A controversial Christmas message of the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, in which he criticised President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, has continued to generate more reactions from different quarters.
Kukah in the concluding part of the message said, “The United Nations has wailed. The Pope has wailed. Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Pastors have wailed. Emirs have wailed. Politicians have wailed. The Sultan has wailed”
Meanwhile, some personalities and groups have accused him of calling for a ‘coup’, while some others commended him for “speaking the truth to power”.
Here are few points in his Christmas message;
1. Kukah accused the president of turning nepotism into a state policy.
2. The cleric said under Buhari’s government, Nigeria appeared to be heading for darkness with the citizens travelling in a rudderless ship without any destination in sight.
3. Kukah said that there could have been a coup if a non-northern Muslim president had done a fraction of what Buhari did.
4. He accused the president of institutionalising northern hegemony by “reducing others in public life to second-class status”
5. In the cleric’s view, the North has not been spared by the socio-economic and political woes that have enveloped the nation, as the region has been the worst for it.
6. Kukah also criticised the handling of the deplorable security situation and economic woes in Nigeria said: “Ours has become a house of horror, with fear stalking our homes, highways, cities, hamlets and entire communities.”
7. Condemning the continuous assault by Boko Haram, armed bandits and kidnappers of Nigerians, the cleric said “the challenge now is how to deal with the scars inflicted by a derelict nation, which is still unable or unwilling to protect its citizens.”
8. On the recent abduction of schoolboys in Katsina state and similar incidents in the recent past, Kukah said the incidents have exposed the danger children are exposed to in the northern part of the country.