Following a recent address to United States Congress by the fiery Catholic priest, Bishop Matthew Kukah, the presidency has come out with guns blazing for what it perceived to be a bias in the clergyman’s portrayal of the security challenges the country is facing.
In the virtual address with the legislative arm of the US government, Bishop Kukah derided the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration before the American lawmakers, accusing it of bias towards the Christian South of the country.
He said the Buhari’s government has turned a deaf ear to the maiming and killing of Christians in the country while it also ensured that all appointments into key positions, especially in the nation’s security agencies were people from the Muslim North.
This did not seem to go down well with the presidency who has accused the outspoken cleric of intentionally trying to discredit the government before the international community.
In a statement released by presidential spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu, he insisted it was only mischievous for Bishop Kukah to insinuate that bandits and kidnappers only target the South citing the kidnap of 234 Muslim pupils who were still in captivity.
The statement reads:
“It is unfortunate, and disappointing, for citizens of Nigeria to bear witness to one of their Churchmen castigating their country in front of representatives of a foreign parliament.
“We are all too familiar with these overseas political tours that opposition politicians take – visiting foreign leaders and legislators in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. So, the argument goes, if they are heard seriously abroad, then Nigerian citizens back home should surely listen to them too.
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“There is no bias in this government when the president is northern and Muslim, the vice president southern and Christian, and the cabinet equally balanced between the two religions. But neither is there anything in our Constitution to state that political posts must be apportioned according to ethnicity or faith. It takes a warped frame of mind for a critic to believe ethnicity is of primary importance in public appointments. It is yet more troubling to hear a Churchman isolating one group for criticism purely on ethnic lines.
“With due respect to the esteemed position he holds, the Bishop’s assertion that only Christian schools are being targeted by bandits or terrorists is not supported by the facts on the ground. It is sad to say but also true that victims of crime, kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism cut across all strata of society. Sad but true that Kankara students in Katsina State were stolen by bandits of the same Islamic faith as those they took away.
“The same may be true of those who are still holding the 134 students of the Islamic School at Tegina in Niger State. The nation witnessed the sad incident of the female students abducted by bandits at Jangebe in Zamfara State and the over 100 predominantly Muslim students of the Federal Government Girls College Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State who are currently in captivity- and the nation’s security agencies are hard at work to release them unharmed.
“The attack on Christian students is sad and unacceptable; so also is the abduction of students of other faiths. The claim that only Christian schools are being targeted is totally untrue. As a nation and a people, we must together define evil as evil. We must not allow our religious differences to divide us. No one gains but the evildoers when we divide our ranks according to ethnicity and religion in confronting them. The bandit, kidnapper, and terrorist are the enemies of the people who should be confronted in unison.”
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