Instead of Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto on a special day like Christmas telling the Christian faithful that they should hold their faith aglow amid the conflicting elements of the troubled world, that those who delivered the early Christians from the furnace of Jewish and Roman persecutions in the early beginnings of the Christian history, he was busy telling them the state of the nation which defies all logic and reason in the mirror of the word of God. Is he a political analyst or a Christian cleric?
Was this the kind of message the early Christians proclaimed across the ancient world of the Roman Empire within the space of 40 years which Apostle Paul claimed that all creatures under heaven had received the word of God in Colossians 1:2 3? Was this the message that conquered the Roman Empire and ultimately changed the face of the world in less than three centuries?
I perceive that Bishop Kukah has lost track of the gospel message and he is using the occasion to call attention to himself. In case he has shortchanged the reading of his Bible for reading Blueprint and Vanguard newspapers, the real Christmas and new year messages should fill the Christians with a sense of awe for Jesus, struggled with the temporal, political, the civil, the grand and the common faced all emotional and spiritual conflicts when Tiberias was the emperor, Pilate the governor and Herod the tetrarch, and won and had given to all who will receive him the power of his victory to do it in their own corner of time and be victorious.
Bishop Kukah claims that President Muhammadu Buhari is sabotaging the nation for the interest of the North. I question his motive and challenge him to come up with the proofs. Are the northerners more secure, more empowered, well-housed, well fed and well educated than the rest of Nigerians?
To the best of knowledge, President Buhari mounted the presidential seat on three promise – to fight insecurity, fight corruption and fight economic depression. He has never in these areas of responsibilities sabotaged the nation to serve northern interest. Bishop Hassan Kukah should get back on track in heating up the faith and not the polity by praying for President Buhari. Kukah had said in 2014 during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration that, “Let us pray for our country, our president and military and the security agencies. This is not time for us to cast blame, we are in a boat that is threatening to sink, we need to get to safety first before we can find who to blame.” As a religious cleric, Kukah’s message should be a plea to promote unity in a nation of diversity.
Abdulkareem Haruna,
Federal University,
Katsina
