide to anarchy.”
He noted that the greatest challenge now was how to begin a process of reconstructing the country with the hope that Nigerians could hang on and survive the 2023 elections.
He urged Nigerians to look beyond the challenges and politics to have faith and character in the country.
He called on all religious leaders in Nigeria to urgently come to the country’s rescue.
“The real challenge before us now is to look beyond politics and face the challenge of forming character and faith in our country. Here, leaders of religion, Christianity and Islam, need to truthfully face the role of religion in the survival of our country. The Nigerian Constitution has very clearly delineated the fine boundaries between religion and politics. Yet many politicians continue to behave as if they are presiding over both the political and the spiritual realms in their states rather than governing in a Democracy.
“Religious leaders must face the reality that here in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world, millions of people are leaving Christianity and Islam.
“While we are busy building walls of division with the blocks of prejudice, our members are becoming atheists but we prefer to pretend that we do not see this.
“We cannot pretend not to hear the footsteps of our faithful who are marching away into atheism and secularism. No threats can stop this, but dialogue can open our hearts,” Kukah said.
Last April, the cleric came under fiery attack by the Presidency when he made similar statements during his Easter message to his teeming followers.
Kukah had, in his reaction to the ravaging insecurity in parts of the country, expressed worries that Nigeria had become a killing field.
He lamented that both the government and citizens had become helpless in the face of incessant cases of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and armed robbery across states in the country.
He noted that there was now a collective fear in Nigeria as to whether the glory of the country was about to depart due to the killings by the Boko Haram terrorist group, kidnappers and “other merchants of death.”
He blamed what he called lack of empathy by the Buhari-led administration as the reason for the numerous deaths in the country.
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