Buhari needs to listen to Bishop Kukah and other voices with the best of intention for him and the nation.
By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
Two years ago, I argued on why the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, should be seen as a good friend to President Muhammadu Buhari, rather than an adversary that presidential image managers try to paint him as. Events have continued to prove that the catholic clergy means well for the President. He is everything a good friend is, to the president.
Genuine friends, in this instance, need not be close. A good friend is not one with whom you indulge in orgies and oddities. He is not the type that humours you with a false picture of what you are. A good friend does not tell you what you wish to hear. He tells you what you should hear. He also, does not only criticise but proffers suggestions. These are what the Kukah represents in his perceived hard stance against the President.
Every King, it is said, needs a prophet. For Buhari, the Bishop is his prophet. He tells him the truth, he offers alternatives, he proffers solutions.
For quite some time now, the Bishop has been trenchant in drawing the attention of the President to the dangers his opaque style of leadership is posing to the corporate existence of the country. Like the Biblical John the Baptist, he has been shouting in the wilderness of Nigeria’s State, asking for things to be done aright. But his calls have largely gone unheeded.
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Kukah raised the same issue in his Easter message in which he accused Buhari of destroying everything in Nigeria except corruption. He argued that Buhari has divided Nigerians on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region.
“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”, he lamented.
The Bishop added that; “With everything literally broken down, our country has become one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy”.
This is not the first time Kukah would be raising his voice against government’s poor management of the ills in the society. In his Easter message of April 3, 2021, he had observed that the government had failed and turned the country into a massive killing field.
The Bishop has always blamed the President for contributing to the problems confronting the country by allowing petty considerations affect his style of governance. At a time, he had wondered how the President who ran his campaign on the wings of integrity and moral probity, would on coming to office, bring nepotism and clannishness into strategic sectors of the national being, including the military and the ancillary security agencies, to the point of his government being marked by supremacist and divisive policies that are pushing the country to the brink.
“This President has displayed the greatest degree of insensitivity in managing our country’s rich diversity. He has subordinated the larger interests of the country to the hegemonic interests of his co-religionists and clansmen and women. The impression created now is that, to hold a key and strategic position in Nigeria today, it is more important to be a northern Muslim than a Nigerian”, Kukah had lamented.
Each time the Bishop cries out on the uncertain state of affairs in the country, foot soldiers of the President prefer going for his calling and person, rather than addressing the issues he raises. But try as they do, they have always failed. The fact, is that Buhari has become a hard sell, if not a bad product, entirely. In 2014, I did a piece titled, “Interpreting the Buhari phenomenon”. It was informed by the audacious move by Buhari on February 6 of that year, when he took a trip to Maiduguri, Borno State in course of his campaign as presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC). Many had likened the move to hunting in a lion’s den – a risky gamble of sort. And they had their reasons.
Maiduguri and other towns in Borno and by extension, the entire North East, were then in a near state of war, on account of Boko Haram insurgency. Security agents that were deployed to quell the insurgency, had been stretched by the terrorists. Thus, when Buhari embarked on the trip, it appeared a suicide mission of sort.
But he was not deterred. In fact, to the surprise of many, the turn-out by his supporters, was tumultuous. And the security agents stationed at the Maiduguri Stadium, were overwhelmed.
A national daily, Leadership Newspaper, which captured the visit had then reported; “At a point, the apparently exasperated soldiers and policemen were forced to shoot into the air and release some canisters of tear gas in a failed attempt to keep the crowd at bay.”
That, did not work. Rather, as Buhari’s motorcade snaked into the ecstatic crowd, it became more difficult to maintain order. The Medium described the situation further: “The crowd went wild when Buhari had to walk through the elevated isle of the mega podium. Fans went out of control as they broke through the iron barricade that fenced them out and rushed towards the stand. The friendly show of support and love for the APC presidential candidate suddenly became a threat as all pleas for them to calm down fell on deaf ears. Sensing that it would amount to a waste of time if he should insist on speaking, Buhari took the advice of his aides and quickly allowed them to whisk him out of the venue.”
That was the Buhari phenomenon. It was then, a mystic of sort. Buhari had in his campaign, pledged to give corruption, unemployment and insecurity, a frontal attack. Taken from the fabled impression of a no-nonsense General – a notion that had trailed his short-lived term as military head of state between 1984 and 1985, traumatized Nigerians had pinned their hopes on him.
In coming to office however, most of the promises of better life to the citizenry, have been kept in breach. Insecurity seems more pronounced now than the era the President ran for the office. Cost of living is at all-time high, with Nigerians divided along ethnic and religious lines, more than any other time. In many ways, the President has lost it. That was the essence of the Easter message by Kukah.
So, rather than attacking Bishop Kukah or accusing him of hating his administration, the President should reflect on the points raised in his sermon. The truth is that Nigerians had never had it as bad as it is under his watch.
But it is not too late for him to make amends. With the remaining months to the end of his term, he can still make some impacts. All he needs is to admit that some mistakes have been made, go back to the drawing board and identify where he got it wrong. Above all, he needs to listen to voices with the best of intention for him and the nation. Kukah is one of such voices!
