Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic bishop of the Sokoto diocese, says he was once attacked for defending President Muhammadu Buhari against claims that he is a religious fanatic.
In an interview with Sunday Punch, Kukah — who has been widely criticised over his recent comments on the probe of former President Goodluck Jonathan — asked Nigerians to be more worried about the hypocrites and cheer leaders around Buhari.
In 2001, Buhari was quoted as saying Muslims should not vote for non-Muslims, and this was used against him politically for years despite denials.
Recalling the role he played, Kukah said: “In 2007, when I wrote an article to clarify what Gen. Buhari was alleged to have said about Muslims voting for Muslims, I had reactions. Some Muslims abused me and accused me of having deceived and misled Gen. Buhari; some Christians accused me of breaking ranks and making a case for a man who ought to have been tried and jailed.
Advertisement
“Those who have changed their jerseys and are not Buhari apparatchiks, were they not the same people who abused Gen. Buhari and harassed us at the Oputa Panel for not ordering [him] to be imprisoned? I laugh when I think of these things. I try to think carefully before I talk. It often takes many years but my critics often find a way of coming around to my arguments. I do not speak out of malice and, sometimes, we may not make our point clearly or even correctly.”
On how Buhari should prosecute the anti-graft war, he said: “We can put all the people we want in jails but what will that do? We can even kill them, but then, what next? Buhari can and should learn from ex-President Obasanjo who got back so much of the loot after he came in without any noise. I recall him saying that even pastors helped to bring back loot from repentant parishioners.
“I believe the President, using the intelligence resources available, should consider surprise as the most vital tool in this fight. My worry has not been about not probing as some of my critics falsely think. I have been saying ‘think, plan and execute.’ If you make so much noise, vital evidence, data and files will be destroyed by collaborators in the civil service or the relevant offices.
Advertisement
“The President has not named his team in this battle yet and he needs to court whistleblowers and wean them from the looters who may still have control over them. We must all know that loyalties have not changed yet.”
Kukah said Buhari has not told anyone how his anti-corruption war will be fought and wondered why people are already talking about “an anti-corruption campaign”.
He denied claims he was trying to make a case against probing Jonathan.
“People have the mistaken notion that some of us are against the probe or that we are shielding Jonathan. What have I got to gain by shielding Jonathan, now that he is not in power? President Buhari’s concern should be with the choir of hypocrites and cheer leaders who are clamouring around him now,” he said.
Advertisement
“If Jonathan is guilty of theft of state funds, that should be dealt with but it should not distract us from whatever else he may have done well. He was a good man and, sadly, if bad (or good) things happened under his watch, we must let everyone take his or her own share of the blame or praise.”
Kukah said recovering looted funds is not going to be easy.
He asked: “Where are the places where the monies are? Identifying the location is the first step. The problem is, these monies are stolen and they are not necessarily lost. The challenge is to find those who will help us find them. But finding them is just the beginning of the problem. The real problem is getting the loot back because it — the loot — is sustaining banks, corporations, businesses, industries and careers abroad or in the safe havens and these people (countries) will fight back with everything.
“You think these banks will just wire this loot to you just like that? They have more lawyers, better lawyers than our entire country. It is almost 20 years now and we still have not seen the Abacha loot. All we hear are stories, since (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo’s time. I am just pointing out difficulties and not discouraging anyone; but there are choices to make.
Advertisement
“The President has only four years; he has to decide on how he will conserve his energies and which battles to fight, when and how. Our people love drama, but theatre has only a passing use for us now. He does not have a Supreme Military Council of Generals to throw people into jail. He has a National Assembly to deal with and there are still lingering problems with that august body. The President needs help in clearing the debris and banana peels ahead.”
Read more at Sunday Punch
Advertisement
20 comments
I believe Rev Kukah must have gained so much from the Jonathans Government. I believe the Rev has skeleton in is cupboard. He is part of the Nigerian problem.How can he say Jonathan is a Good man,a man that does not know that there is no difference between corruption and stealing, a man that pardoned a thief. How much did Obasonjo recover.Father Kukah is among the men of God encouraging their congregation to steal public funds and come and ask for forgiveness without restitution. If he has nothing positive to say he should stop granting interview and concentrate on his calling as a priest.The country is making slow progress towards a positive change he should say thing that would encourage what the goverment is doing and stop campaigning for Jonathans administration as if he was part of the Government
May God have mercy on your soul
Hello Yemi, if you read in between lines, you will realize that there is wisdom in Rev Kukah’s counsel. But if you think there is no wisdom, let’s see how far this anti-corruption drama will take us. Four years is indeed like a flashlight; before you know it, its all over, and he will realize that he ended up ‘dramatizing’ and did not achieve anything for Nigeria. I pray earnestly that God will grant Buhari the wisdom to go about governing the nation in this four years. I think he means well for the nation, but he also need the right counsel to do it right.
@yemi, there is no doubt that Jonathan is good man. In fact, Jonathan is a man of pure heart, and that does not mean that he is a good leader. If it were OBJ, just like MKO, most lagosians could have been either in England ( the rich ones), or in Cotonou, Togo and Ghana as refugees today. I know right from the beginning of Jonathan’s administration that he was not only weak, but naive and when OBJ, Tinubu and northern elders came to the reality of Jonathan’s naivety, they gang up against him. Had he fought them back by caging OBJ because of treasonable letters he wrote, Tinubu and northern elders could have think twice before attacking Jonathan. OBJ will go to grave meditating on Abacha. OBJ dreams up to this moment of Abacha.
Your upbringing is faulty. I don’t need an imam or a clergy to know this.
Your comment..
It is easier to recover looted funds if the looters return the funds by theirselves therefore, Kukah is mindful of this
Father kukah is right. President buhari should apply approach that will not jeopardize his efforts.
Your comment..good day Yemi. Pls I’ll urge you to go back and read Rev. fr. Kukah’s writeup with the brain of a wise man before rendering blames of him shielding the former President. He said that the good GEJ did should not be forgotten so soon even though he had some lapses during his administration. Fr. didn’t say Jonathan was a Saint.
Hmmmmmm…..Yemi, Next time,read and digest before vomiting words that might bring …….into your life! Go back and re-read what father Kuka said. There is a great wisdom in it.
This is the Sunday sermon Kuka has for his parishioners and Nigerians. It is what they need to be on the road to kingdom of God. Desmond Tutu fought for black power in South Africa, but today their liberation is just on paper. The so called men of God should answer why spiritual and morale fabrics of Nigerians, including politicians have broken down, which accounts for the corruption in the system.
@Okey, i disagree with you. The question of why spiritual and morale fabrics of Nigerians, including politicians have broken down can only be answered by you and I not the preachers. Afterall, the choice of good or bad lies with us individually. What we do in our little corner when nobody is looking at us matters a lot to the present state we find ourself in Nigeria. We cheat ourselves, collect bribe, pay bribe, vote for the highest bidder, sing praises of thieves and throw justice because they are our kinsmen. Let us critically ask ourselves, has Fr Matthew Kukah said anything wrong?
I feel extreme pity for our compatriots who need solutions to the problems of Nigeria but are leaving substance to chase shadows. They purvey hate against those who tell the truth and cheer on “jesters” who painfully are on the driver’s seat of their national life. Cold facts: The Nigerian bureau of statistics reported that FDI is running down because Nigeria currently has no economic direction! The investment by the big oil coys has nilled out for the same reason. The East I mean China & Russia have withdrawn their support for the economy because this administration has told them they are not needed. The National Assembly is comatose because The imperial President has chosen to have no dealings with it in a democracy! The Prrdident is ruling like a sole administrator and assaulting the Nigerian constitution yet our cheerleaders are urging him on.! We need many more Father Kukahs to remind this one tracker of a President that this is not a military Government! Nigerians wake up!
Yemi, you are not being objective with Rev Kukah by accusing him of having skeleton in his cupboard over GEJ probes.
Rev was only advising President Buhari to face the reality because four years is already short of 4months so he should concentrate on what will benefits people like me that trek 6 kilometers to cast my vote for GMB and thank God that my vote counts for the first time.
Let’s be on the same page and stop castigating the man of God
Every one who has taken away the wealth of this country illegally shall die of plane crash Amen . Probes or no probe a bunch of broom reduces one by one they shall all pay with their blood shikenaa.
Your comment..Bishop Kuka is an embodiment of wisdom and highly intellectuals so, it takes matured minds with talented mindset to analyse and understand his expression.
Father Kuka should please go back to church and do is legitimate duty, they should leave Buhari alone, are they not beneficiary of Jonathan government? to the extent of buying some pastor private jet, how many ulamas or ustaz has left their work and pleading for corruption,,, Nigeria votes for Buhari to eradicate corruption, no going back, and God will punish all our corrupt leaders, because they did not mean well for the youth of this country.
See how u are speaking from both sides of the mouth. There is no wisdom in what u are saying but incoherent vituperations, deceits and confusion. Shame on u Rev Kukah, my foot!!
Terry, kindly mind your language and know that you are referring to an ordained man of God. Yes you have the right to air your view but what is needed is constructive critism and not insults.
We have to always keep the space open for debates. Trying to stifle them is hardly helpful, and indeed can be very damaging. Like all of us, Fr. Kukah is entitled to his views. We can’t always agree with commentators, and we don’t have to. Vilifying people for stating their views is antithetical to the growth of our democracy, and certainly worrisome. Perhaps the only thing more worrisome at this point of PMB’s administration is that the torchbearers of the society, human rights activists, legal luminaries, preachers and writers, normally our more vocal voices, are largely quiet in the face of certain anomalies. As worrisome as it is, they are also entitled to their silence.
PMB presumably won the election, in part, due to his perceived anticorruption record and his promise to tackle one of the monsters holding back our development. Nigerians expect him to fulfil the promise, and indeed all his election promises. The issue therefore is not to probe or not, or even the variants of the probe-period, focus and all. PMB can probe all he wants. The one thing that is certain is that if it is not properly handled its credibility will be affected, with it the outcome. Properly handling it means PMB and team must put in place a robust framework to match the right tone which they have set, and which is a big plus to the country. The other thing that is certain is that even if we grow the probe industry, there are basic issues of governance that must be tackled. We still have to answer questions on the security of lives and property, the cost of garri, inflation rate, foreign investments or lack of it, and governance in the face of dwindling government revenues.
Back to the must-do fight against corruption. We have to follow the rule of law. In our country that is not an easy task with a judiciary and a police force no less corrupt than other sections of the society, as potential setbacks. Yet, there is no alternative to the rule of law. Newspaper trials and audacious comments by government officials and their affiliates cannot be substitutes. The bottom line is for PMB and his team to do the right thing, always. I suspect that was the drift of the Peace Committee to the President.
No one is disputing the fact that the Bishop has never said anything right. As a clergyman, much good has come through him in words and deeds to numerous humankind. However, that is no excuse for falling short of doing or saying the right thing. We watched his words, countenance and interjections on CHANNELS. Many Nigerians cannot simply miss the message.
My most revered Bishop whose articles I relish in yonder days on the New Nigeria Newspaper is simply not the man with the same voice that I saw and heard on CHANNELS. Yet, I can understand with him if he humbly showed remorse to his utterances. Suffices to say, Nigerians who cannot agree with his excuses be bandied as mere speculators.
To God be the glory,the truth will be reveal one day