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The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto of Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah has blamed the Federal Government over poor handling of security challenges being faced by the country, even as he called on members of the executive at all levels to rethink their oath of office.
Bishop Kukah stated this in his homily on Monday, May 31 during the celebration of Vigil Mass held at Our Lady of Apostles Catholic Church, Independent Way, Kaduna ahead of the burial of Fr. Alphonsus Bello who was murdered following the May 20 attack on St. Vincent Ferrer Malunfashi Parish in Katsina State, North-West, Nigeria.
The Bishop said: “There is nowhere in the world where people are dying like they are in our country. There is nowhere in the world where the barbarity and the treatment of human life are manifested as it is in Nigeria.
There is nowhere in the world where citizens can be slaughtered daily without the government showing the slightest sign of empathy or concern for what is going on”, Bishop Kukah bemoaned.
According to Bishop Kukah, President Buhari and some of the governors can actually address Nigerians and say, “fellow Nigerians, I have sworn that I will not protect you. I will not protect you from foreign invaders, I will not protect you from being killed. I will not protect you from being kidnapped, I will not protect you from bandits, I will not protect you from abductors.”
Members of Nigeria’s executive need to rethink their oath of office and say, “I will not protect your children when they are captured; if they are lucky to be alive, fine,” Bishop Kukah said, adding that government officials at both national and State levels need to consider making the following confession, “My dear countrymen and women, know that our own children are not in public schools where they can be kidnapped. If your children are kidnapped, you are on your own.”
He stressed that government officials need to tell Nigerians, “If you want to go to the murderers you can go. We do not negotiate with murderers because if you negotiate with murderers, you are guilty and although you are guilty, we as a government know all the kidnappers by their names, and we have never declared the kidnappers to be terrorists.”
“We will not be there when you bury your dead. We will not be there when your broken houses are being rebuilt. We will not accompany you to your farms if you are ready to farm and the price of foodstuff will go up but it is not our business.
And by the way, we will not protect your farms,” the Nigerian Bishop continued in his attempt to highlight the failures of the Federal and State levels of Nigeria’s Government to ensure security.
(SOURCE: CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE OF NIGERIA)