As Nigeria marked its 60th independence anniversary, Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto in northwestern Nigeria has confessed “I am not a happy Nigerian, but I am hopeful of a better Nigeria.”
Kukah, speaking Thursday at “The Platform” a special programme to commemorate Nigeria’s 60th Independence Day anniversary, lamented that the insecurity, corruption, and ethnicity, among others in the country have saddened many Nigerians.
According to him, Nigerian government has created identity consciousness making it democracy not to work.
He bemoaned the skewed Federal Character contrary to the spirit and letters of Nigerian constitution, being practised to make a particular ethnic group more important and powerful than others.
“A reward system is skewed. Integrity and legitimacy are diminishing,” he pointed out, emphasising the need for the government at all levels to reset the template to make things work for a united and prosperous country.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), has warned the President Muhammadu Buhari administration not to kill Nigerians.
Bakare, also speaking on “The Platform,” asked the federal government to get rid of corruption instead.
Buhari, during his 60th Independence Day speech, intimated that fuel will soon sell for N161 per litre.
According to him, fuel subsidies were being paid into private pockets.
“Don’t kill Nigerians, kill corruption. Because we knew that the subsidy being paid is going into private pockets,” the cleric said.
Bakare also recalled that when he joined Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana; among others to protest during Goodluck Jonathan’s government in 2012, the protest was not against subsidy.
“I campaigned against the oppression of the poor,” Bakare said, adding that the subsidy by the government was not used to advance the cause of the poor.
