Easter Message: Bishop Kukah Warns Buhari Over Leadership Style

Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to review his leadership style, lest the nation plunges into deeper crisis.

Kukah sounded the alarm in his Easter message, yesterday. “Mr. President, you are too distant from your people.

There is a sad feeling that you do not share in the pain and suffering of your people. You must very quickly find a way of connecting with your people before the devil takes over the space,” the cleric said in the letter.

Titled, ‘Easter Message To Mr. President And All Nigerians’, Kukah hinted on the spate of wanton killings across the country, reinforcing his concerns with the words of Irish poet, Y.B Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.”

The Bishop reminded Buhari: “This is no ordinary Easter, because these are no ordinary times for our country, Nigeria, over which you preside.”

He noted that the country “is so split both vertically and horizontally today that all of us must honestly identify our many sins of omission and commission, so that we can honestly seek a solution.”

According to him, “This is a time for us to genuinely face what looks to me like an impending calamity. The gathering clouds are clear for us to see. And even those who cannot see can hear the rumbling and rolling sound of thunder. We ignore them at our own risk.”

The cleric regretted that although Buhari “rode into town like a knight in shining armour…the bogeyman of religion, region and ethnicity, which we thought we had overcome by the sheer nature of your support base, have come back with a vengeance to haunt and threaten the very foundation of our existence.”

Kukah told the President: “You have a date with history and divine judgment.”

He criticised religious leaders for being “as divided as the people” they lead, saying: “We have been seduced by powerful politicians and have allowed politics to corrupt the sacred spaces of religion.

Thus we have lost our voices and no longer seem to have the capacity to interrogate power, as we are called to do.”

He admonished religious leaders to “avoid the temptation of being seduced by filthy lucre and power for personal or any other gain.”

He also urged them to “seek the collective welfare of the people and develop a culture of neutrality that can inspire the confidence of our people in the power of religion to change society so that the common good is always sought and promoted.”

He told governors, legislators, senators, and others: “You do not seem to be ready to depart from the culture of cronyism, prebendalism and primitive accumulation.

The result has been ruination and decay.” He appealed: “Please, abandon the spirit of selfish accumulation and embrace the principles of integrity and genuine service of our country. Do not let this country collapse in your hands.”

To political parties, he noted: “There are no parties in Nigeria. We have only rickety and disposable contraptions put together for state capture.

No sooner does this happen than the actors go their ways and the circles of frustration return. This explains the debilitating culture of political incoherence and dissonance in our country.

“The parties have become notorious conveyor belts and incubators of hatred, intolerance and corruption of the worst kind, even against their own members.

For now, the political parties seem determined to rely on both federal and state governments and Institutions to serve as their ATM machines. Tragically, this is why politics is toxic and totally unattractive to people of honour.

“I want to call on parties and their leaders to become true to their political claims, as expressed in their manifestoes, reduce the culture of godfatherism, and focus on building the foundation of a strong political culture.

Political parties must reduce their adversarial proclivities and focus on patriotic bipartisan areas of co-operation, so as to hold our country together. Our people are dying daily across party lines.”

Kukah also has words for ordinary Nigerians, urging them to rise up and defend their right to food and shelter. He said: “Do not allow the rich and powerful, who are rich because you are poor, to divide you.

They have light and water in their high fenced houses not because they are Muslims or Christians or that they are from this or that or the other tribe, but simply because they are rich.

You are poor, homeless, have no road, no water, and your children are sick and illiterate, not because you are Christian or Muslim or from this tribe or the other, but simply because you are poor.

“You and your children vote, but their children do not vote because they are abroad. Your children beg and die on the streets while their children are abroad fraternising with those they call infidels.

They give you a fake religion that enslaves you while they give their own children the religion of education that will liberate them and make them rule over you.”

Bishop Kukah prayed: “Our daughters in Chibok are still in your hands as well as our dear daughter Leah. Bring them back home, O God. Leah has defied the forces of evil and her innocent courage is a sure sign that our dream for a new dawn is not empty.”

His Eminence Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie called on Christians to live a sacrificial life, saying: “Our Lord Jesus suffered to redeem us. He succeeded in saving us through His sacrificial life.

That is why we can all rejoice today. God expects us all to live such a sacrificial life and relieve others of their burdens. Not to continue enslaving them, while living a luxurious and flamboyant life at their expense.”

He told the country’s leaders to “look inward and remember that what they do unto others, others will equally do to them. They must always remember that they are not going to remain in the positions they occupy today for life.”

General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Folorunsho Kumuyi, described Easter as the bedrock of the Christian faith, saying: “Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, so that men will experience and possess a glorious freedom from sin.” According to him, “We must anticipate difficulties, criticisms, confrontations and deliberately act righteously.”

The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Oyo, Most Rev. Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, on his part, admonished: “No matter what we face in the course of life, we must be steadfast.

Christianity teaches us to be truthful, peaceful, forgiving, generous and God-fearing, otherwise, we cannot be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Trouble may come and tribulations may occur. But through it all, we must not allow anything to take all that goodness away from us.”

The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, stressed: “Nigerians are yearning for peace.

A life void of peace has lost its essence. But this peace is not in the Federal Executive Council or in the Senate or in the hand of anyone. We need the peace of God that comes through Christ.

For humans, peace is usually predicated on justice and fairness. The peace of God means restoring man to God, and restoring spiritual and physical well-being to man. We have an obligation to promote this peace.”

Also, the Supreme Head of the Cherubim and Seraphim Unification Church of Nigeria, Dr Solomon Adegboyega Alao, urged Christians to emulate the meekness and spirit of forgiveness exhibited by Jesus Christ, adding: “I wish to join our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria and across the world to celebrate the Easter period.

This is always a time for deep reflection, and particularly for Nigerian Christians, a time when the children of God are faced with a lot of challenges. It is a time to make peace with all our neighbours, irrespective of their faith and belief, as taught by Jesus Christ.”

In his message, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode called on Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of tolerance, peaceful co-existence and sacrifice for one another.

“We must see this period as a time that presents us the viable opportunity to think about how we can help to steer our nation back on the road to peace, stability and prosperity by working in the spirit of togetherness,” he said.

He stressed: “Nigeria will surely make faster progress towards the achievement of the peaceful, united, strong, progressive and prosperous country that we all desire if, as a nation, we eschew all divisive, parochial, ethnic and religious sentiments and rivalries, and begin to live more harmoniously with one another, as Jesus Christ enjoined us to.”

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose urged people to meditate on national affairs and seek divine intervention. “We must call on God to intervene and save us and our country from catastrophe.

This is not a period to fold arms and be unconcerned. We have to be ready to pay the price just like the Lord did by dying on the cross,” he said.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said: “Let us pray as patriots. Importantly, let us invoke the resurrection powers of the risen Christ to intervene in the affairs of this nation.

Let us pray for an end to the wanton killings and destructions, general insecurity, economic hardship, and hunger in the land.

Let us also pray that God should touch the hearts of our leaders to apply the brakes and end the gale of divisiveness, political intolerance, barefaced oppression, and exclusion that currently pervade the land.”

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…WB Yeats(1865-1939)

This is no ordinary Easter, Mr. President because these are no ordinary times for our country, Nigeria, over which you preside.

I know that in your Easter Messages, you, the Senate President, the Speaker and our Governors, will all exhort Nigerians with the usual moral platitudes encouraging us to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ, to love one another, to embrace peace and live in unity.

Good talk, but, as you must know very well, most ordinary citizens will say that love, tolerance and a sense of community seem to be in exile or in suspended animation in Nigeria.

Mr. President, I have decided to speak to a cross section of Nigerians, beginning with you and going right down to the many nameless men and women who do not even qualify to be classified as the ordinary man in the street because they live on water and have no streets on which to walk.

I believe that this country is so split both vertically and horizontally today that all of us must honestly identify our many sins of omission and commission so that we can honestly seek a solution.

This is a time for us to genuinely face what looks to me like an impending calamity.

The gathering clouds are clear for us to see and even those who cannot see can hear the rumbling and rolling sound of thunder. We ignore them at our own risk. I therefore state as follows:

1. To President Muhammadu Buhari:

You know Sir, that you rode into town like a knight in shining armour, carrying the joys, pains, anxieties and fears of a people whose broken dreams had littered and turned the landscape into a kaleidoscopic scenery of desolation and despair.

In your campaigns, you had promised to restore a sense of national pride in us by slaying the dragon of corruption, banishing the retrogressive scourge of Boko Haram, bringing back our daughters from Chibok and making our country and citizens truly safe.

We waited in hope right to the end of the first year, but somehow, amidst some hazy weather, all we heard was the sound of screeching tyres with the plane carrying our hopes seemingly unable to take off.

It finally did but we had barely gained altitude when sickness struck and you spent the better part of a year seeking healing. The nation prayed for you and miraculously, you recovered. Evidently, you had been saved for a purpose. Our prayer is that this realization will help you understand that you have a date with history and divine judgment.

For now, before your eyes and in your hands, our country, our communities, our people are all in a state of stupor. We have never felt so alienated from one another. The bogeyman of religion, region and ethnicity, which we thought we had overcome by the sheer nature of your support base, have come back with a vengeance to haunt and threaten the very foundation of our existence.

Mr. President, you are too distant from your people. There is a sad feeling that you do not share in the pain and suffering of your people.

You must very quickly find a way of connecting with your people before the devil takes over the space. For taking on this challenge and connecting with Nigerians, happy Easter.

2. To the Political Class:

To Governors, Legislators, Senators, and all who are actively engaged in Politics: Please recall that Nigerians have over the years struggled for the building of a democratic, free and egalitarian society. You who are in politics today are beneficiaries of the sacrifices of those who have gone before you.

The nation has not been able to develop a political culture due to the disruptive nature of the political process marred by corruption and violence. Years of military rule have diminished our appreciation of Democracy.

The average age of Governors and Legislators across the country is 50. These are the years of dreams, maturity, sacrifice, patriotism and self-giving.

But, sadly, you do not seem to be ready to depart from the culture of cronyism, prebendalism and primitive accumulation. The result has been ruination and decay.

I appeal to you to please abandon the spirit of selfish accumulation and embrace the principles of integrity and genuine service of our country.

Do not let this country collapse in your hands. For accepting to make some sacrifice, respect and listen to our people, a happy Easter.

3. To the Political Parties:

Political parties ought to provide the vital foundation stones and building blocks for institutions through which political actors must graduate.

It is here that new entrants learn the fine moral principles and ideologies that underpin the Parties.

Sadly, there are no Parties in Nigeria. We have only rickety and disposable contraptions put together for state capture.

No sooner does this happen that the actors go their way and the circles of frustration return. This explains the debilitating culture of political incoherence and dissonance in our country.

The Parties have become notorious conveyor belts and incubators of hatred, intolerance and corruption of the worst kind, even against their own members.

For now, the political parties seem determined to rely on both Federal and State Government and Institutions to serve as their ATM machines. Tragically, this is why politics is toxic and totally unattractive to people of honour.

I want to call on Parties and their leaders to become true to their political claims as expressed in their Manifestoes, reduce the culture of godfatherism, and focus on building the foundation of a strong political culture.

Political parties must reduce their adversarial proclivities and focus on patriotic bipartisan areas of co-operation so as to hold our country together.

Our people are dying daily across party lines. For agreeing to make Political parties more respectable, a happy Easter.

4. To the Religious Leaders:

We are all custodians of the faith and trust of our people. Sadly, we have proved to be as divided as the people we are supposed to lead.

We have been seduced by powerful politicians and have allowed politics to corrupt the sacred spaces of religion. Thus we have lost our voices and no longer seem to have the capacity to interrogate power, as we are called to do.

Religious leaders have fallen to the temptation to present their Churches and Mosques as platforms for partisanship.

No divinely inspired religion can pretend that there is no distinction between religion and politics. Unless we are in a theocracy, no Church or Mosque can have its entire people with the same political affiliations.

Religious leaders must avoid the temptation of being seduced by filthy lucre and power for personal or any other gain. We must seek the collective welfare of our people and develop a culture of neutrality that can inspire the confidence in our people in the power of religion to change society so that the common good is always sought and promoted. For seriously rethinking our role in moulding our society, a happy Easter.

5. To the Ordinary people of Nigeria:

The men and women in power who pretend to represent you, call you the masses. The politicians, the business men/women, the religious leaders, all claim to act on your behalf.

But you yourself ,no matter how rich or poor, how educated or otherwise you are, have a duty to understand that God has plans for you and for every individual and you have a duty to both yourself and your neighbour.

You have to defend your personal dignity and seek the enforcement of your rights to have property and to raise a family as opposed to waiting for the crumbs from our greedy leaders.

Defend your dignity as human beings and children of God. Do not allow the rich and powerful, who are rich because you are poor, to divide you.

They have light and water in their high fenced houses not because they are Muslims or Christians or that they are from this or that or the other tribe but simply because they are rich.

You are poor, homeless, have no road, no water, and your children are sick and illiterate, not because you are Christian or Muslim or from this tribe or the other, but simply because you are poor. You and your children vote, but their children do not vote because they are abroad.

Your children beg and die on the streets while their children are abroad fraternizing with those they call infidels. They give you a fake religion that enslaves you while they give their own children the religion of education that will liberate them and make them rule over you.

Rise and defend your right to food and shelter because poverty is not a divine inheritance. Easter teaches us the message of love and of gentleness and of true strength.

It tells us that to defend oneself does not mean to turn to violence or to any other misdeed or evil. But it means to recognize one’s dignity as a child of God and remember that each one is created and called to enjoy the fullness of life.

Easter means to recognise one’s right to be considered and respected, it means being determined to stand up for what is right and just, it means being strong and steadfast, full of hope and full of love, both for oneself and for others. For deciding today to shake off the shackles of bondage and free yourselves so as to secure your future and your family, a happy Easter.

6. To God the creator and maker of the world:

God our Father, creator of Heaven and earth, we thank you for our dear country Nigeria. You have given us so much, but like selfish animals in a pool of water, our leaders drink and mess up the water for those coming behind them. We thank you for the gift of Easter and other religious feasts.

These feasts have been emptied of their moral content because our people only see them as dates on their social calendars. Please forgive us and let us turn to you.

Lord God of Heaven and earth, so many of our children and our parents have died senseless deaths. Rather than worry that they are burying their children, our elders are busy with other ideas, denying sins that they themselves have committed against you and our dear country.

We beg you to overlook their excesses and grant them forgiveness. But, please heal our country.
The forces of evil cannot have the last say. Please protect our country because no human army can do this.

No power on earth can protect us except you. We are sorry for destroying our country through our collective greed. We stand before you in sorrow and ask for your mercy and forgiveness. The ship of our state is being tossed in the winds, but we know you will save us. Please save our dear country from the grip of evil forces.

Finally Lord, we commit all our children into your hands. Save them from the hands of marauders who continue to prey on them. Help, guide and protect our children, especially our daughters, who, even in their innocence carry the seeds of the promise of tomorrow.

Our daughters in Chibok are still in your hands as well as our dear daughter Leah. Bring them back home, O God. Leah has defied the forces of evil and her innocent courage is a sure sign that our dream for a new dawn is not empty.

Raise up more Leahs for us so that our future can be guaranteed. Thank you, Father, and please forgive us our sins. Show our leaders the way, convert them to yourself. For a united Nigeria, happy Easter.