By Mark Orgu, News/Comments
The Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. (Dr) Matthew Hassan Kukah, has passionately appealed to President Bola Tinubu to rethink some of his economic policies, admonishing him to rescue Nigerians from what he viewed as a “cross of evil” marked by wide spread of insecurity, hunger, grief and deepening hardship.
The unrepentant fiery critic of bad governance, as usual, made the call in his 2025 Easter message, titled “Mr President: Please bring us down from this cross”, Kukah noted however that the state of the nation portends danger and anger while bleeding from savagery and brutality that has never been witnessed in the history of the country. He said:
“Every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions,” A dark pall of death hangs languidly from north to south. It is impossible to find a home, a family, or a community that has not been caught in the cusp of this savagery,”.Nigeria is “reaching a breaking point,” likening the nation to a “huge national morgue.”
“Mr President, with a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.” Kukah while admitting that the current crises in the country is created by Tinubu’s administration, but wants proactive measures through presidential authority and duties
“Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long. Mr President, immediately rid our dear country of these forces of darkness and bring us down from this cross of cynicism.”
“Frustration has penetrated every spectrum of our society. Government and its security agencies seem to have largely become spectators in the dance of death that has overtaken our country.”
“Are Nigerians lambs being sacrificed to an unknown god?” he asked. “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?”
Speaking on the economic reform and policies of the government, Kukah faults the president’s fuel subsidy removal, noting that it has brought hunger and sickness now “stalk the land.”
The Bishop warned that palliative measures cannot solve citizen’s needs and wants
. “Mere palliative distribution diminishes the dignity of citizens,” he said. “Make food security a fundamental human right to all citizens.”
He also recalled how some politicians admitted to importing armed groups to secure political power — a move that now threatens the country’s foundation.
“The bandits have not only become embedded in every sphere of our lives, they threaten to destroy all that holds our communities together,” he stressed.
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