Southern Kaduna Killings: I’ve Lost Hope In Nigeria – Kukah
Rt. Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto diocese[/caption]
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto diocese, Rt. Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has painted a dreary picture of the country, saying that though he is an optimist, he was now very “unsure about the future of this country.”
Kukah at a book launch, ‘Religion and the Making of Nigeria’, by Professor Olufemi Vaughan of the Africana Studies and History Faculty at Bowdoin College, in the U.S. on Thursday in Abuja bemoaned killings going on in some parts of the country faulting the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for being unable to stop the killings because it has not been able to separate criminality from religion.
“As a Nigerian and a citizen, I have always been an incurable optimist. But I have never been as unsure about the future of this country as I am now,” Kukah said.
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“People say they are killing for religion, but intentions are not enough. As it is, we may never be able to prosecute anybody because we have not been able to separate criminality from religion. In Nigeria, we have a feeling that somehow, people can genuinely kill in the name of religion.
“I think that unless Nigeria as a country is prepared to make laws and ensure that all citizens live by same and be answerable by the same law, what we are witnessing is a symptom, not the disease. The creeping inequalities, the inability of this system to deliver has made us uncomfortable.
“The point, therefore, is not for us to keep praying. Should religion lead to the un-making of Nigeria? The answer is ‘No’. But the government of Nigeria should separate religion from politics and economics and let everybody make his claims.”
