Following his Easter homily which has stirred up quite a storm within the presidency, with president Buhari’s senior special assistant on media, Garba Shehu, releasing a strongly worded response to the sermon in a letter which looked like a sermon on its own, the revered Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah was on TV to answer questions from the media regarding the said sermon and other issues in Nigeria at the moment.
The Bishop said he was surprised and wonders if Garba Shehu might be practicing Christianity in secrete or have a hidden love for the religion as he never quotes the Quran in his messages even though he is a Muslim but prefers to quote bible verses which he probably does not understand properly.
He said he is quite emotional about the state of the nation as a concerned citizen and that issues should be stated as they are without bias. “I have the greatest respect for president Buhari and he knows it, but I think as a president he has not done well. I have never dealt with the issue of his character nor attacked his person; I think he is a gentleman”. The fight against corruption should not set aside good governance he opined. “We are trying to use democracy to kill democracy”.
He questioned the effectiveness of the presidential spokesmen in the persons of Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu and restated his offer to sit with them and talk about Nigeria, he hopes not to have a monologue where he will be the only one talking on TV. “They have no contact with the president, they only second-guess. They are desperate to be seen doing their job”.
The Bishop said he has served in four different governments in Nigeria since 1999 till date; Oputa Panel, Ogoni Commission, Peace Accord and others.
He took the listeners back to the tortuous process of signing the peace accord between erstwhile president Jonathan and Buhari prelude to the 2015 general elections and how it almost did not see the light of day if not for commitment to its success.
“I will speak not minding how many hands are raised in support.
I have never taken president Buhari out of the rail of promises he made to Nigerians”.
