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Kukah lauds Buhari for granting amnesty to jailed Nigerians
Sokoto Diocese Bishop Mathew Kukah praised President Muhammadu Buhari for accepting the report of the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and clemency to some 150 Nigerians serving various prison sentences.
Kukah made the eulogy in his Easter message delivered at a mass service on Sunday in Sokoto.
He said that another challenge was to immediately release all the innocent Nigerians who were being held captive and whose only crime was that they were living in Nigeria.
“With the news of the purchase of new sophisticated weapons, we expected that the President and the military would quickly launch a strategy to eradicate this cancer that afflicted our country.
“The general feeling was that the military had the capacity to end this tragedy. In reality, the military cannot shoot beyond the radar.
“If the president can put an end to this tragedy, he will immediately gain the support of all citizens and hopefully leave office with his head held high,” Kukah said.
He lamented the increase in cases of kidnapping, banditry and other crimes and emphasized the need for collective efforts against the threat.
He advised the president to admit that it was within his powers to decide how we were going to end the war that had engulfed and was tearing our nation apart.
“It appears that the federal government has shown a much greater commitment to integrating so-called repentant terrorists than it has to getting our children back from kidnappers or keeping our colleges open.
Early last month, Operation Safe Corridor announced that it had graduated 599 members of various terrorist groups who had gained new skills and were now ready to integrate into society.
The total reaches over a thousand now. It is plausible to note that the program involved psychosocial support, rehabilitation, vocational training, skills acquisition, and start-up.
The biggest problem is that their various communities had expressed their reluctance to welcome back their wayward children.
“As a priest, I cannot stand against a repentant sinner or criminals who change their ways. After all, the doors of forgiveness must always remain open.
“However, in this case, Nigerians have very little information about the entire rehabilitation process,” he said.
The bishop urged religious leaders to strive to restore cordial coexistence among members of the community and display their moral authority, as well as avoid being victims of political schemes and their material seductions.
” The values of interreligious dialogue have come under great strain and pressure from extremists on both sides of our religions who denigrate the idea of dialogue with their counterparts from other religions.
Ignorance and rudeness combined with prejudice to create the falsehood that one religion is somehow superior to the others.
“With so many ill-equipped scammers posing as religious leaders, there is an obsession with smearing others and amplifying our differences,” Kukah said.
He explained that the biggest challenge now was how to start a process of rebuilding our nation in the hope that we can hang on and survive the 2023 election.
“The real challenge before us now is to look beyond politics and meet the challenge of building character and faith in our country.
“Here, the leaders of religion, Christianity and Islam, must honestly face the role of religion in the survival of our country.
“The Nigerian Constitution has very clearly delineated the fine lines between religion and politics. However, many politicians continue to behave as if they are presiding over both the political and spiritual spheres in their states instead of governing in a democracy,” the bishop added.
The Bishop urged Nigerians to remain steadfast in prayers to overcome the challenges.
He stressed that greater vigilance is needed in the 2023 elections to elect credible people who will work to ensure a better country.
The Nigerian News Agency reports that Kukah conveyed the virtues of Easter in Christ and ordered adherents to practice with good hearts and obedience.
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