The Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah has called on the federal government to come up with a robust template on how to reverse and put Nigerians on a path of national healing.
In doing do, he said, it must include a deliberate policy of
inclusion that would 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.”
In his Easter message, Kukah said, “there is need for a
clear communications strategy that will serve to inspire and create time-lines
of expectations of results from policies.
“There is need for clarity over questions of the Who, What,
When, and How national set goals are to be attained and who can be held
accountable.”
“This will take us away from the current
Communications-by-announcement-of-appointments policies as if this is all that
government is doing,” he observed.
According to him, the notion of rejigging the security
architecture is a hackneyed cliché that is now at best, an oxymoron, adding
that “it is difficult to fathom the current situation regarding the ubiquity of
the military in Nigerians national life.”
He observed that it was impossible to explain how Nigerians
can say they are in a civilian democracy with the military literally looking
like an army of occupation with an octopussean spread across all the 36 states
and Abuja, stating that it has very serious consequences both for its
professionalism, its integrity and perceived role in protecting society.
He noted, “No other person than the immediate past Chief of
Defense 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. This is not sustainable because it leaves the military open to ridicule
and perceptions of surrender.”
He lamented that fighting insecurity was now an enterprise.
He stated that it is cheering to hear that the President has
announced that kidnapping and banditry are now to be treated as acts of
terrorism, stressing that Nigerians need to see a relentless and implacable
plan to end the menace with a definite dateline for bringing the terrorists to
their knees, no matter what it would take.
According to him, “Without a timeline for eliminating these
evil, despicable, malevolent and execrable demons from among us, our future as
a people will be imperiled.”
He commended the government over its promise to stop paying
ransom to bandits and kidnappers, saying that merely going to the forest and
returning with victims leaves the government open to suspicion from citizens.
He said that the government needs to show results of a well
co-ordinated plan and timelines to bring back all citizens in captivity and
give Nigerians back their country.
Kukah encouraged the President to continue on the path of
probity, to take further steps to cut down the overbearing costs of governance
and to put in place more comprehensive plans towards achieving both food and
physical security across the nation, pointing out that merely distributing
money through already corruption-riddled structures was not enough and
diminished the dignity of the citizens.
“No one needs to line up to receive aid when we are not in a
war. Give our people back their farms and develop a comprehensive agricultural
plan to put our country back on the path of honour and human dignity,” he
emphasized.
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