ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – For over 60 years, Nigerian leaders have looked like men in a drunken stupor who stumble and fumble while searching for the way home, says the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah.
Kukah, in his Easter message on Esther Sunday called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to come up with a robust template for how it wishes to reverse and put the country on a path of national healing.
According to him, “Our leaders chose the feast rather than the fast. We are today reaping what we sowed yesterday. For over 60 years, our leaders have looked like men in a drunken stupor, staggering, stumbling and fumbling, slurring in speech, with blurred visions searching for the way home.
“The corruption of the years of a life of immoral and sordid debauchery has spread like cancer destroying all our vital organs. The result is a state of a hangover that has left our nation comatose.
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“Notwithstanding, Easter is a time to further reflect on the road not taken. It is a time to see if this Golgotha of pain can lead us to the new dawn of the resurrection. Nigeria can and Nigeria will be great again. Let us ride this tide together in hope.”
As part of measures to curb the current economic woes and curtail hunger among the citizens, the bishop urged the government to come up with some urgent steps to put the nation on the path of healing.
These, he said, must include a deliberate policy of inclusion that will drastically end the immoral culture of nepotism.
He said, “The government must design a more comprehensive and wide-ranging method of recruitment that is transparent as a means of generating patriotism and reversing the ugly face of feudalism and prebendalism
The Bishop said the idea of rejigging the security architecture is a hackneyed cliché and an oxymoron aas he expressed difficulty in understanding the extensive presence os the military in the country’s national life.
“It is impossible to explain how we can say we are in a civilian democracy with the military literally looking like an Army of occupation with an octopussean spread across all 36 states and Abuja.
“This has very serious consequences both for its professionalism, its integrity, and perceived role in protecting society. No other person than the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who recently referred to the military as facing the dilemma of what he called ‘see finish.’ It is now difficult to say whether the persistence of insecurity is a cause or a consequence of military ubiquity.
“Trillions of naira continue to go into bottomless pits with little measurable benefits. Our military’s professionalism cannot be diluted by the recruitment of hunters, vigilante groups, and other unprofessional and untrained groups,” he said.
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Continuing he said it is not sustainable because it leaves the military open to ridicule and perceptions of surrender. Fighting insecurity is now an enterprise. I believe our security men and women can defeat these criminals in a matter of months. All we hear and see are fingers pointing to the top. No, this must end.”
Kukah expressed delight that President Bola Tinubu recently announced that kidnapping and banditry are now to be treated as acts of terrorism.