Matthew Kukah, the Catholic
bishop of Sokoto diocese, says fighting corruption and fixing Nigeria requires
more than a God-fearing leader.
Kukah said this on Tuesday at the
launch of a book titled ‘The Shadow List’ written by Dr Todd Moss.
He said to fight corruption and
build the nation is not just about goodwill but about getting to the root of
the matter and tackling it head-on.
“I have said it severally; let
Nigerians keep saying they want a God-fearing leader,” he said.
“Nigeria does not need a
God-fearing leader, because God-fearing has become an excuse to appeal to
Nigerians and win elections.
“Governance in Nigeria is a
criminalized enterprise and a criminalized state cannot progress; so we must
come to terms as to why it is that this country is in such low portion.
“Fixing this country requires
much more than that; national cohesion, holding our country together is the
most fundamental project if we are to fix this nation.
“This is what we need because I
am aware of how angry and frustrated Nigerians have become, especially in an
environment where people are intrinsically not concerned about corruption but
about their inability to access.”
Kukah said it is wonderful to
talk about fighting corruption but that Nigerians cannot fight it if they had
not diagnosed the environment “as to why and how about corruption”.
He said it is sad that Nigerians
are always excited about a new administration but the excitement never lasts
because bad governance often sets in.
The cleric said nobody would have
imagined that three to four years down the line, Nigerians would be feeling the
way they were feeling now.
He said: “If you know Nigerians
well, rather than thinking about the solution to the problem, we are waiting
for a few men who govern Nigeria to tell us they have found a silver bullet and
then we all gather around.
“We will now pass through the
motion pretending to be conducting election when as it is from 1999, we always
have an idea of who the president will be even before the election is
conducted.”
Kukah said quite a number of
Nigerians had decided to make peace with the situation because they had decided
that “the building called corruption is too big for them to break down”.
He said unless the building or
system which was not serving the people of Nigeria was broken down, citizens,
whether Christians or Muslims, would continue to feel the way they were
feeling.
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Fr Kukah has said it all.Governance in Nigeria is a criminalised enterprise only criminals are allowed or given opportunity to rule.A criminalised society will not any meaniful progress no matter how they tried.The appointed and their appointees are all criminals so how can such society make progress.
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