Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on
Saturday, warned the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah, to stop
stigmatising the President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Mohammed, in a statement today titled, ‘FG Urges Religious
Leaders To Eschew Message of Disharmony’, also urged religious leaders in the
country to “refrain from stoking the embers of hatred and disunity” which could
“trigger unintended consequences”.
NigerianEye had earlier reported that Kukah in his 2020
Christmas message titled, ‘A nation in search of vindication’, on Friday, said
there could have been a coup or war in the country if a non-Northern Muslim
becomes a president and does a fraction of what Buhari has done.
The cleric had said, “Every honest Nigerian knows that there
is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what
President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it.
“There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we
would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will
do nothing and will live with these actions.
“He may be right and we Christians cannot feel sorry that we
have no pool of violence to draw from or threaten our country. However, God
does not sleep. We can see from the inexplicable dilemma of his North.”
Reacting on Saturday, the minister said Kukah and other religious leaders have a responsibility to speak truth to power but “such truth must not come wrapped in anger, hatred, disunity and religious disharmony.”
Mohammed said it was “graceless and impious for any
religious leader to use the period of Christmas, which is a season of peace, to
stoke the embers of hatred, sectarian strife and national disunity”.
Making an apparent reference to Kukah’s statement that there
could have been a coup or war in the country should any other leader exhibited
Buhari’s nepotistic behaviour, the minister warned, “Calling for a violent
overthrow of a democratically-elected government, no matter how disguised such
a call is, and casting a particular religion as violent is not what any
religious leader should engage in, and certainly not in a season of peace.”
“While some religious leaders, being human, may not be able
to disguise their national leadership preference, they should refrain from
stigmatising the leader they have never supported anyway, using well-worn and
disproved allegations of nepotism or whatever,” Mohammed further stated.
“Whatever challenges Nigeria may be going through at this
moment can only be tackled when all leaders and indeed all Nigerians come
together, not when some people arrogantly engage in name-calling and
finger-pointing,” he added.
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