The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah on Sunday
berated the current administration for its handling of Nigeria’s
security challenges, saying Boko Haram terrorists are consuming the
nation under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch.
![image](/2021/04/banner-law.jpg")
Mr Kukah, a vocal critic of the administration, delivered the
new criticisms in his Easter message.
![image](/2021/01/payne-alex.jpg")
Easter is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which is observed by Christian faithful across the
globe.
In the message titled “Nigeria: Before our glory departs,” Mr
Kukah reflects on the current realities of Nigeria and its
citizens.
He expressed concern over the killing of security operatives and
the “helplessness” of the citizens, saying: “Taunted by Boko Haram,
ravaged by bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and other merchants
of death across the nation, there is collective fear as to whether
Nigeria’s glory is about to depart! Retired military and
intelligence officers lament over what has become of their glorious
profession as they watch the humiliation of our military
personnel.
“Traumatised citizens are tortured daily by bandits. The nation
has since become a massive killing field, as both government and
the governed look on helplessly.
“A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation, despondency,
desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We have no
message and have no idea how long this will last. Our people seek
solace and protection, but frustration and darkness threaten to
drown them. Is their government on AWOL?”
SEE FULL STATEMENT HERE:
NIGERIA: BEFORE OUR GLORY DEPARTS
EASTER MESSAGE, April 4th 2021
By Matthew Hassan KUKAH, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto
Diocese
If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what
else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Hiding
behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of
the wolf.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540–604 AD)
1: Easter Sunday is here again. But first, let us step back
to Friday.
Good Friday was a Kairos moment for the beleaguered
followers of Jesus, a defining moment that separated truth from
falsehood and light from the darkness. At Golgotha, Jesus remained
silent when the first thief taunted Him, and when bystanders
scornfully asked him to demonstrate His divine powers by coming
down from the cross. Everything about Christ–the prophecies of His
birth, His life on earth, the miracles He performed, the sermons He
preached, His torture and subsequent death–now hung languidly on a
wooden cross on the hill of Golgotha. There were two types of
persons at Golgotha: observers and waiters. The observers had two
characteristics, derision and curiosity.
The waiters were characterised by hope, fear, and anxiety.
Both sides watched and waited with bated breath. After His
ignominious death, everything now depended on the third day. After
all, He had said He would rise after three days (Mk.
9:31).
2: Let us pause and look back at the earlier events in the
life of Jesus. Let us look briefly at the drama of the three
temptations of Jesus by the devil as recorded by St. Matthew.
First, the devil has a sense of perfect timing when he approached
Jesus. He knows that Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights
without food and was hungry (Mt. 4:2). Prove that you are the Son
of God: turn these stones into bread, he said (Mt. 4:3). In
response, Jesus says: Man will not live on bread alone (Mt. 4:4).
Here, Jesus insists
that there are higher goals for us to live or die for. The
devil had hoped that like the dictators of today, Jesus could
seduce the people with the bread of temporal power to gain cheap
followership. No, Jesus says, you must set a higher moral
goal.
Second, the devil asks Jesus to throw himself down the
cliff. After all, he tells Jesus, the Angels of God will hold you
(Mt. 4:6). Here, Jesus is called to take a shortcut to
fame.
Why travel the hard road of suffering, sacrifice, exclusion,
and powerlessness? Succumb to the seduction of the dreamer, the
charmer, climb the actor’s shoulder. And then what next? Jesus
rejects this temptation. Why? Because God demands more than
theatrical performances from us.
Third, the devil says he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of
the world (money, power, territory) only if He bows and
acknowledges him (Mt. 4:8). Wow! No better evidence that the devil
is a liar. He knows he has no kingdom and what he has is his
kingdom of darkness and lies. It was in this same manner that the
devil deceived Eve at the Garden of Eden by mixing a concoction of
lies. At the base of this temptation is the seduction of pride and
power. God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened
and you will be like God (Gen. 3:5). Think of the many who have
sold their souls for ephemeral power, those who have denied Jesus
by action so as to ascend the throne of power. By His resistance to
the devil, Jesus shows that following His path will require
tremendous sacrifice.
3: It’s now Saturday night. The clock is ticking. Will He or
will He not rise as He said?
No one knows what to expect. Will Jesus be exposed as a
fraud? The Apostles are retired, desolate, forlorn, woebegone, and
despondent. Has it all come to nothing? Have they lost everything?
Has it all just been an illusion? Was Peter right when he asked
what their reward would be, having forgone everything to follow
Him? (Mt. 19:27) Has this been one wild goose chase? Where would
they turn to now? The sun gradually sets
on Saturday. The night has in its womb, a combination of the
derision and curiosity binding the observers and waiters. A cloud
of trepidation envelopes everywhere. The Roman authorities have
built a concrete wall of military security around the grave. They
sealed the stone and placed heavy military guard just in case, as
they feared, His followers come and steal the body and pretend that
He had risen (Mt. 27: 64).
4: Sunday morning would seal the fate of everyone on both
sides.
As it turns out, the world forgot that: He who guards Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). Before daybreak, a woman,
Mary Magdalene, visits the grave to perform a simple ritual. To her
shock, she finds an empty tomb! (Jn. 20:1). Slowly, painfully,
unbelievably, the words go out: They have taken the body of the
Lord away and we do not know where they have put Him (Jn. 20:2).
They will soon realise that, indeed, His resurrection is only a
fulfilment of what He had promised during His lifetime. The devil
has been defeated, and the Lord has the final word. Truth has
drowned falsehood. Light has overcome darkness. Good has triumphed
over evil. Life has defeated death.
5: The Roman soldiers who stood guard over the grave were
like dead men (Mt. 28:3).
However, rather than face punishment, the Roman authorities
offered to bribe them and asked them to lie that the Lord’s body
had been stolen while they were sleeping! (Mt. 28:13). It is too
late: The Lord is risen indeed! World history succumbs to the power
of the Creator of heaven and earth. Time and space have merged.
History’s calendar is split into two. Henceforth, everything will
be marked by whether it happened before or after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ! This is what Christians celebrate today. But what
is the implication of all this for us in Nigeria today?
6: Nigeria’s current predicament reminds me of Israel’s
situation that led to the death of Eli, the great High Priest of
Israel. Israel’s defeat in the hands of the Philistines led to the
death of 30,000 soldiers. The two sons of the 98-year-old priest –
Hophni and Phinehas – died in the battle. Eli’s two sons had
foolishly carried the Ark of the Lord into the battlefield for
protection, only for it to become a trophy for the victorious
Philistines.
The high priest, Eli, collapsed and died after hearing this
horrible news. Elsewhere, on hearing about the death of her
husband, her father- in-law, and the loss of the Ark, Eli’s
daughter-in-law went into premature labour. She was delivered of a
baby boy–a call for great celebration in Israel! Strangely, she
responded by naming her newborn son “Ichabod,” meaning, The glory
has departed!
7: Taunted by Boko Haram, ravaged by bandits, kidnappers,
armed robbers, and other merchants of death across the nation,
there is collective fear as to whether Nigeria’s glory is about to
depart! Retired military and intelligence officers lament over what
has become of their glorious profession as they watch the
humiliation of our military personnel. Traumatised citizens are
tortured daily by bandits. The nation has since become a massive
killing field, as both government and the governed look on
helplessly. A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation,
despondency, desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We
have no message and have no idea how long this will last. Our
people seek solace and protection, but frustration and darkness
threaten to drown them. Is their government on AWOL?
8: Two weeks ago, I came across a video in which a very
frustrated Muslim cleric, addressing a Muslim audience, lamented:
If you killed 200 chickens in the farm of any of the big farmers,
you will be dealt with. But today, we are being killed. It is your
fault. On the day of elections, you say, it is Jihad! Christians
will take over Nigeria! Ok, the Christians did not take Nigeria. It
has been left in the hands of those who sit and see us being
killed. If we are killed, the head says, God forbid! He was not
elected to say God forbid. This imaginary jihad won the elections
now where are the jihadists? The lesson here is that politicians
will use religion to mobilise for elections, but they cannot use it
to govern.
9: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria weighed in
with a strong statement on February 23, 2021, titled, We Must Pull
Back from the Brink of Collapse. Part of the statement read: The
very survival of the nation is at stake. The nation is pulling
apart.
Widespread serious insecurity for long unaddressed has left
the sad and dangerous impressions that those who have assumed the
duty and authority to secure the nation are either unable or worse,
unwilling to take up the responsibilities to their office.
Patience is running out. Sadly, all of these warnings are
still falling on deaf ears.
10: It may sound strange, but for us Christians, the
celebration of the resurrection of Christ is the greatest assurance
that all these will pass away. This is not a call for us to simply
sit on our hands or believe we can pray our crises away. As pointed
out above, the sufferings of Jesus and His Cross provide us with
the perfect mirror of our hope. St. Paul reminds us: We are
hard-pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not
destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor.
4:9). These are the hallmarks of our faith. We must remain
steadfast.
11: I appeal to Christians to continue in the spirit of the
Gospel, the teachings of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St.
Paul says: Though He was God, he humbled himself, became man and
remained obedient up till death (Phil. 2:6ff). Following in His
steps, we Christians have lived through the life of martyrdom.
Jesus taught us how to pray for our enemies (Mt. 5:44). Although
His teachings are hard (Jn. 6:60), it was not the guns of a
powerful army that brought down the walls of Jericho. The prayers
of the priests did (Jos. 6:20). Jesus defied the temptations of
coming down from the Cross. He knew there was a higher truth
deferred. It was fulfilled on Easter day. No matter the
provocation, we must arm ourselves with the weapons of truth, the
Word, the Spirit, and love. At the heart of Christianity is the
Truth and Love.
12: Today, many of us erroneously speak about the trial of
Jesus by Pilate on Good Friday. In reality, it was Pilate who stood
trial, not Jesus. Pilate sat on a throne to judge what he himself
was ignorant of–the truth. Chained by ignorance, the powerful often
grope around a twilight zone between truth and lies. At the mention
of the word “Truth” by Jesus, Pilate was jolted from his chair. In
trepidation and apprehension, the mighty man says, Truth, what is
that? (Jn. 18:38). Pilate was looking for the Truth but did not
recognise it when it stood right before him. In every age, the
seduction of raw power tends to blind the Pilates of this world to
the truth.
13: When governments face legitimacy crises, they fall back
on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half-truths, and outright
lies. They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies,
setting citizens against one another by deploying religion,
ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base
emotions of patriotism. We forget the reality that without truth,
the throne of power often turns into a cage, and the occupant is
turned into a prisoner. In reality, the truth needs neither a judge
nor a witness. The truth is its own judge and witness. Without the
truth, as the old song says, all else is sinking sand!
14: Recently, according to the World Happiness Report, we
are one of the unhappiest nations in the world. This is
unacceptable but understandable. Our clay-footed fight against
corruption has not moved the needle of transparency forward. Of
course, being the poverty capital of the world comes with its
rewards such as banditry, violence, death, sorrow, blood, poverty,
misery, and tears. Our cup of sorrow is permanently full; hence the
exponential rise in the frustration curve across the
country.
15: Sadly, human life is haemorrhaging so badly in Nigeria,
but the greatest tragedy is the death of empathy from those in
power. Mysteriously, the government is investing billions of naira
in rehabilitating so-called Boko Haram repentant members and their
other partners in crime in the belief that they want to turn a new
leaf. These criminals have waged war against their country,
murdered thousands of citizens, destroyed infrastructure and
rendered entire families permanently displaced and dislocated. Why
should rehabilitating the perpetrator be more important than
bringing succour to the victims?
16: When kidnapped or killed, victims and their families are
left to their wits. They cry alone, bury their loved ones alone.
And our government expects us to be patriotic? The victims of
violence need empathy, which the dictionary defines as the ability
to understand and share the feelings of the other. A critical
deficit of empathy on the side of the government makes healing
almost impossible for the victims. We have not heard anything about
a rehabilitation programme for the thousands of schoolchildren who
have been victims of abduction. We seem to assume that their return
to their schools is sufficient. Left unaddressed, the traumatic
effect of their horrors will haunt them for a long time. Tomorrow’s
parents, military generals, top security men and women, governors,
senators, and ministers will come from today’s pool of traumatised
children.
The security quandary is the greatest indictment of this
government.
17: There is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl.
3:1). Perhaps, we can paraphrase this by saying there is a time for
war and a time for peace. There is a time for poverty and a time
for wealth. There is a time for stealing and a time for returning
what has been stolen. There is a time for politics and a time for
governance. There is a time for tethering to the brink of chaos and
a time for recovering the soul of a nation.
There is a time for the collapse of morality and a time for
moral recovery. There is a time for leadership and a time for
statesmanship. There is a time for losing greatness and a time for
achieving greatness. Nigeria must now ask itself: What is left of
our glory? Where are the values that held us together?
18: On our national Coat of Arms, we profess our motto to
be: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress. But let us ask ourselves:
Is Nigeria united today? Do citizens still have faith in the
country? Where are the signs of peace or progress? Today, before
our very eyes, these words have been emptied of their flavour and
have lost their resonance and capacity to summon our citizens to
patriotism. St Augustine once said: Remove justice, and what are
kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? He further said
that: A gang is a group of men (and women) under the command of a
leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is
divided according to an agreed convention. This is the fate of our
nation today. Day by day, Nigeria drifts irreversibly into a dark
tunnel. Things are falling apart with unnerving rapidity because
those who govern have only a pact to protect their interests.
Politics is merely its conveyor belt of ambition. Nigeria has a
date with destiny. If we do not turn around, The axe is alreadylaid
to the roots of the tree (Mt. 3:10).
19: With some chance, we might pull through this, but it is
getting tougher each passing day. Does anyone remember where we
started and how we got here? On May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu
Buhari, at his swearing-in as President of Nigeria, said: Boko
Haram is a typical case of small fires causing large fires. Now,
before his watch, the fires are consuming the nation, and in many
instances, they indeed start small. The rumblings over the wearing
of a hijab in Kwara State suggest that we have not seen the end of
individuals sacrificing national cohesion to feed their personal
ambitions by starting small fires. Most politicians hardly think
through the long-term effects of these pyrrhic victories of using
religion. What started as a small fire with adoption of Sharia in
Zamfara in 1999, spread across the northern states. Ordinary people
broke into ecstatic joy. Today, what has become of the north? What
are the lessons?
20: In all, Nigeria’s troubles are growing by the day, but
our hands must remain stretched out in supplication. Prophet
Isaiah’s words should give us hope and consolation. He said: When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass
through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk
through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set
you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2). We shall lift our eyes to the mountain
because we know that our help shall come from the Lord (Ps. 121:1).
As Christians, we do not trust in God because we cannot revenge. We
do not revenge because we trust in God. The Lord will fight for
you; you need only be still (Ex. 14:14). Just as the chains of
death could not hold Jesus in the grave, so shall we triumph. Break
into shouts of joy together, O ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has
consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:9). Have
hope and be cheerful (Rom. 12:12).
A very happy and peaceful Easter to everyone.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah on Sunday
berated the current administration for its handling of Nigeria’s
security challenges, saying Boko Haram terrorists are consuming the
nation under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch.
Mr Kukah, a vocal critic of the administration, delivered the
new criticisms in his Easter message.
Easter is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, which is observed by Christian faithful across the
globe.
In the message titled “Nigeria: Before our glory departs,” Mr
Kukah reflects on the current realities of Nigeria and its
citizens.
He expressed concern over the killing of security operatives and
the “helplessness” of the citizens, saying: “Taunted by Boko Haram,
ravaged by bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and other merchants
of death across the nation, there is collective fear as to whether
Nigeria’s glory is about to depart! Retired military and
intelligence officers lament over what has become of their glorious
profession as they watch the humiliation of our military
personnel.
“Traumatised citizens are tortured daily by bandits. The nation
has since become a massive killing field, as both government and
the governed look on helplessly.
“A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation, despondency,
desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We have no
message and have no idea how long this will last. Our people seek
solace and protection, but frustration and darkness threaten to
drown them. Is their government on AWOL?”
SEE FULL STATEMENT HERE:
NIGERIA: BEFORE OUR GLORY DEPARTS
EASTER MESSAGE, April 4th 2021
By Matthew Hassan KUKAH, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto
Diocese
If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what
else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Hiding
behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of
the wolf.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540–604 AD)
1: Easter Sunday is here again. But first, let us step back
to Friday.
Good Friday was a Kairos moment for the beleaguered
followers of Jesus, a defining moment that separated truth from
falsehood and light from the darkness. At Golgotha, Jesus remained
silent when the first thief taunted Him, and when bystanders
scornfully asked him to demonstrate His divine powers by coming
down from the cross. Everything about Christ–the prophecies of His
birth, His life on earth, the miracles He performed, the sermons He
preached, His torture and subsequent death–now hung languidly on a
wooden cross on the hill of Golgotha. There were two types of
persons at Golgotha: observers and waiters. The observers had two
characteristics, derision and curiosity.
The waiters were characterised by hope, fear, and anxiety.
Both sides watched and waited with bated breath. After His
ignominious death, everything now depended on the third day. After
all, He had said He would rise after three days (Mk.
9:31).
2: Let us pause and look back at the earlier events in the
life of Jesus. Let us look briefly at the drama of the three
temptations of Jesus by the devil as recorded by St. Matthew.
First, the devil has a sense of perfect timing when he approached
Jesus. He knows that Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights
without food and was hungry (Mt. 4:2). Prove that you are the Son
of God: turn these stones into bread, he said (Mt. 4:3). In
response, Jesus says: Man will not live on bread alone (Mt. 4:4).
Here, Jesus insists
that there are higher goals for us to live or die for. The
devil had hoped that like the dictators of today, Jesus could
seduce the people with the bread of temporal power to gain cheap
followership. No, Jesus says, you must set a higher moral
goal.
Second, the devil asks Jesus to throw himself down the
cliff. After all, he tells Jesus, the Angels of God will hold you
(Mt. 4:6). Here, Jesus is called to take a shortcut to
fame.
Why travel the hard road of suffering, sacrifice, exclusion,
and powerlessness? Succumb to the seduction of the dreamer, the
charmer, climb the actor’s shoulder. And then what next? Jesus
rejects this temptation. Why? Because God demands more than
theatrical performances from us.
Third, the devil says he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of
the world (money, power, territory) only if He bows and
acknowledges him (Mt. 4:8). Wow! No better evidence that the devil
is a liar. He knows he has no kingdom and what he has is his
kingdom of darkness and lies. It was in this same manner that the
devil deceived Eve at the Garden of Eden by mixing a concoction of
lies. At the base of this temptation is the seduction of pride and
power. God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened
and you will be like God (Gen. 3:5). Think of the many who have
sold their souls for ephemeral power, those who have denied Jesus
by action so as to ascend the throne of power. By His resistance to
the devil, Jesus shows that following His path will require
tremendous sacrifice.
3: It’s now Saturday night. The clock is ticking. Will He or
will He not rise as He said?
No one knows what to expect. Will Jesus be exposed as a
fraud? The Apostles are retired, desolate, forlorn, woebegone, and
despondent. Has it all come to nothing? Have they lost everything?
Has it all just been an illusion? Was Peter right when he asked
what their reward would be, having forgone everything to follow
Him? (Mt. 19:27) Has this been one wild goose chase? Where would
they turn to now? The sun gradually sets
on Saturday. The night has in its womb, a combination of the
derision and curiosity binding the observers and waiters. A cloud
of trepidation envelopes everywhere. The Roman authorities have
built a concrete wall of military security around the grave. They
sealed the stone and placed heavy military guard just in case, as
they feared, His followers come and steal the body and pretend that
He had risen (Mt. 27: 64).
4: Sunday morning would seal the fate of everyone on both
sides.
As it turns out, the world forgot that: He who guards Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). Before daybreak, a woman,
Mary Magdalene, visits the grave to perform a simple ritual. To her
shock, she finds an empty tomb! (Jn. 20:1). Slowly, painfully,
unbelievably, the words go out: They have taken the body of the
Lord away and we do not know where they have put Him (Jn. 20:2).
They will soon realise that, indeed, His resurrection is only a
fulfilment of what He had promised during His lifetime. The devil
has been defeated, and the Lord has the final word. Truth has
drowned falsehood. Light has overcome darkness. Good has triumphed
over evil. Life has defeated death.
5: The Roman soldiers who stood guard over the grave were
like dead men (Mt. 28:3).
However, rather than face punishment, the Roman authorities
offered to bribe them and asked them to lie that the Lord’s body
had been stolen while they were sleeping! (Mt. 28:13). It is too
late: The Lord is risen indeed! World history succumbs to the power
of the Creator of heaven and earth. Time and space have merged.
History’s calendar is split into two. Henceforth, everything will
be marked by whether it happened before or after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ! This is what Christians celebrate today. But what
is the implication of all this for us in Nigeria today?
6: Nigeria’s current predicament reminds me of Israel’s
situation that led to the death of Eli, the great High Priest of
Israel. Israel’s defeat in the hands of the Philistines led to the
death of 30,000 soldiers. The two sons of the 98-year-old priest –
Hophni and Phinehas – died in the battle. Eli’s two sons had
foolishly carried the Ark of the Lord into the battlefield for
protection, only for it to become a trophy for the victorious
Philistines.
The high priest, Eli, collapsed and died after hearing this
horrible news. Elsewhere, on hearing about the death of her
husband, her father- in-law, and the loss of the Ark, Eli’s
daughter-in-law went into premature labour. She was delivered of a
baby boy–a call for great celebration in Israel! Strangely, she
responded by naming her newborn son “Ichabod,” meaning, The glory
has departed!
7: Taunted by Boko Haram, ravaged by bandits, kidnappers,
armed robbers, and other merchants of death across the nation,
there is collective fear as to whether Nigeria’s glory is about to
depart! Retired military and intelligence officers lament over what
has become of their glorious profession as they watch the
humiliation of our military personnel. Traumatised citizens are
tortured daily by bandits. The nation has since become a massive
killing field, as both government and the governed look on
helplessly. A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation,
despondency, desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We
have no message and have no idea how long this will last. Our
people seek solace and protection, but frustration and darkness
threaten to drown them. Is their government on AWOL?
8: Two weeks ago, I came across a video in which a very
frustrated Muslim cleric, addressing a Muslim audience, lamented:
If you killed 200 chickens in the farm of any of the big farmers,
you will be dealt with. But today, we are being killed. It is your
fault. On the day of elections, you say, it is Jihad! Christians
will take over Nigeria! Ok, the Christians did not take Nigeria. It
has been left in the hands of those who sit and see us being
killed. If we are killed, the head says, God forbid! He was not
elected to say God forbid. This imaginary jihad won the elections
now where are the jihadists? The lesson here is that politicians
will use religion to mobilise for elections, but they cannot use it
to govern.
9: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria weighed in
with a strong statement on February 23, 2021, titled, We Must Pull
Back from the Brink of Collapse. Part of the statement read: The
very survival of the nation is at stake. The nation is pulling
apart.
Widespread serious insecurity for long unaddressed has left
the sad and dangerous impressions that those who have assumed the
duty and authority to secure the nation are either unable or worse,
unwilling to take up the responsibilities to their office.
Patience is running out. Sadly, all of these warnings are
still falling on deaf ears.
10: It may sound strange, but for us Christians, the
celebration of the resurrection of Christ is the greatest assurance
that all these will pass away. This is not a call for us to simply
sit on our hands or believe we can pray our crises away. As pointed
out above, the sufferings of Jesus and His Cross provide us with
the perfect mirror of our hope. St. Paul reminds us: We are
hard-pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not
destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor.
4:9). These are the hallmarks of our faith. We must remain
steadfast.
11: I appeal to Christians to continue in the spirit of the
Gospel, the teachings of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St.
Paul says: Though He was God, he humbled himself, became man and
remained obedient up till death (Phil. 2:6ff). Following in His
steps, we Christians have lived through the life of martyrdom.
Jesus taught us how to pray for our enemies (Mt. 5:44). Although
His teachings are hard (Jn. 6:60), it was not the guns of a
powerful army that brought down the walls of Jericho. The prayers
of the priests did (Jos. 6:20). Jesus defied the temptations of
coming down from the Cross. He knew there was a higher truth
deferred. It was fulfilled on Easter day. No matter the
provocation, we must arm ourselves with the weapons of truth, the
Word, the Spirit, and love. At the heart of Christianity is the
Truth and Love.
12: Today, many of us erroneously speak about the trial of
Jesus by Pilate on Good Friday. In reality, it was Pilate who stood
trial, not Jesus. Pilate sat on a throne to judge what he himself
was ignorant of–the truth. Chained by ignorance, the powerful often
grope around a twilight zone between truth and lies. At the mention
of the word “Truth” by Jesus, Pilate was jolted from his chair. In
trepidation and apprehension, the mighty man says, Truth, what is
that? (Jn. 18:38). Pilate was looking for the Truth but did not
recognise it when it stood right before him. In every age, the
seduction of raw power tends to blind the Pilates of this world to
the truth.
13: When governments face legitimacy crises, they fall back
on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half-truths, and outright
lies. They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies,
setting citizens against one another by deploying religion,
ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base
emotions of patriotism. We forget the reality that without truth,
the throne of power often turns into a cage, and the occupant is
turned into a prisoner. In reality, the truth needs neither a judge
nor a witness. The truth is its own judge and witness. Without the
truth, as the old song says, all else is sinking sand!
14: Recently, according to the World Happiness Report, we
are one of the unhappiest nations in the world. This is
unacceptable but understandable. Our clay-footed fight against
corruption has not moved the needle of transparency forward. Of
course, being the poverty capital of the world comes with its
rewards such as banditry, violence, death, sorrow, blood, poverty,
misery, and tears. Our cup of sorrow is permanently full; hence the
exponential rise in the frustration curve across the
country.
15: Sadly, human life is haemorrhaging so badly in Nigeria,
but the greatest tragedy is the death of empathy from those in
power. Mysteriously, the government is investing billions of naira
in rehabilitating so-called Boko Haram repentant members and their
other partners in crime in the belief that they want to turn a new
leaf. These criminals have waged war against their country,
murdered thousands of citizens, destroyed infrastructure and
rendered entire families permanently displaced and dislocated. Why
should rehabilitating the perpetrator be more important than
bringing succour to the victims?
16: When kidnapped or killed, victims and their families are
left to their wits. They cry alone, bury their loved ones alone.
And our government expects us to be patriotic? The victims of
violence need empathy, which the dictionary defines as the ability
to understand and share the feelings of the other. A critical
deficit of empathy on the side of the government makes healing
almost impossible for the victims. We have not heard anything about
a rehabilitation programme for the thousands of schoolchildren who
have been victims of abduction. We seem to assume that their return
to their schools is sufficient. Left unaddressed, the traumatic
effect of their horrors will haunt them for a long time. Tomorrow’s
parents, military generals, top security men and women, governors,
senators, and ministers will come from today’s pool of traumatised
children.
The security quandary is the greatest indictment of this
government.
17: There is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl.
3:1). Perhaps, we can paraphrase this by saying there is a time for
war and a time for peace. There is a time for poverty and a time
for wealth. There is a time for stealing and a time for returning
what has been stolen. There is a time for politics and a time for
governance. There is a time for tethering to the brink of chaos and
a time for recovering the soul of a nation.
There is a time for the collapse of morality and a time for
moral recovery. There is a time for leadership and a time for
statesmanship. There is a time for losing greatness and a time for
achieving greatness. Nigeria must now ask itself: What is left of
our glory? Where are the values that held us together?
18: On our national Coat of Arms, we profess our motto to
be: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress. But let us ask ourselves:
Is Nigeria united today? Do citizens still have faith in the
country? Where are the signs of peace or progress? Today, before
our very eyes, these words have been emptied of their flavour and
have lost their resonance and capacity to summon our citizens to
patriotism. St Augustine once said: Remove justice, and what are
kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? He further said
that: A gang is a group of men (and women) under the command of a
leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is
divided according to an agreed convention. This is the fate of our
nation today. Day by day, Nigeria drifts irreversibly into a dark
tunnel. Things are falling apart with unnerving rapidity because
those who govern have only a pact to protect their interests.
Politics is merely its conveyor belt of ambition. Nigeria has a
date with destiny. If we do not turn around, The axe is alreadylaid
to the roots of the tree (Mt. 3:10).
19: With some chance, we might pull through this, but it is
getting tougher each passing day. Does anyone remember where we
started and how we got here? On May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu
Buhari, at his swearing-in as President of Nigeria, said: Boko
Haram is a typical case of small fires causing large fires. Now,
before his watch, the fires are consuming the nation, and in many
instances, they indeed start small. The rumblings over the wearing
of a hijab in Kwara State suggest that we have not seen the end of
individuals sacrificing national cohesion to feed their personal
ambitions by starting small fires. Most politicians hardly think
through the long-term effects of these pyrrhic victories of using
religion. What started as a small fire with adoption of Sharia in
Zamfara in 1999, spread across the northern states. Ordinary people
broke into ecstatic joy. Today, what has become of the north? What
are the lessons?
20: In all, Nigeria’s troubles are growing by the day, but
our hands must remain stretched out in supplication. Prophet
Isaiah’s words should give us hope and consolation. He said: When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass
through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk
through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set
you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2). We shall lift our eyes to the mountain
because we know that our help shall come from the Lord (Ps. 121:1).
As Christians, we do not trust in God because we cannot revenge. We
do not revenge because we trust in God. The Lord will fight for
you; you need only be still (Ex. 14:14). Just as the chains of
death could not hold Jesus in the grave, so shall we triumph. Break
into shouts of joy together, O ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has
consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:9). Have
hope and be cheerful (Rom. 12:12).
A very happy and peaceful Easter to everyone.