Note how the failed Nigerian leadership takes aim at the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto on the grounds that the Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah did not speak like a man of God when Kukah criticized Nigeria’s approach to escalating Islamic terrorism in the country. How is a man of God supposed to speak? He is supposed to speak the truth. Christians are undergoing a genocide in Nigeria, and it is Nigeria’s Muslim President Muhammadu Buhari who is playing politics. Christianity Today wrote with high hopes about him in 2015:
Nigeria’s newest president is Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim endorsed by Christian leaders who hope he can combat corruption and sectarian terrorism.
Buhari has failed miserably and astronomically. And he’s busy spending billions of naira (Nigerian currency) on senseless deradicalization programs that don’t work, while Christians continue to be murdered in a country that has been described as a “massive killing field.” Does Buhari really think that Boko Haram will turn over a new leaf?
“Nigeria presidency accuses priest of partisan politics after criticism,” translated from “Nigéria : la présidence accuse un prêtre de faire de la politique partisane après des critiques,” by Rodrigue Gozoa, La Nouvelle Tribune, April 8, 2021:
Matthew Hassan Kukah is the current bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria. He was ordained on December 19, 1976. He was previously Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Kaduna until he was ordained bishop on September 8, 2011. A priest and political scientist, the prelate is regularly requested by the government authorities in place for numerous mediation and diplomacy missions. But this Sunday, on the occasion of the Christian Feast of Easter, Bishop Kukah gave a sermon that Mr. Buhari very much disliked.
“Inappropriate comments”
Bishop Kukah has participated in many presidential initiatives, such as the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations, the Electoral Reform Committee and the National Political Reform Conference. He was also the presidential facilitator who negotiated an end to hostilities between the Nigerian oil company Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and the Ogoni people in the Delta region.
But also and because, according to the Nigerian press, the prelate’s qualities as mediator had been remarkable, Bishop Kukah was also asked to join a committee set up by the governors of the North to jointly examine the Boko Haram crisis, and consider appropriate solutions to apply. From this point of view, the prelate was therefore one of those in Nigeria who had a good knowledge of the “Boko Haram” problem and the corollary of insecurity that the terrorist threat had left in its wake.
But this Sunday, when the bishop in his homily for the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ said that “insecurity, in particular terrorism, had increased since President Buhari came to power in 2015,” the reaction of the Buhari administration was immediate. It was Mallam Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant for media and publicity, who in a statement issued in Abuja accused the cleric on behalf of the presidency of engaging in partisan politics.
According to Mr. Shehu, the prelate’s words were all the more out of place as they lacked the impartiality required by the cassock he wore. “If you claim to be a man of God, as Father Mathew Hassan Kukah does, ideology should not stand in the way of facts and fairness. (…) He (Msgr Kukah — editor’s note) practices partisan politics by lecturing the president. (…) We urge well-meaning citizens to continue supporting the administration’s ongoing efforts to secure the country and move it forward,” the presidential statement added in substance….
Ray Jarman says
“We urge well-meaning citizens to continue supporting the administration’s ongoing efforts to secure the country and move it forward,” Forward in what manner? It appears to anyone with half a brain that Buhari is intent to move forward in an attempt to eradicate all non-Muslims from the nation. Nigeria has a military that is large enough to completely erase Boko Haram from the nation along with those who have supported them and let us not forget the Fulani which has killed thousands of Christian farmers and villagers.
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, said, “the Presidency kept mum when herdsmen kill and maim Nigerians but was swift to order the arrest of persons who resisted the criminal activities of the killer herdsmen.” Sooner or later a civil war will take place.
DavidR says
You’re “supposed” to speak as if Muhammad never even got angry, welcomed all with open arms and that the Quran is a spiritual fountain of wisdom that everybody (except for those who aren’t Islamic scholars) can understand. Any deviation from this patronizing positivity is called Islamophobia. This concept should be looked at as a way to destroy the professional lives of people who may understand Islam too well, better than most Muslims in fact. Such a person is the greatest threat to the bubble of protection afforded Islam and the drastic nature of cancelling their public life is necessary since a bubble can be punctured at any moment and from any direction.
mortimer says
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah rightly disagrees with his boss the pope, because Francis has his HEAD STUCK IN THE SAND!
mortimer says
The bishop’s prophetic role involves reminding the politicians of moral issues. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah is pursuing that role. It is everyone’s right to agree or disagree with him.
The jihadists are terrorists who do not respect individual conscience.
Otis says
Yes the bishop is right.Buhari himself is a Fulani and Fulanis started butchering Kafirs ever since he was in inaugurated.My concius tells me that Buhari supports these terrorists just the way Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia is also presiding over ethnic cleansing of Tigrey Ethiopians.Islam is a curse in this world.lslam has and continues to destroy our beautiful continent of Africa.I hate Islam till I die.
gravenimage says
Nigeria: Government outraged as bishop criticizes its response to jihad terror
……………….
He is right–Nigeria, led by a pious Muslim, is doing virtually nothing to stop Jihad terror.