The open challenge for a debate came after the trio attacked Kukah over his Easter message where they accused him of plotting the destabilization of Nigeria through his sermons.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Revd. Matthew Kukah has challenged the trio of Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu to a debate in a venue of their choosing. In fact, he said he would pay his way to the debate venue.
The open challenge came after the trio attacked Kukah over his Easter message where they accused him of plotting the destabilization of Nigeria through his sermons.
But Kukah said yesterday that he looks forward to a debate with presidential spokesmen, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, over the country’s state of affairs. He also extended the invitation for a debate to the information minister, Lai Mohammed.
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While responding to Kukah’s message, Garba Shehu asked the Catholic Bishop to join politics and see whether he would do better than Buhari.
Reacting to Garba Shehu during a breakfast show on ARISE TV yesterday, Kukah said he remains passionate about the problems faced by Nigeria because he had paid his dues on finding solutions to the numerous challenges facing Nigerians.
According to him, “I don’t know whether any of them (Adesina, Shehu) has the ability or the capacity to speak about guilt or no guilt, but let me first of all set that record straight. I delivered my sermon to my congregation in the cathedral. So, the bearer of the message is primarily the good people of the diocese of Sokoto.
“Of course, I am not unaware of the state of mind of my two friends, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, when it comes to talking about Bishop Kukah. They seem to suspend reason and go into overdrive.
“Unless of course, Garba Shehu has plans to convert to Christianity or he is a closet Christian or he is an anonymous Christian, I appreciate the fact that when it comes to talking, he has not quoted the Holy Quran.
All he does is end up with some convoluted interpretations of the Bible and embarrassing in their contexts.
“And I’m surprised that Femi Adesina who I believe is a reverend of the sort in the Foursquare Gospel Church, I’m surprised that he’s unable to help his friend who they sat together with.
“But let me simply say that I have made an offer to them and still make the offer that they can choose the venue, choose the time and just let me know. I would like to sit down with the three of them beginning with their honourable minister and both of them. Let us sit down together and talk about Nigeria. I’m ready, I will pay my way, I still repeat that offer to them,” he said.
Kukah said the Buhari’s imagemakers were shying away from issues and resorting to “poor quality writings” in the discharge of their duties.
He said, “These are the only spokesmen that have spent a lot of time buying, photocopying paper and simply typing away texts. They have been involved in all kinds of writing of the poorest quality, never talking about the issues.
“So, the first thing is to show you their inefficiency; it is that they are used to writing statements as opposed to talking to Nigerians about policies.
“What this tells you is that 99.99 percent of what they write implies second-guessing what the president’s mind is. They have no contact with the president, they have no contact with government policies and all they are doing is writing on behalf of the president. There is nowhere in the world where the job of this nature is being done and has been done so poorly,” he lamented.
Picking on each of the actors, Bishop Kukah said, “While we’re doing all these things, Femi Adesina was being paid salary by Orji Kalu and he was doing a good job in the Sun as a journalist. Garba Shehu was working for Atiku. Lai Mohammed was working for Tinubu. So, I think everybody should be able to answer his father’s name.”