•Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Presidency has reacted to the Easter message delivered on Sunday by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto.
Bishop Kukah had criticised the Federal Government over its handling of the Boko Haram insurgency, general insecurity in the country and neglect of internally displaced persons (IDPs), among others.
In its response, the Presidency in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said Kukah’s Easter message was done to bash President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as ungodly.
The full statement reads:
All citizens have their individual ideologies, even their own versions of truth.
But if you profess to being a man of God, as Father Mathew Hassan Kukah does, ideology should not stand in the way of facts and fairness.
Father Kukah has said some things that are inexplicable in his Easter massage.
But, in saying that the Boko Haram terrorism is worse than it was in 2015, he did not speak like a man of God. Kukah should go to Borno or Adamawa to ask the citizens there the difference between 2014 and 2021. Furthermore, the Hijab issue in Kwara State on which he dwelt is a state matter which the courts of the land have adjudicated. They are matters that have appeared in several states as far back as the Obasanjo administration. In all of that, when and where did the name of President Buhari feature?
He is playing partisan politics by dragging the President into it.
An administration that has created a whole Ministry, for the first time in the country’s history, appropriating enormous resources to it, to deal with issues of internally displaced persons cannot, in all rightfulness be accused of not caring for them.
Some of the comments are no more than a sample of the unrestrained rhetoric Fr. Kukah trades in, which he often does in the guise of a homily.
We urge well-meaning citizens to continue to support the ongoing efforts by the administration to secure the country and move it forward.
Garba Shehu.
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
April 4, 2021
