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The fact that kidnappings, killings, banditry, herdsmen and terrorists’ attacks have persisted unhindered in Nigeria has caused us both national and international embarrassment.
This assertion was made by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, who spoke with the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Media Office on Thursday, June 3 at the sideline of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) Administrative Board Meeting in Abuja.
Bishop Kukah said: “I don’t know how the security situation in the country can be solved. Only the President can answer that question. What we have in Nigeria is a terrible national and international embarrassment because everybody looks up to us to this country but we are nowhere near where we ought to be. So, as it is, with government not showing any interest, it is only the President that can give a sense of direction as to where he wants this country to go”.
“What we see so far doesn’t inspire confidence and this is why you now have a country which everybody is trying to raise his own barricade to protect himself. It’s not possible because it will have consequences for what happens to the nation”, Bishop Kukah stated.
The Bishop noted that ordinary citizens have little to say, “because those who asked us to vote for them made a pledge that they will secure us so, they are the only ones who can answer this question as to when all these is going to end”.
Asked whether he speaks directly to the government about the security situation in the country, Bishop Kukah interjected, “I am not speaking to government. I am speaking my mind first of all and my mind may not necessarily be correct”.
According to him, keeping a family safe is not a difficult thing. “I think what is most painful about all these is that the government just does not clearly seemed to be interested. I cannot see how anybody who has seriously built a house, can watch and allow other people to invade the house, destroy the house, kill the children of the house and it does not warrant any emergency. Emergency in the sense that you can appeal for help or to say that most of these should end. So, citizens are kidnapped, taken away, killed and it is left for either you as a family to sought yourself out. It suggests very clearly that one, you don’t have a government. That we are orphans”.
“Unfortunately, it is not a way that you can run a country. this is the reason why you are seeing all the confusion that is in the country. it is as if we are a ship in the wide sea that is rode less. There is no captain and we have no idea where is our destination
(SOURCE: CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE OF NIGERIA)