Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto in his Easter message on Sunday stated that Nigeria has never experienced a high level of division since the Buhari administration.
Kukah, as a fierce critic of the Buhari government, cautioned religious leaders against falling prey to the antics of politicians by monetary inducements.
“The greatest challenge for Nigeria is not even the 2023 elections. It is the prospects for the reconciliation of our people,” the statement partly read.
“Here, the Buhari administration sadly has divided our people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region, in a way that we have never witnessed in our history. This carefully choreographed agenda has made Nigerians vulnerable and ignited the most divisive form of identity consciousness among our people.
“Years of friendships, cultural exchange, and collaboration built over time have now come under serious pressure from stereotyping. Notwithstanding these challenges, religious leaders must recover and deploy their moral authority and avoid falling victim to the schemes of politicians and their material enticements.”
See the full message issued by Bishop Kukah below:
TO MEND A BROKEN NATION: THE EASTER METAPHOR:
(Easter Message by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Diocese of Sokoto, April 17th, 2022)
1: Hello brothers and sisters in Christ, men and women of goodwill everywhere, I send you hearty greetings and felicitations as we celebrate the risen Christ. Easter is here again. For all Christians, Easter is a metaphor for our lives as individuals, families, communities or nations. Easter is a metaphor for how shame, scandal, powerlessness, weakness, and opprobrium suddenly transform into glory, honour, pre-eminence, laudation and applause. It is a fulfilment of what the Master himself had foretold when He said, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (Jn. 12: 24). And the Psalmist had said, ‘Those who sow in tears will sing when they reap.’ (Ps. 126:5).
2: The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are central to the Christian faith and yet, as St Paul said, ‘We preach Christ crucified, a scandal to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles’ (1 Cor. 1: 23). St Paul continues: ‘What seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength’ (1 Cor. 1:25). Without the claims of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, millions of people would not be Christian today. As with the times of Jesus, the very idea is preposterous and incomprehensible yet St. Paul still insists that ‘If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is a delusion and we are still in our sins’ (1 Cor. 15:17). It is faith in the resurrection of Christ that inspires us Christians to hold firmly to the fact that, like the people of Israel, our dry bones shall rise again (Ez. 37: 11).
3: Our dear country, Nigeria, still totters and wobbles as we screech towards a dangerous and avoidable canyon of dry bones. Nonetheless, we still cling to hope, a hope in the resurrected Christ, knowing as St. Paul; said, ‘this hope does not disappoint us’ (Rm.5:5). Nigerians can no longer recognise their country which has been battered and buffeted by men and women from the dark womb of time. It is no longer necessary to ask how we got here. The real challenge is how to find the slippery rungs on the ladder of ascent so we can climb out. Yet, we ask, ascend to where? For us as Christians, ascent is to the loving embrace of the resurrected Christ who is Lord of history.
4: One would be tempted to ask, what is there to say about our tragic situation today that has not been said? Who is there to speak that has not spoken? Like the friends of Job, we stare at an imponderable tragedy as the nation unravels from all sides. The government has slid into hibernation mode. It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just don’t care. Either way, from this crossroad, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right or return home. None of these choices are easy, yet, guided by the light of the risen Christ, we can reclaim our country from its impending slide to anarchy.
5: The greatest challenge now is how to begin a process of reconstructing our nation hoping that we can hang on and survive the 2023 elections. The real challenge befo