From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has raised concerns about the state of affairs in Nigeria, particularly the activities of bandits and other armed non-state actors that have exacerbated insecurity challenges in Nigeria.
Bishop Kukah, in an Easter message, tilted: ‘Mr. President, please bring us down from this cross,” noted that Nigeria is fast reaching a breaking point and gradually becoming a huge national morgue. He, therefore, urged the President to urgently hasten up to bring Nigerians down from the evil cross.
He said: “Mr. President, we all admit that you neither erected this cross nor effected our collective crucifixion. Notwithstanding, Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long.
“A culture of cynicism and self-doubt over our capacity to secure peace for ourselves pervades our land. Indeed, a majority of our citizens feel that there is no hope in sight. With broken navigational aids, our journey to greatness is threatened.
“Mr. President, hunger, sickness and desolation stalk the land. We still believe removing the subsidies was the right decision. We note that the country now has a huge volume of resources in its domestic reserves. For over 10 years now, farming has become one of the most hazardous pre-occupations in our country.
“I restate the obvious by warning that mere palliative distribution diminishes the dignity of citizens. We have remained between the rock of self-doubt and the hard place of hopelessness. Make food security a fundamental human right to all citizens.
“Some years back, some of our public officers confessed that they brought our current killers into our country as a strategy for upstaging the government of the day and to gain power. Strange as it may sound, today, we have watched as the cancer of insecurity and violence has metastasized. Now, this cancer threatens the very foundation of our common humanity.
“The bandits have not only become embedded in every sphere of our lives, they threaten to destroy all that holds our communities together. This self-destructive cancer has invaded our communities and kidnapping is a now a dog whistle for undermining the very structure and foundation of our country. We now hang on the cross at the mercy of these forces of darkness.
“However, for us as Christians, hope is the anchor on which we hang all our hopes. Mr. President, please bring us down from this painful cross of hunger. Now is the time to re-enkindle and renew that hope.”
He was, however, confident that a majority of the citizens of Nigeria want to live in peace with one another, but allowing insecurity to persist, would undermine all forms of goodwill that this or any government in Nigeria espouses.
“We have all the ingredients to create a toxic mix of violence that can spin out of control. Right now, frustration has penetrated every spectrum of our society, especially as the government and its security agencies seem to have largely become spectators in the dance of death that has overtaken our country.
“We are in a dilemma now and the question is simple: is the persistence of the insecurity a statement of the lack of capacity of our men and women in uniform, or is it evidence that those at the top are reaping the fruits of funding their own war machine? In other words, are Nigerians lambs being sacrificed to an unknown god? Mr. President, step up, get to the finishing line and bring us down from this cross of shame,” he appealed.
He reminded Christian communities in Nigeria that they are the light of the world; a city set on a hill, equipped with the light of Christ to drive out the darkness that threatens to engulf the country. “Let us collectively renew our commitment and hope for building a society after the mind of our creator,” he said.