*History will remember Buhari as President who supervised killing of his people – Kaduna Bishops
*You’ve destroyed, divided Nigeria, Bishop Kukah bombs Buhari
By Ikwor Ikunmi
President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress administration came under severe fire at the weekend as the Bishops of both the Catholic and Anglican Communion joined the call by Northern Elders Forum (NEF) who last week called on the President to resisgn.
Joining in the call on Sunday, two Bishops of the Kaduna Catholic and Anglican Communion have joined the call on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign following his alleged inability to control the rising xzsecurity challenges in the country.
The Bishops of Kaduna Anglican Diocese, Timothy Yahaya and his counterpart from the Catholic Archdiocese, Matthew Manoso Ndagoso, join the Northern Elders Council in their call on President Muhammadu Buhari’s resignation over raging insecurity in the country.
This is even as the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Dioces, Mathew Hassan Kukah has accused the President of deeply destroying and dividing the country.
Kukah also stated that only killings and Corruption are the things that strive and pull strings in President Buhari’s APC administration.
The Bishops who spoke separately in their Easter messages to the nation, said any leader who cannot deliver the dividends of democracy has no other option but to bow out of office.
Bishop Ndagoso in his message said it was hard to disagree with the Northern elders’ position on the need for Buhari to resign from office over killings in the country, adding that the only thing the people get from the presidency each time Nigerians are killed, maimed and abducted, has remained empty assurances and reassurances of security by political leaders.
“My Easter message is that there is hope for every individual in this country, there is hope for Nigeria as a nation. I know what we are going through, it is a dangerous and perilous time. But I tell you the only tonic of tomorrow is hope.
“I don’t want to join issues with the Northern elders because I am not a politician. But the truth about leadership is that there is morality in leadership. If you cannot deliver as a leader in a civilised clime, the right thing and best thing to do is to bow out.
“But what gives me concern seriously is that I am not sure if the President knows that his name is going down in history as the President that is supervising the killing of his people.
“As a President who is the petroleum Minister, today in Kaduna we don’t have petrol for how many months. As the President who is supervising the nation, ASUU have closed down universities, the future generation is bleak.
“As a President who supervises where you hear billions of naira being budgeted and you don’t see anything verifiable for it.
“So for me I am not talking as a politician, am talking as a citizen of this nation, I am talking with the voice of the masses, I talk with the reality on the ground.
“For me, Mr. President needs to do an x-ray of his leadership in the past seven years because by next month he will be seven years fully on the saddle. Has he done very well? How much was Dollar when you took over power? How much was petrol when you took over power? How was insecurity when you took over power? Where was education when you took over power? Where was the name of Nigeria when you took over power? And how do you want me to believe that corruption is being fought in Nigeria?
“As far I am concerned, I have said it before, Nigeria is at war, soldiers are being killed, citizens are being killed. If you take the statistics of the number of soldiers and police that are being killed you will know that Nigeria is at war. Infrastructures are being attacked and vandalised”.
Catholic Bishop Ndagoso said “given where we are right now in terms of insecurity and the government’s handling of the situation thus far, it is hard for one to disagree with Bulama Bukarti’s assertion that, “the Buhari government is incompetent, inept and careless”, and the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) that “his leadership has proved spectacularly incapable of providing security over Nigerians.
“Our predicament today especially in the northwest region of our country and particularly in Kaduna state is akin to that of the two runaway disciples with high hope prior to 2015 that someone will rescue us from the grip of terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, cattle rustlers, marauding herders and such like.
“All we get are empty assurances and reassurances of security by our political leaders each time scores of Nigerians are killed, maimed and abducted as witnessed recently in the mass killings and abductions in Agunu, Kagoro, Koron Tsohuwa area, attacks on Kaduna international airport, the Abuja-Kaduna bound train that led to the killing of eight people, injury of scores and the abduction of more than 150, the killings of our gallant soldiers and vigilantes in the notorious Birnin Gwari axis and most recently the Plateau, Benue and Taraba mass killings have left most Nigerians with little or no trust and confidence in those charged with the constitutional responsibility of securing their lives and property.
“To say the least, the seeming incompetence and the lack of political will to face the ever increasing insecurity head-on has left most Nigerians in a state of quandary to the extent that some members of the National Assembly and other well respected individual Nigerians are publicly calling on the citizens to bear arms in order to defend themselves.
“Do we need any further signs of a failed state? Your guess is as good as mine”.
*You have destroyed, divided Nigeria – Kukah
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah on Sunday, said corruption was the only thing thriving well under President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said other aspects of life in the country have been destroyed by Buhari’s led administration.
In his 2022 Easter message, Kukah explained that with everything broken down, the country had been turned into “a big national hospital with full occupancy.”
He said, “Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, infrastructure are broken. Our educational system is broken. Our children’s lives and future are broken.
“Our politics is broken. Our economy is broken. Our energy system is broken. Our security system is broken. Our roads and rails are broken. Only corruption is alive and well.”
The cleric added Nigerians could no longer recognise their country, which, according to him, “has been battered and buffeted by men and women from the dark womb of time.”
According to him, although it was not difficult to know how the nation had gotten to the deplorable state it is, Nigerians must find a way out.
He said, “It is no longer necessary to ask how we got here. The real challenge is how to find the slippery rungs on the ladder of ascent so we can climb out. Yet, we ask, ascend to where?”
“One would be tempted to ask what is there to say about our tragic situation today that has not been said. Who is there to speak that has not spoken? Like the friends of Job, we stare at an imponderable tragedy as the nation unravels from all sides.
“The government has slid into hibernation mode. It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just don’t care. Either way, from this crossroads, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right or return home. None of these choices are easy, yet, guided by the light of the risen Christ, we can reclaim our country from its impending slide to anarchy.”
He noted that the greatest challenge now was how to begin a process of reconstructing the country with the hope that Nigerians could hang on and survive the 2023 elections.
Kukah urged Nigerians to look beyond the challenges and politics to have faith and character in the country.
He called on all religious leaders in Nigeria to urgently come to the country’s rescue.
“The real challenge before us now is to look beyond politics and face the challenge of forming character and faith in our country. Here, leaders of religion, Christianity and Islam, need to truthfully face the role of religion in the survival of our country. The Nigerian Constitution has very clearly delineated the fine boundaries between religion and politics. Yet many politicians continue to behave as if they are presiding over both the political and the spiritual realms in their states rather than governing in a Democracy.
“Religious leaders must face the reality that here in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world, millions of people are leaving Christianity and Islam.
“While we are busy building walls of division with the blocks of prejudice, our members are becoming atheists but we prefer to pretend that we do not see this.
“We cannot pretend not to hear the footsteps of our faithful who are marching away into atheism and secularism. No threats can stop this, but dialogue can open our hearts,” Kukah said.
Last April, the cleric came under fiery attack by the Presidency when he made similar statements during his Easter message to his teeming followers.
Kukah had, in his reaction to the ravaging insecurity in parts of the country, expressed worries that Nigeria had become a killing field.
He lamented that both the government and citizens had become helpless in the face of incessant cases of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and armed robbery across states in the country.
The Bishop noted that there was now a collective fear in Nigeria as to whether the glory of the country was about to depart due to the killings by the Boko Haram terrorist group, kidnappers and “other merchants of death.”
He blamed what he called lack of empathy by the Buhari-led administration as the reason for the numerous deaths in the country.
