Nigeria: Bishop Kukah Is God-Sent- Kaduna Cleric

• Says he’s pained over insecurity in Nigeria

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: The immediate
Past Director of Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna and Parish Priest of St Charles Lwanga parish, Ungwan Sunday, Kaduna, Rev. Fr Anthony Okelue has described Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto Diocese as God- Sent to Nigeria and humanity.

He said the reverred Bishop’s fight for justice and good governance is unprecedented as his comments on the state of the nation are seriously commendable

Okelue noted further that Kukah’ s humility as Priest/ Bishop and doggedness in speaking truth to power, spanned sucssessive governments including military juntas.

He disclosed this during a maiden solidarity and media hangout with Journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday, where he further lamented the state of insecurity bedevelling the country, owing to failure of Leadership

” I want to thank God for the personality of Kukah; Kukah is Godsent, and Kukah is doing his work deliberately as priest, if you listen to him in his humility, he’ ll just reduce himself to a priest not really reducing himself; because he is basically and fundamentally a priest, before he’s been given the position and office of a Bishop and now, he’s been trained and he is giving back to society,

He said Bishop Kukah ” understands that it’s not all well with Nigeria and Kukah is passionate, Kukah feels he is losing nothing, he’s about 70 years of age, it’s a testimony of longevity, the Bible tells us that our lifespan is 70 years or 80 for those who are strong, so he’s already moving towards that in fact he has done it in the past, during the era of the military juntas

” I am seriously in support of what Kukah has been saying, because he’s pushing for justice. I believe when we press the bottom of justice in Nigeria, everything will take its natural shape, I don’t see a reason why a Nigerian, should kill a Nigerian, I feel sad/sore

” I consider every Nigerian to be my Brother and Sister, when we go abroad we call ourselves brothers and we come together, are we hipocrites?, we’re not, because Nigeria and Africa are basically known for brotherhood and not individualiism like the Europeans: so let us think twice,” he added

While commending the leadership style of Late President Yar’ adua who’s President Buhari’s Kinsman, he added ” so it’s not really about the person, it’s not really about the religion, but it’s about what the person has to offer, if you have the goodwill and the wherewithal to think about the common good of all, you’re the right man for the position,

” so Kukah is conscientizing us to know all of these things and actually work towards that and gain that: he’s on the right track and may God bless him and protect him”

On palpable insecurity in Nigeria, Father Okelue further lamented
” as a priest, I’m pained that a life is lost every day, look at what the death of George floyld has caused in the US and in the world of football, there’s a ritual that is done for the death of one person in America and here in Nigeria people die everyday, so I’m pained and truly the problem with Africa is leadership,

” Africa is blessed with resources both human and material and so if there’s a manager who can help us to articulate all of these things together it will help, however I’m speaking as a philosopher, let us not always let the weight be on the manager himself, let us also look at the strength that the managed have, even because truly, power belongs to the people

” and that’s what we’ve not got rightly yet in Nigeria; if we do, i tell you, these people will never take us for granted. I don’t see any reason why the Nigerian military will be suffering in the hands of insurgents and bandits; I mean they are way, way beyond the capacity of these people,

” and so there’s lacuna, there’s a missing gap and we blame it on leadership and so if we get leadership right in this country, I believe insecurity wouldn’t be a problem, in fact we’ll have many more testimonies to tell in Nigeria” he aveered