This year’s Christmas message by the Catholic Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah was, as usual, lengthy and loaded with a lot of admonitions, charges, denials, appeals and warnings, all of which have made it to be a very instructive material for all categories of Nigerians. As the last before the 2023 General Elections, the Christmas provided him with the opportunity to carry out a reflection on the past events and analyze the prevailing realities, all of which he related to the anticipations and needs of the people as the country prepares for the elections that will most fundamentally determine the future of the country.
The Bishop is a huge quantity whose capacity for the engagement of others in conversations on religious faith and secular issues is inestimable. Even those who, on whichever ground, detest his manner of speaking have no other option than to believe that the kind of comments he makes are always weighty enough to dominate discourses on politics, governance, inter-religious harmony and national development.
Bishop Kukah is much greater than many other religious leaders and preachers across Islam and Christianity in terms of resourcefulness and readiness for the kind of debates that can lead to the proper identification and analysis of vital issues in Nigeria. This explains the tremendous recognition he enjoys from across the various strata of the society and the resultant relationship he sustains with a lot of prominent personalities of diverse backgrounds.
In the message which he tagged—Let Us Turn A Page–Bishop Kukah tried to be different from what he has been for decades without stripping himself of all the elements that have continued to define him. He only repackaged his ideas and presented them in a manner that portrayed him as more realistic and simplistic as a result of which the message has quickly sunk into even those who would have ordinarily dismissed it as another unwarranted attack on those groups and communities whose backgrounds and affiliations are different from his.
Kukah To Buhari: You Are Leaving Nigeria More Vulnerable, Corrupt
He particularly called for a “change of strategy so that we can turn a new page”, which clearly indicates an admission of the fact that most of the strategies, including the ones that he had earlier prescribed, have been deficient. As one of those who have not only been persistent in the call for a better approach to national issues but also severely critical of the ideas and styles of others, basically on account of real and perceived differences, Kukah must have now come to terms with the compelling need for the interrogation and possible review of the usual measures for the resolution of the current crises.
Quite expectedly and appropriately, the Bishop mentioned all those existing realities that are threats to the forthcoming elections and, by extension, democracy. Just like some other leaders have already done, he used the occasion of the Christmas to express genuine concerns over the possibility of the conduct of credible elections which are the only guarantee for the enthronement and sustenance of good governance.
The widespread insecurity, economic crunch and the politicians’ clear tendency for the subversion of the system through the deployment of terribly unethical strategies such as vote-buying are enough good reasons for all the fears over the forthcoming elections. Almost all the reports on the present situation that have so far been compiled and presented are, in various ways, simply a validation of a lot of the points that have been made on the challenges and therefore a re-enforcement of the belief that it will take a far more than the usual effort to conduct the exercise.
But even as many issues about the 2023 elections are presently frightening, there are still some other ones that should be termed as ‘signs of growth’ which, if well managed, can yield beautiful fruits for the country. The dismissal of every aspect of the existing scenerio as counter-productive or inimical to democratic governance is therefore not helpful to the on-going search for solutions to the problems that Bishop Kukah and his likes are incessantly complaining about.
The same-faith ticket which has, in this case, been adopted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, as presidential candidate and presidential running mate respectively, is one of such signs of growth of democracy to which Kukah is surprisingly opposed. Even with all the arguments that Nigeria is a heterogeneous country in which the spread of all kinds of opportunity is necessary, the insistence that religious faith should be the strongest determinant of the competence of any person for contest runs counter to the spirit of democracy.
It seriously beats even the wildest imagination that people who claim to be dogged advocates of democracy are the ones who are at the forefront in the undue promotion of religious sentiment, most often, to the detriment of the vital need for the election of leaders on the basis of their competence and preparedness to serve. Sincere democracy advocates will never consider Muslim- Christian or Christian-Muslim as more valid than Christian-Christian or Muslim-Muslim ticket if their whole idea of democracy is the election of credible leaders.
It is in the context of this understanding that Bishop Kukah, though a renowned member of the clergy, as well as all the other leaders in either Islam or Christianity are expected to call for the nomination of quality people, not just Muslims or Christians, as candidates of political parties. They should realize the fact that it is their own act of the promotion of religious sentiment and not the adoption of the same-faith ticket that is openly divisive.
Kukah’s call, as contained in the Christmas message under reference, on the candidates to show appreciation of the “problems that our country faces” is as noble as his request to them to “co-operate and collaborate with the institutions which are tasked with responsibilities for these elections.” Between now and the time of the elections, it is such admonitions that will best serve the interest of the country.
Perhaps, his effort to disabuse the minds of those who have believed that he is a staunch opponent of President Muhammadu Buhari has paid up. By acknowledging the achievements recorded by the president in the area of infrastructural development and his commitment to the conduct of credible elections, the Bishop must have now made some of his critics to have a favourable impression of him.
Bishop Kukah tirelessly speaks the language of the clerics and is therefore consistently drawing the attention of Christians and non-Christians to the reality of the existence of God as well as His powers and compassion. The particular statement in the Christmas message that the “world, including our country, is under God’s gaze” is clearly meant to make Nigerians a lot more prayerful, confident and patriotically dutiful.
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