With barely one month and three weeks to a new government, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, the Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has set an agenda for the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, urging him to keep Nigerians alive before embarking on fulfilling electoral promises.
The renowned cleric also used his Easter message to bid President Muhammadu Buhari goodbye in his retirement, even as the country is reclaimed before his emergence.
The Bishop expressed hope that the next government would recognise that Nigeria’s most urgent task is not the mere construction of physical infrastructure, but rather the establishment of a strong foundation of social justice, equality, and respect for human rights.
“I am hopeful that you 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,” he said.
“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.”
On Buhari, Kukah stressed that his criticisms of the administration was not out of malice, rather a desire to see Nigeria reach achieve its dreams.
“I commend you (Buhari) 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.”
Writing on the judiciary, he stated that, “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 consciences and your God to answer to when you listen to the claims and counterclaims of Nigerian lawyers you and have to decide the future of our country.”
