You weren’t elected to be giving excuses, Kukah tells Buhari

Mattew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto diocese, has told President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians did not vote him in to keep “complaining about the country’s yesterday.”

Speaking at the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in Ondo state, Kukah said power was taken over by the Buhari administration to fix problems, “not agonise”.

He also said the war against corruption would have no effect if people have no food on their table, saying until the government gets to the root cause of poverty and inequality in the society, it is not fighting corruption.

“Sending people to prison will only be useful if it puts bread on the table of people,” he said.

“I still believe that unless we get to the root cause of poverty, inequality, which is really the evidence and symptom of corruption; you can talk of fighting corruption all the rest of your life, and very little is going to happen.

“The previous government didn’t only do bad things; it did a lot of good things. And I think the business of government is not our business; our business is: if the previous government did badly, that is why we voted a new government.

“We didn’t vote a government to complain about yesterday. If we wanted yesterday, the new government would not be there. It is really about taking responsibility. No matter how much you praise or abuse Jonathan, he is not the president of Nigeria.

“I think that people must understand, you take power to solve problems, not to agonise.”

Kukah accused the government of not communicating effectively with its citizens on the state of the country.

“This is why you increasingly have a situation which people are not willing to make sacrifices because they still believe that their obligation is to protect themselves,” he said.

“I think unless government openly explains and engage people very constructively, what you are going to face is a situation which ordinary citizens are finding the best ways to protect and defend themselves.

“All government needs to do is to think out, a bit more clearly, how it can engage ordinary Nigerians. It is not enough to tell people to get back to the farms; the issues are much more than that. It is not enough to say you have big plans for agriculture; it is developing very clear, short, medium and long term solutions to the present situation.

“People are suffering from combination of both physical and psychological insecurities, and also, the very real threat that is poised by all kinds of agencies: the herdsmen, armed robbers, kidnappers and many more.”