Nigerian Catholic Bishop, alleged to have canvassed a coup to topple President Muhammadu Buhari administration, has again attacked the administration and the country’s elites.
Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, had in his Christmas Day message, accused Buhari of nepotism and that the country was on the verge of becoming a failed state under him.
He also argued that if a southerner had done what the president had done, there would have been a coup.
Some individuals and organisations which attacked him over the statement accused him of calling for a coup.
The cleric however denied the allegation.
But on January 5, Kukah alleged high level of corruption in the country, which he described as “wasteland” and “a nation at war with itself.”
He spoke while delivering a sermon at the funeral mass for Archbishop Yariyock Jatau, the first indigenous Archbishop of Kaduna Catholic Diocese.
The sermon was titled “A nation in search of its soul.”
He said, “The duty and responsibility of government is the security and welfare of its citizens. The priest is a watchman, one whose duty is to watch over the city and to raise his voice whenever he sights danger. He calls on those who lead to remain faithful to their duties.
“Today, our dear nation is like the proverbial farmer searching for his black goat. He has to do it with a sense of urgency because darkness is setting in as the sun quickly recedes. Our nation has become one huge waste land, huge debris of the deceit, lies, treachery, double dealing and duplicity.
“Nigerian politics has become a huge Trojan horse, a hoax, a hall of guile and dissimulation. The levels of frustration are rising by the day and we can see all this in the rise in domestic violence and intercommunal conflicts. A combination of all these has turned us unto a nation at war with itself.
“Nigerians complain that the country is full of Churches and Mosques and they cannot find the values of these religions in everyday life. We sin at home by stealing the nation’s resources but we seek repentance and forgiveness in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem in the guise of lesser or higher pilgrimages.
“Our duty is to reject the notion of corrupt governments that somehow, the Lord has not provided for every society. When they call for us to tighten our belts because there is recession, that oil prices have fallen, that there are problems with balance of payments and so on.
“The Priest at the duty post must say what he can see, namely, that when those who preside over the affairs issue a bad cheque, it must be resisted, that when they pretend that the society faces bankruptcy, or that there are insufficient funds, we must reject these and insist on the equitable use of the resources for the common good of all.
“We make money from abandoning projects duly paid for by governments which have adopted Contractocracy as a governance mechanism. We are allowing others to use our money to develop their own infrastructure. Our elites all assembled in Dubai for Christmas and also to welcome the new year.
“As virtue recedes into the sunset in our country, there is an urgent need for us to pause and take stock of what is required to save our country.”