Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, on Sunday said Nigerians are ready to reclaim their country as God guides President Muhammadu Buhari in his retirement at the end of his second tenure on May 29, 2023.
In his 2023 Easter message, Bishop Kukah told the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that the most urgent task facing Nigeria is not infrastructure or the “usual cheap talk” about the dividends of Democracy but the “most urgent mission” of embarking on the psychological journey of making Nigerians feel whole again and “cutting off the chains of ethnicity and religious bigotry” and placing the nation “on the path to our greatness, of exorcising the ghost of nepotism and religious bigotry.”
Kukah also tasked the Supreme Court of Nigeria to remember that they have their conscience and God to answer to as they decide on the cases arising from the 2023 general elections.
According to Bishop Kukah: “As you (President Buhari) prepare to return to Daura or Kaduna, I do not know if you feel fulfilled or that you met the tall dreams and goals you set for yourself such as: ending banditry, defeating corruption, bringing back our girls, belonging to everybody and belonging to nobody, selling off our presidential fleet and traveling with us etc.
“You may have followed my engagement with you through these Messages over the years. You publicly referred to me during one of our visits as your number one public critic with a huge smile. I commend you for the fact that you have known that none of this was done out of malice but that we want the best for our country. May God guide you in retirement while we all embark on the challenge of reclaiming the country we knew before you came.
“I am hopeful that you (President-elect) will appreciate that the most urgent task facing our nation is not infrastructure or the usual cheap talk about dividends of Democracy. These are important but first, keep us alive because only the living can enjoy infrastructure. For now, the most urgent mission is to start a psychological journey of making Nigerians feel whole again, of creating a large tent of opportunity and hope for us all, of expanding the frontiers of our collective freedom, of cutting off the chains of ethnicity and religious bigotry, of helping us recover from the feeling of collective rape by those who imported the men of darkness that destroyed our country, of recovering our country and placing us on the path to our greatness, of exorcising the ghost of nepotism and religious bigotry.”
To the Supreme Court, Kukah said: “We are saddened that your sacred temples have been invaded by the political class leaving the toxic fumes that now threaten your reputation as the last hope for all citizens. It is sad that your hard earned reputation is undergoing very severe stress and pressure from those who want justice on their own terms. Nigerians are looking up to you to reclaim their trust in you as the interpreters of the spirit of our laws. The future of our country is in your hands. You have only your conscience and your God to answer to when you listen to the claims and counter claims of Nigerian lawyers as you decide the future of our country. We pray that God gives you the wisdom to see what is right and the strength of character and conscience to stand by the truth.”