Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has said the greatest weapon that is on course to destroy Nigeria is non other than reli...
Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has said
the greatest weapon that is on course to destroy Nigeria is non other than
religion.
Kukah who featured in an online forum organised by the
Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Association of Nigeria, said while issues of
ethnicity has done considerable damage to the country, religion has been
weaponized by the nation's elites, particularly in the North, to manipulate the
people.
This unfortunate situation according to the Bishop, has made
it nearly impossible to unite the country since the elites have successfully
created the "impression through the processes that got them to
power," that Nigerians are not, and can never be one.
He said, “Somehow, the unresolved issues of ethnicity and
religion have now come back to haunt us. And I perfectly agree with the fact
that if we were never in this situation, none of these should matter. And they
shouldn’t. But we are so far away from those ideals and those realities.
"Power has been used to close opportunities for
national integration because those in power have given the impression through
the processes that got them to power, that certain identities are
important."
Kukah maintained that the governing elite and even public
intellectuals have been unable to create a roadmap by which diversity can be
properly managed so that the people can come to terms with the fact that
diversity is an opportunity, not a liability.
“This is largely because we are never able to address the
issues of finding the ingredients for national integration. The result is that
religion has become a weapon, and also in northern Nigeria it has become a
weapon for mobilisation.
“Tragically, again, as I said, the politicians have
mobilised their people based on religion, and they have never been able to
deliver. We don’t need to look any further.
“The tragedy in Zamfara and the whole of the core 11 or 12
northern states, the fact that the north itself has become a crime scene, and
that by extension spilled over to the rest of Nigeria (confirms this).
“So, just to say very clearly that the political elite in
northern Nigeria and their counterparts elsewhere appreciate the fact that the
consistent manipulation of religion is largely responsible for the unravelling
of the country as we have today,” he emphasised.
Kukah said that the northern political elite has always used
the Sharia debate from 1979 as one way of stalling debates on the future of the
country, culminating in all the states of northern Nigeria adopting Sharia law.
“It is now important for us, given the tragic situation
we’re in now, we can return to the scene of the crime, and the scene of the
crime is that you have an elite that does not commit to religion, but purely
commitment to power, using religion, raising the hopes of ordinary people,
whether they are Christians or Muslims, to the possibility that they will be
represented and compensated.
“The south and other parts of Nigeria are making more
rational choices to support welfare. The northern elite seems to believe that
everything has to be done by the federal government,” he said.
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