By Bala Ibrahim.
For the second time in two consecutive years, the catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Father Mathew Hassan Kukah is using the pulpit on Easter day, to send insults to President Muhammadu Buhari and the government he supervises. In this year’s Easter message, which he delivered on Sunday,17/04/2022, Bishop Kukah said President Buhari has destroyed every aspect of life in Nigeria, but has allowed corruption to thrive and grow.
“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, 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”- Kukah.
It may be recalled that last year, on a similar Easter, Kukah delivered a similar insult to President Muhammadu Buhari and his government, saying the government had failed and turned the country into a massive killing field.
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I found a particular paragraph in Kukah’s message curious and worthy of compassion, where he said, Buhari has totally destroyed Nigeria, divided citizens, enthroned corruption and Nigerians can no longer recognise their country, which has been battered and buffeted by men and women from the dark womb of time. 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?”
Ascent to where? I think Father Kukah needs to be reminded of the past, specifically the PDP years, when the government was using slush funds as political bribery to settle clerics. Now that Buhari has suffocated that channel, insults are his portion from them.
Memories are still fresh about the infamous Dasukigate, where out of the $2.1b that was diverted, N2.2b was allegedly collected by clerics to pray for the nation, in its effort to combat Boko Haram and the incessant killings of innocent citizens.
What did Father Kukah say then? Has he forgotten how we got there, or were we not ever there?
Father Kukah said our security system is broken, but I think it’s the fault of his memory, which seems to have failed him. To reinvigorate that memory of his, I would refer him to an old tweet from the social media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs Lauretta Onochie, where in she listed over 50 prominent personalities that were killed under the watch of his PDP benefactors, starting with chief Bola Ige, the former Attorney General of the Federation and minister of justice, who was shot dead in his bedroom in Bodija, Ibadan on December 23, 2001, as number 1.
2 Similarly, Chief Aminasaoari Dikibo, PDP Deputy National Chairman was ambushed near Asaba in daylight and was murdered in October 22, 2004.
3 The gruesome cold blood murder of Dr. Harry Marshal on March 05, 2003,
4 Janet Oladape, PDP leader in Odigbo LGA clubbed to death by gunmen on August 13, 2002.
5 Alhaji Ahmed Pategi, Kwara State Chairman, PDP, murdered at Aiyetoro, in Kogi State, on the 15th of August, 2002.
6 Barnabas Igwe, Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and his wife, Abigail Igwe, murdered on the 1st of September, 2002.
7 Victor Nwankwo, younger brother of Arthur Nwankwo, founder, Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) assassinated on August 29, 2001.
8 Momoh Lawal, relation of Akaaba, former Chairman, Okene LGA in Kogi killed on March 5, 2001.
9 Odunayo Olagbaju, member, Osun House of Assembly, killed in Ile-Ife on December 21, 2001.
10 Chimere Ikoku, former Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, was killed in his residence in on 20th of October 2002.
11 Dele Arojo, PDP guber aspirant, was killed by unknown assailants in Lagos on November 25, 2002.
12 In February, 2003, Chief Ogbonnaya Uche, All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) senatorial candidate in Imo State was assassinated.
13 Theodore Agwatu, Principal Secretary to the Governor of Imo State, was killed in February 2003.
14 Mrs. Emily Omope, an Alliance for Democracy (AD) Woman Leader died in March, 2003 at University College Hospital, Ibadan after an acid attack in December, 2002 by unknown persons.
15 In February 2003, Ogbonnaya Uche, ANPP senatorial candidate for Orlu was killed in his home residence by unknown gunmen. Killers are yet to be found till date.
16 Andrew Agom, A member of PDP Board of Trustees and former boss of Nigeria Airways, was also killed on March 4, 2004. Agom was on the entourage of the former Benue State governor, Senator George Akume, when he was killed.
17 Death moved to the South West on May 15, 2005 with the murder of leading financier of Oronmiyan Group, a socio-political organization, Alabi Okoju, at Gbongan, Osun State by assassins.
18 In July 2006, Lagos PDP gubernatorial aspirant, Funsho Williams was killed at his Dolphin Estate home in Ikoyi.
19 Former World Bank consultant and PDP guber aspirant in Ekiti State, Dr. Ayo Daramola, was also murdered in 2006.
20 Kehinde Fasubaa, a look a-like twin brother of Taye Fasuba, then Ado-Ekiti LG Chairman was killed on January 03, 2009. Taye Fasuba himself escaped death in 2004.
21 Dipo Dina, fell to the bullets of assassins On Monday, January 25, 2010 around Covenant University, Ota. The late Dina was defunct Action Congress (AC) gubernatorial candidate in 2007.
Mrs Onochie went on to list about 30 journalists that were so assassinated, but all those killings did not attract the attention of Father Kukah.
In case Father Kukah has forgotten, Nigerians have not forgotten about how he was contracted by President Olusegun Obasanjo to smuggle shell into Ogoni land, in order to placate the Ogonis to make peace with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
The contract failed, only for Buhari to come to the rescue, by initiating and executing a transparent Ogoni clean up, without giving a kobo to Kukah.
It was a huge contract involving enormous amount of money that was expected to put to an end to the many years of strained and bitter relationship between Shell and the Ogonis, after the murder of four Ogoni chiefs and the trial and execution of 11 leaders of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MASOP), including Ken Saro Wiwa.
As a man of God and in the spirit of Easter, which is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, clerics like Kukah must preach peace and not tell lies and hatred.
By his utterances, Kukah is absurdly acting like an anarchist, because his agitation is in conformity with the philosophy of anarchism, which is a political philosophy that is sceptical of constituted authorities.
