Nigeria in serious trouble, Bishop Kukah warns

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has warned that Nigeria is in serious trouble, comparing the country to a big emergency hospital where everything has broken down with the caregivers not knowing how to fix the problems.

The outspoken Bishop, in his Easter Message delivered at the Holy Family Cathedral, Sokoto, on Sunday, said the challenges Nigeria currently faces require dedicated leaders who love their country to fix them.

“The challenge of fixing this broken nation is enormous and, as I have said, requires dedicated leaders who love the country to fix them.

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“They also require joint efforts. With everything literally broken down, our country has become one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy.

“Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, and infrastructure are broken. Our educational system is broken. Our children’s lives and future are broken. Our politics is broken. Our economy is broken. Our energy system is broken.

“Our security system is broken. Our roads and rails are broken. Only corruption is alive and well. So, we ask with the Psalmist, “We look up to the hills, from where shall come our help? Our help shall come from the name of the Lord,” he lamented.

Kukah, who also took time to speak about the 2023 elections, said Nigerian politicians have refused to learn past lessons from the “tragedy that has afflicted us in the last few years.”

“The Presidency of Nigeria is not a human right based on ethnic, religious or regional sentiments.

“The next President of Nigeria must be a man or woman with a heart, a sense of empathy and a soul on fire that can set limits to what human indignities visited on citizens that he or she can tolerate.

“We have no need for any further empty messianic rhetoric laced with deceitful and grandiose religiosity.

“We need someone who can fix our broken nation, rid our people of the looming dangers of hunger and destitution. Our Presidential aspirants must show evidence from their legacies and antecedents that they know the country well enough and its severe wounds.

“Whoever wants to govern us must illustrate that he or she understands what has turned our nation into a national hospital and show us plans for our discharge from this horror.”