Kukah warns peaceful elections in 2019 difficult

Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has expressed pessimism that the 2019 general elections will be difficult to be conducted peacefully across Nigeria except the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled federal government resolves the pockets of violence in several states of the federation.  Accordingly, Kukah declared that “it will be a great miracle if Nigeria pulls through the 2019 elections successfully.”

Kukah was gathered to have lamented that there is heightened tension in virtually all states in the country, which would make it difficult to have a peaceful election.

He was cited to have admonished: “It will be one of the greatest miracles if we pull through the election successfully.

“I do not see how we are going to conduct these elections if nothing urgent is done to increase a sense of national cohesion.

“It would be difficult to find out single state where you do not have tension that could boil over.

“If you multiply this by the number of states in Nigeria and the little sense of urgency, it would be difficult to talk about 2019 without a sense of foreboding.

“I have never felt this way. I prayerfully hope the government will wake up to appreciating how bitter people feel.”

The Catholic Bishop had at different times decried the ferocious invasion and killings in rural communities by the Fulani herdsmen which the Buhari administration has failed to contain. He had also in an open letter to the President lamented that Nigeria has never been so divided before as it is currently.

Bishop Kukah is among the reputable elder statesmen in Nigeria that have been committed to equity, liberty and justice in the country as well as unalloyed promotion of national interest and national integration.