Truth is bitter. So the axiom goes. The reaction that has trailed the 2020 Christmas homily of the Catholic Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, is a pointer that the present crops of leadership in Nigeria especially at the federal level are averse to the truth. A leadership that harbours truth from its citizen is bound to lead to authoritarian.
In the wake of the Christmas message, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in his reaction to the message called on religious leaders to refrain from stoking the embers of hatred and disunity, warning that resorting to scorched-earth rhetoric at this time could trigger unintended consequences.
IMPACT NEWS holds that the homily hits the nail on the head. The bishop had in the message said that the Buhari-led government “owes the nation an explanation as to where it is headed as we seem to journey into darkness. The spilling of this blood must be related to a more sinister plot that is beyond our comprehension. Are we going to remain hogtied by these evil men or are they gradually becoming part of a larger plot to seal the fate of our country?”
The bishop accused the Federal Government of deliberately sacrificing the dreams of those who voted for him to what seemed like a programme to stratify and institutionalise northern hegemony by reducing others in public life to second class status.
He said President Buhari has pursued self-defeating and alienating policy at the expense of greater national cohesion. “Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it.
“There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions. He may be right and we Christians cannot feel sorry that we have no pool of violence to draw from or threaten our country. However, God does not sleep. We can see from the inexplicable dilemma of his North.”
It is also of great importance that religious leaders must emulate the candor of Bishop Kukah and at all-time speak the make truth to the government at all levels without minding whose ox is gored.
As a news medium, we stand by the message of the bishop to the government. It is a call to order. We only hope that the president and his handlers will take the message in good faith.
