Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, on Friday urged Nigerians to give up unrealistic expectations of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s change agenda.
Kukah said it was not the President’s responsibility to change people’s ethics or attitudes, rather Nigerians would have to do that by themselves.
He delivered the keynote lecture at the launch of the New Narrative for Good Governance newspaper yesterday in Lagos.
The New Narrative, with its headquarters in Lagos, is published by Kalu Okoronkwo, who is also its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while Mike Nzeagwu is its Editor-in-Chief.
Guests at the event included, former Akwa Ibom Governor and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, founder/CEO, Centre for Values in Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi, Chairman Swiss Spirit Danag, Port Harcourt, Daniel Chimezie Okeke (Omereoha) among others.
Kukah said: “In the paper I’m going to present tomorrow, because I’ll be speaking to a Catholic audience. I’m going to ask them the question ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself? That were expecting Buhari to change Nigeria, that we think that Buhari has not changed Nigeria?’
“The question is: How does Buhari change Nigeria? By going into the kitchen and changing our menus? By going into our towns, our communities and changing the way we do business? By going into the banking hall and forcing us to do business in a different way?
“This tendency of outsourcing our responsibilities either to God or to other external agents, what it does to us is that it saves us from the difficulty of thinking about our own complicity.
“I am saying to my Christian audience tomorrow, I should be ashamed of myself if it is to a politician that I am looking for change, because the very essence of my life as a Christian is to – when Jesus tells me I am the light of the world, I am the salt of the earth – so, if this country is in need of redemption, Nigerians say they want a messiah, but I say you cannot have a messiah in Nigeria because the Nigerian messiah has to be recognised. The Muslim will not recognise the Christian messiah and the Christian will not recognise the Muslim messiah.”
He urged Nigerians to not be carried away by the euphoria surrounding June 12 without finding a solution to the underlying problem of nation-building.
Kukah said: “Now we are in the excitement of June 12. Suddenly we are now for Abiola or against Abiola, for June 12 or against June 12.
“Meanwhile the deeper issues remain unresolved and they concern the content, structure of the system that we are running. We are refusing to deal with the question: How are nations formed? How do nations grow?
He described Nigeria’s ethnic diversity as “a great asset, not a problem”, adding, “Contrary to what our people say and contrary to what has become popular, diversity is an asset. The critical question is, how do we manage the diversity?”
Akpabio, the chairman of the occasion, who was represented by Dr Kachi Onanuju, said the launch was “very apt. We are at a place in our country where we have never been before in 104 years.
“New Narrative will be an instrument that will aid our country.”
He urged Nigerians to “put your hands together in building a new country. God has put us all in this country. We must find a way to go on this journey together.”
